Opinion ID: 3178457
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Siemens Cross-License

Text: In 1988, AT&T entered into a non-exclusive patent cross-licensing agreement with Siemens AG (“Siemens”). In 1995, AT&T announced that it was planning to undergo a major corporate restructuring and that it would split its business into three separate legal entities. J.A. 4881. AT&T wanted to ensure that these three new entities— and those entities’ own future divested businesses—would have the same licenses and rights that AT&T itself possessed under its 1988 cross-license with Siemens. J.A. 4881. AT&T was willing to grant reciprocal rights to any future businesses divested by Siemens. J.A. 4881. Ac- 4 HIGH POINT SARL v. T-MOBILE USA, INC. cordingly, in November 1995 AT&T and Siemens executed a divestment rider which provided that: [I]n the future, if [Siemens] or any of the three [AT&T divested] entities divest[] a portion of its present business, the licenses and rights granted in the [1988 cross-license between Siemens and AT&T] may be sublicensed to the divested busi- ness by the divesting company. Such sublicenses may be granted and retained only while the future divested business operates as a separately identifiable business and only to the extent applicable to products and services sold by the future divested business prior to its divestiture. J.A. 4881. On April 1, 2007, Siemens divested its carrier division and formed a new joint venture entity, Nokia Siemens Networks B.V., with a networks business divested from Nokia Inc. (“Nokia”). J.A. 6231–33. Nokia Siemens Networks B.V. “was a distinct operational group with its own board of directors, governance, and organization.” J.A. 6235. In 2009, Siemens granted Nokia Siemens Networks B.V. a sublicense in the asserted patents. J.A. 5305–11. This sublicense was made retroactive to April 1, 2007. J.A. 5308. In 2011, Nokia Siemens Networks B.V. granted a retroactive sublicense in the asserted patents to its U.S. subsidiary, Nokia Siemens Networks US LLC (“Nokia Siemens Networks U.S.”). 1 J.A. 5356–59.