CommScope announced on December 13 it filed a patent infringement suit against Cobham in the District Court of Berlin, related to digital antenna system (DAS) technology. “This action follows a court-ordered inspection of Cobham’s Intelligent Digital DAS (idDAS) installed along Berlin’s famous Fan Mile,” CommScope said. “Based on the information discovered during the inspection proceeding, a court-appointed independent expert concluded that Cobham’s idDAS system does in fact infringe the German national parts of two CommScope patents, EP1269776B1 and EP2094058B1.”
Cobham did not immediately issue a statement about the suit.
“CommScope is pleased with the determination of the independent expert,” said Matt Melester, senior vice president and segment leader of CommScope’s distributed coverage and capacity solutions. “CommScope invests heavily in innovations to satisfy market demands for cellular communications, and we will continue to protect our investments by enforcing intellectual property rights.”
The idDAS deployment at Fan Mile debuted on December 31, 2015. When announcing the deployment, Cobham explained it teamed with Vodafone and Telefonica to do so. “The deployment, launched on New Year’s Eve 2015, enables Vodafone and Telefonica customers to access not only 3G (UMTS), but high-bandwidth 4G (LTE) services on the thoroughfare for the first time,” Cobham said.
“To increase provisions for their customers, Vodafone and Telefonica partnered to deploy the first live Cobham Wireless idDAS system,” the company continued. “Cobham Wireless … took a base station hotel 25 km away from the site and connected it, via fiber cabling, to 27 idDAS digital remote units concealed from view in underground enclosures along the length of the street and around the Brandenbrug Gate.”
When announcing the lawsuit, CommScope added that in 2016 it filed suit against Dali Wireless for patent infringement related to digital RF transport intellectual property, and earlier this year CommScope signed an agreement with Kathrein AG to license CommScope’s complete DAS patent portfolio.
Patent EP1269776B1 is “System for distributing multi-protocol radio frequency signals.” Filed on March 27, 2001, the patent was published July 1, 2009. Patent EP2094058B1 is “A radio frequency signal distribution system.” Filed on March 27, 2001, the patent was published January 16, 2013. John Sabat, Jr. and Peter Yelle are recognized as inventors on both patents.