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 licensing
CCIA, ACT File Amicus Brief In FTC v. Qualcomm
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday, CCIA and ACT filed an amicus brief in the FTC’s case against Qualcomm in the Northern District of California. As explained in the brief, the FRAND obligation which patent owners voluntarily agree to when they participate in the development of a standard requires the owners of standard-essential patents to license their patents on “fair,…
‘Freedom To Operate’ Isn’t Even Close To Free
by Josh Landau •
There’s been an increasing usage of the term “efficient infringement” in the debate over patent reform. The basic idea is that large companies make an active choice to ignore patents and just pay for them when they lose a lawsuit. The basic idea isn’t correct. Large companies aren’t making an active choice to ignore patents—in…
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…
Why Pay For Delay When You Can Pay For Immunity
by Josh Landau •
What do Seymour Cray’s high-performance computing research company SRC Labs and drug manufacturer Allergan have in common? Both SRC Labs and Allergan sold patents to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, then licensed them back from the tribe, in order to use tribal sovereign immunity to prevent challenges to their patents as invalid.
Saying Doesn’t Make It So—Why You Still Shouldn’t Listen To Qualcomm
by Josh Landau •
Last week, CCIA filed a statement on the public interest in Qualcomm v. Apple at the International Trade Commission (ITC), Qualcomm’s newest attempt to use patent law to reinforce their monopoly power over the baseband processor market. In a response filed yesterday, Qualcomm accused CCIA of partaking in a “coordinated effort aimed at misdirecting the…
Universities and Patent Reform
by Matt Levy •
Universities are strange when it comes to patent reform.
More on Why We Need Patent Reform: Patent Assertion Doesn’t Lead to Innovation
by Matt Levy •
Mark Lemley and Robin Feldman have just put out a new paper that shows something many of us suspected: patent licenses tend to be for the freedom to operate, not for technology transfer. That is, in their survey, they found that the overwhelming majority of the time, companies took licenses in order to settle an…
Five Employees, Six Lawyers: The Problem with Software Patents
by Tim Sparapani •
It’s the tech startup dream: coming up with a great idea, raising funding to make it a reality, gaining users, hiring a first, second, and third employee. Hiring just as many lawyers. When a startup has more attorneys than staff, something is wrong. But one startup founder, who chooses to remain anonymous, just hired his…
Ericsson and Unwired Planet: A One-Stop Shop for Outlining Patent Abuse
by Brendan Coffman •
Swedish telecommunications pioneer Ericsson is the latest in a line of big companies turning to patent assertion entities (PAEs) to make a quick buck at the expense of competition and innovation. As TechCrunch first reported, Ericsson entered into a Master Sale Agreement with Unwired Planet to sell 2,185 patents and patent applications. The transaction with Unwired Planet,…