In a speech today at the Berkeley Advanced Patent Law Institute, United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Makan Delrahim announced that the Department of Justice was withdrawing from its 2013 guidance on remedies for standard-essential patents subject to FRAND commitments. Stating that “[t]here is no special set of rules for exclusion when…
Tag Archive for DOJ
CCIA Releases White Paper On Standard Essential Patents
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, joined by five other trade associations representing industries ranging from retail to automotive to smartphone apps, released a white paper describing how certain views on antitrust policy as it relates to standard essential patents (SEPs) are contrary to both established legal precedent and to economic policy. The white…
Patent Fixes Pick up Steam in Congress
by Dan O'Connor •
(Cross post on DisCo) What a difference a year makes in Congress. Last year, Reps. DeFazio (D-OR) and Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act. The bill generated some attention in the press, but never made it onto the campaign year legislative agenda. Then we hit a tipping point…
CCIA Files Comments to US Antitrust Regulators on Patent Troll Activity
by Dan O'Connor •
(Cross-posted on DisCo) Last Friday, CCIA filed its comments to the FTC/DOJ’s Public Workshop on Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) (aka patent trolls). Although antitrust authorities cannot fix all of the foundational problems in the patent system — such as the patent quality problem — they can certainly use their competition expertise and authority to help rein in some of the most…
Suggestions for an FTC 6(b) Study on Patent Assertion Entities
by Brendan Coffman •
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly hosted a workshop to explore the issue of patent assertion entities (PAEs) on December 10, 2012. Since then there has been a growing consensus that PAEs are a significant problem for the technology and software industries. Representative Peter DeFazio from Oregon and Representative Jason…
Intellectual Ventures’ Technology Speculation Is Not A Justification for Shell Companies
by Josh Lamel •
During last week’s Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission workshop on Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), one of the panelists was Peter Detkin. Detkin is a founder of Intellectual Ventures, one of the PAEs we have been critical of on Patent Progress. In the run up to the workshop, Detkin authored a blog post attempting to issue…
Some Quick Reactions to the PAE Workshop
by David Balto •
Market participants, regulators, lawyers, and patent professionals gathered at the FTC yesterday for a very informative Workshop on Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs). We will be posting more this week about specific takeaways and action items for enacting true reform in this space, but I wanted to share some themes and reactions from the event: More…
Yesterday’s FTC-DOJ Workshop on Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs)
by Ali Sternburg •
Yesterday, the FTC and DOJ held a workshop on the anticompetitive effects of Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), as Josh had posted about last week. They put together a great collection of participants, and we commend them for this effort. Jorge Torres compiled a Storify of Tweets from the event, featuring many from @PatentProgress. David Balto…
Previewing Monday’s DOJ/FTC Workshop on Patent Trolls and Antitrust
by Josh Lamel •
On Monday, Patent Progress will be out in full force at the joint public workshop on patent assertion entity (PAE) behavior organized by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They have put together an excellent series of panels, and we will be live-tweeting the workshop…
USPTO Should Be Applauded for Notice on Patent Transparency
by Josh Lamel •
In a round of good news, the USPTO has published a notice that it will be holding a roundtable on January 11, 2013 to look into regulations to “require greater public transparency concerning the ownership of patent applications and patents.” The deadline for requesting to participate in the roundtable is December 21, 2012, and the deadline…