Last June, CCIA filed comments on the public interest issues implicated by Qualcomm’s ITC complaint against Apple. (The ITC is required to take into account whether the public interest would be harmed by exclusion.) Last month, the ITC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) agreed with our comments, determining that an exclusion order was not in…
Tag Archive for Abusive Patent Litigation
Qualcomm Has Been Violating Its Obligation To License Competitors For Years
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Today, Judge Koh issued an important ruling in the FTC v. Qualcomm litigation centered on Qualcomm’s anti-competitive trade practices. Ruling on a motion for partial summary judgment, Judge Koh determined that Qualcomm is obligated to license its standard-essential patents to anyone who asks for a license. Qualcomm admits that it refuses to license other modem…
ITC: No Public Interest In Excluding Qualcomm Competitors
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Over a year ago, I filed comments at the International Trade Commission (ITC). Those comments explained why it went against the public interest to exclude Qualcomm’s competitors products from the U.S. market based on Qualcomm’s patent infringement allegations. Last week, the ITC administrative law judge in charge of the case agreed. What’s At Stake? About…
Yet More Evidence That NPEs Are Harmful To Innovation
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Profs. Cohen, Gurun, and Kominers first published a paper collecting evidence of the impacts of NPEs on innovation in 2014. Recently, they updated the paper, incorporating additional evidence and research from the past four years. The key takeaways? “NPE litigation has a real negative impact on innovation at targeted firms: firms substantially reduce their innovative…
ITC Institutes An Investigation… Based On An NPE’s Complaint
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Yesterday, the International Trade Commission (ITC) instituted an investigation based on a complaint filed by an apparent non-practicing entity (NPE), SIPCO. The ITC, as Patent Progress has covered in the past [1][2], is intended to protect American manufacturers from unfair foreign competition. So why did the ITC institute an investigation of American companies filed by…
NPE Resurrects Canceled Patent To Go After Restaurants
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
A few years ago, a company called MacroSolve stopped creating products and started creating patent litigation. Its tool was a patent that claimed to cover mobile questionnaires. But after several of their targets decided to fight back, filing an ex parte reexamination request that wound up cancelling all of the claims of its patent, MacroSolve…
If A Free Patent Portfolio License Sounds Too Good To Be True—It Is
by Josh Landau •
Non-practicing entities (NPEs) are generally companies with only one asset—their patents. So why would an NPE give away licenses to the only things it can generate value from? If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it might be. Act Now For A Free Patent License! iPEL (Innovative Patents, Ethical Licensing) is a…
Using A Trade Court To Avoid Antitrust And FRAND: Qualcomm At The ITC
by Josh Landau •
The first Apple/Qualcomm International Trade Commission (ITC) case is about to kick into high gear, with the prehearing conference scheduled for Friday and the hearing (essentially the equivalent of a trial in the ITC) opening next week. Qualcomm has already dropped several patents from this case and in a companion European case admitted that some…
Sovereign Immunity, Upper Skagit, and Patents
by Josh Landau •
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court released their decision in Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren. The opinion effectively held that the simple fact of in rem jurisdiction does not always bar claims of tribal sovereign immunity. In rem jurisdiction is one argument that might bar the new practice of renting tribal sovereign immunity to…
April Madness Is Here
by Josh Landau •
March Madness is over, with the Big Ten not taking home a championship. (A sad day for Michigan fans like me.) But that’s okay—in April, the Big Ten Network has plenty to keep busy with. Baseball, softball, tennis, track and field, rowing… And patent lawsuits. At-Home Broadcasting About a decade ago, the Big Ten created…