Tesla wins bid to revive UK lawsuit over 5G patent licensing

Tesla won its bid to revive a London lawsuit over 5G patent licensing, keeping alive a fight with InterDigital and Avanci over the price of wireless technology embedded in connected cars. The dispute was filed as Tesla prepared to launch 5G-enabled vehicles in Britain, where the company’s vehicles would depend on mobile networks for software updates, telematics, navigation and safety systems.

The case turns on 5G standard-essential patents and the FRAND rule, which requires licensing terms to be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory. Tesla sued InterDigital and Avanci in London’s High Court in 2023. The High Court issued its judgment on July 15, 2024, under neutral citation [2024] EWHC 1815 (Pat), and the Court of Appeal later heard the dispute under [2025] EWCA Civ 193. Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was granted in part on July 1, 2025.

At the center of the money dispute is Avanci’s platform licence. One search result tied the licence cost at the time of the proceedings to $32 per vehicle, a figure that shows how quickly wireless royalties can become material for automakers selling high-volume vehicles. Tesla’s position is that the platform fee was not FRAND, making the case a direct challenge to how patent pools price access to the technology behind connected mobility.

The UK venue matters because its courts have become a powerful forum for setting royalty rules and legal standards in global standard-essential patent disputes. A ruling in London can reverberate well beyond Britain, influencing negotiations between patent owners, automakers and suppliers that are trying to price 5G connectivity into electric vehicles and other connected products. For manufacturers, the stakes reach beyond one model launch: royalty demands can feed into supplier contracts, vehicle margins and the broader cost of building cars that behave more like rolling smartphones.

The Supreme Court’s case page lists Tesla, Inc and another v InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc and others, with judgment scheduled. A Linklaters analysis on May 4, 2026 said the Tesla v InterDigital/Avanci matter had reached a UK Supreme Court hearing, underscoring how far the dispute has traveled through Britain’s appellate system and how closely the connected-car industry is watching the outcome.