#19 Carlos R. Olarte – SEP litigation in Colombia

Carlos is a Biomedical and Mechanical Engineer from Duke University (1990), and a J.D. from Chicago-Kent IIT (1993). He is a licensed lawyer in Illinois and Colombia.
Founding partner of OlarteMoure, a 200+ person firm specializing in IP and competition law, with offices in Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, and Tokyo.

His professional practice focuses on patent law, including litigation and developing strategies for the monetization of deeptech projects. A good portion of his practice focuses on the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, including participating in the development of start-up projects for new product launches. Another important client base includes local universities and research-intensive industries. Matters handled by Carlos have included seminal cases put before the Colombian high courts and the Andean Court of Justice, including compulsory licensing projects. He also has extensive experience on issues relating to data exclusivity for the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry. The combination of his technical and legal expertise clearly distinguishes Carlos from most other patent practitioners in Colombia and Latin America.

Carlos is the expert when it comes to SEPs and the law in Colombia. In the podcast episode, he elaborates on the SEP case currently litigated in Colombia - Ericsson vs. Apple - and what happened so far. He explained that Apple failed already twice to overturn a 5G iPhone and iPad sales ban in Colombia where Apple even invoked Art. 8 of the famous Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Latin American countries are not usually seen as a first-line option when building a strategy to deploy global litigation campaigns to enforce patent rights. But the case has shown the effectiveness of the courts in Colombia. Carlos explains that Colombia follows a bifurcated system like Germany and Brazil, where different courts handle infringement and invalidity. That speeds up the process once the infringement is determined a plaintiff must not wait for validity determination.

In the current Ericsson vs. Apple disputes Colombia is the first country to issue a Preliminary Injunction preventing Apple from importing, selling, marketing, and advertising devices incorporating 5G technology (such as iPhones 12 and 13). The decision even included an order to Apple to restrain from seeking an “antisuit injunction” in a foreign country. Carlos does not believe that FRAND will be determined at the Colombian court, seeking damages is the current strategy.

In Carlos' final summary he stresses that Colombia as a jurisdiction is increasingly attractive for SEPs.