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…
Tag Archive for FRAND
Qualcomm’s Settlement With Taiwanese FTC Ignores Broken Promises
by Josh Landau •
Last week Qualcomm reached an agreement with the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission (TFTC), overturning the $778 million penalty the TFTC levied in October. Qualcomm promised to invest $700 million in Taiwan and commit to certain process safeguards over their licensing arrangements with handset makers. In exchange, the original TFTC ruling is wiped away. Qualcomm will…
Leaping Dismissal With A Single Order, It’s FTC v. Qualcomm!
by Josh Landau •
Monday, Judge Koh issued an order denying Qualcomm’s motion to dismiss in the FTC v. Qualcomm lawsuit. This is just the first step in the lawsuit, but there are some pretty important signals buried in this order. Motions To Dismiss A motion to dismiss is a request, filed by one side or the other and…
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…
Standard-Essential Patents in Context: Just a Small Piece of the Smartphone War Puzzle
by Dan O'Connor •
(Cross-posted on DisCo) There has been a recent flurry of policy and regulatory activity related to standard-essential patents (SEPs). First, Samsung announced it was dropping its requests for injunctions on SEPs in its ongoing patent battles with Apple. Then, curiously, the European Commission filed a “Statement of Objections” (first round of European antitrust charges) against the Korean company for…
Patents in the News 2/26
by Josh Lamel •
The CCIA and RIM Tell the FTC Banning Injunctions for FRAND Patents Can Make Smartphone Wars Worse Groklaw February 26, 2013 If the government wants to build a highway and your house is in the way of the highway, what happens?.. Does the government come and tell you, “You have to move out and abandon…
Summarizing the Amici Briefs in Apple-Motorola before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
by Brendan Coffman •
On June 22 Judge Richard Posner, sitting in designation, dismissed a patent infringement case between Motorola and Apple which included 15 Apple patents and 6 Motorola patents. Judge Posner explained that even if infringement could be proven, neither party offered sufficient evidence to prove and entitlement to injunctive relief, and neither party had offered credible…
Samsung v. Apple at the ITC – Summarizing the Public Interest Briefs
by Brendan Coffman •
On November 19 the ITC announced that the full Commission would review the Final Initial Determination in Investigation 337-TA-794, Samsung v. Apple. The ALJ had determined that there was no infringement by Apple of Samsung’s asserted patents, which Samsung has declared as standard essential patents covering technology implemented by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). …
Lessons from Apple v. Motorola in Wisconsin
by Brendan Coffman •
The FTC’s recent consent order in its merger review in In the Matter of Robert Bosch GmbH – a combination of manufacturing companies that make air conditioning recycling, recovery, and recharge products that are essential for repairing and servicing the coolant systems on motor vehicles – contained an interesting twist. While reviewing the merger, the FTC…