Last Thursday, March 14, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet held a hearing titled “Abusive Patent Litigation: The Impact on American Innovation & Jobs, and Potential Solutions. Those testifying before the subcommittee included representatives from Cisco, SAS, J.C. Penney, Global IP Group, Johnson & Johnson, and Adobe Systems.
ITC again extends target date in Samsung-Apple case (337-TA-794), asks for additional public interest comments and party briefing
If there was any doubt about the importance of standard-essential patent issues at the ITC, we can certainly put that to rest. For the second time in a week, the Commission issued a Notice extending the target date for its Final Determination in Inv. No. 337-TA-794, the Section 337 investigation based on Samsung’s August 2011 complaint against Apple. But unlike its last brief extension, the ITC this time extended its deadline until May 31, 2013 — and requested additional comments on the public interest and briefing from the parties on several issues.
The Commission’s particular questions (reproduced after the jump) show just how seriously the ITC is taking standard-essential patent issues. Additionally, the content of these questions may imply that the Commission could be leaning toward a finding that Apple infringes U.S. Patent No. 7,706,348 — a patent that Samsung has alleged is essential to the UMTS 3G cellular standard — and is now trying to decide what if any remedy it should order.Continue Reading ITC again extends target date in Samsung-Apple case (337-TA-794), asks for additional public interest comments and party briefing
ALJ denies motion to stay InterDigital ITC case pending potential FRAND determination
Late yesterday, Administrative Law Judge Robert K. Rogers issued an order denying the motion brought by Huawei and ZTE (later joined by Nokia) to stay ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-868 pending the outcome of a potential FRAND determination in the District of Delaware. As we noted in our initial post on this motion, this is not altogether surprising, given the ITC’s statutory mandate to decide cases quickly. So it looks like InterDigital’s latest standard-essential ITC case will stick with the procedural schedule on a path to a December 2013 hearing. Huawei and ZTE’s quest to avoid a potential exclusion order, meanwhile, will shift to the Delaware district court, where they recently told the court that it could enjoin InterDigital from enforcing any ITC exclusion order on its SEPs until FRAND issues are resolved.
The order itself is confidential, but the screenshot below shows
Continue Reading ALJ denies motion to stay InterDigital ITC case pending potential FRAND determination
Huawei, ZTE claim that without FRAND determination, InterDigital will “perpetuate an endless cycle of ITC litigation” over standard-essential patents
Yesterday, Huawei and ZTE filed a joint reply brief in support of their respective motions to expedite determination of the terms of a FRAND license for InterDigital’s standard-essential patents. The parties reiterate their willingness to take a FRAND license to InterDigital’s patents and assert that a prompt resolution of FRAND issues will moot other issues and litigation and will prevent Huawei/ZTE from facing irreparable harm.
Continue Reading Huawei, ZTE claim that without FRAND determination, InterDigital will “perpetuate an endless cycle of ITC litigation” over standard-essential patents
Ericsson to ITC: Samsung breached its ETSI FRAND obligations for asserted 4G LTE patents (Inv. No. 337-TA-866)
On Friday, March 8, Ericsson filed the (redacted) public version of its answer to Samsung’s Complaint and the Notice of Investigation in In the Matter of Certain Wireless Communications Equipment and Articles Therein (Inv. No. 337-TA-866). This ITC Section 337 investigation is based on a January 2013 complaint from Samsung that alleges Ericsson’s 4G LTE-compatible base stations infringe several Samsung LTE-essential patents.
Given Samsung’s assertion of standard-essential patents, it’s no surprise that Ericsson’s complaint includes FRAND-based defenses.
Continue Reading Ericsson to ITC: Samsung breached its ETSI FRAND obligations for asserted 4G LTE patents (Inv. No. 337-TA-866)
ITC Staff opposes motion to stay pending FRAND determination in InterDigital Section 337 investigation (337-TA-868)
Yesterday we covered InterDigital’s opposition to Huawei, Nokia, and ZTE’s efforts to stay the ITC’s investigation into InterDigital’s latest Section 337 complaint pending a potential FRAND determination in the District of Delaware. We also noted that the other respondent, Samsung, did not join the motion but stated that it did not oppose such a stay. The ITC Investigative Staff from the Office on Unfair Important Investigations (a third party that participates in many ITC investigations as a representative of the public interest) also filed its own response to the motion yesterday. The Staff opposes the motion to stay for a variety of reasons, which we will get into below.
Continue Reading ITC Staff opposes motion to stay pending FRAND determination in InterDigital Section 337 investigation (337-TA-868)
ITC delays Final Determination in Samsung-Apple standard-essential patent investigation until March 13
Today was the target date for the ITC’s Final Determination in In the Matter of Certain Electronic Devices, Including Wireless Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, and Tablet Computers (Inv. No. 337-TA-794). But today, the Comission issued a notice to extend the target date for completion of the investigation until next
InterDigital opposes Huawei/Nokia/ZTE’s efforts to stay ITC investigation, saying motion is “based on speculation upon speculation”
Yesterday, InterDigital filed its opposition to Huawei & ZTE’s motion (later joined by another respondent, Nokia) to stay Inv. No. 337-TA-868, which is the ITC’s investigation into InterDigital’s 3G/4G standard-essential patent infringement-based Section 337 complaint. Much as it did in its prior opposition to Huawei/ZTE’s attempts to seek an expedited FRAND determination in Delaware district court, InterDigital here claims that nothing in the motion to stay counsels staying the investigation pending a determination of FRAND terms in Delaware — in fact, InterDigital attached its opposition to expedite the Delaware proceedings as an exhibit to its ITC stay opposition. After the jump, we’ll provide a brief summary of InterDigital’s arguments against staying the ITC case.
InterDigital wasn’t the only one filing papers in this case yesterday, though — Samsung also filed a response to the motion to stay. Samsung’s position is, succinctly, that “[w]hile Samsung does not join the Motion, Samsung does not oppose the requested stay.” (You may recall that Samsung has its own motion to terminate some of InterDigital’s infringement claims pending in this case).Continue Reading InterDigital opposes Huawei/Nokia/ZTE’s efforts to stay ITC investigation, saying motion is “based on speculation upon speculation”
Patent Alert: Equitable Estoppel Bars Infringement Claims against Successor-in-Interest (Radio Systems v. Lalor)
Yesterday, March 6, 2013, in Radio Systems Corp. v. Lalor, No. 2012-1233, the Federal Circuit (Newman, Moore, and Reyna) held that equitable estoppel barred infringement claims for one patent against an alleged infringer’s successor-in-interest, but did not bar infringement claims for a related patent that issued after the misleading conduct began. The court also
RANDomness: Of smartphone wars, SEPs, and sequestration
- Over at Patent Progress, Dan O’Connor has an interesting post
Image courtesy of athenatechs.com in which he addresses the recent use of standard-essential patents in the “smartphone wars” within the larger context of the standard-essential patent universe. Like several of the entities who submitted public comments on the FTC-Google consent decree,