Today, the Supreme Court declined to overrule its prior decision in Brulotte v. Thys Co., 379 U.S. 29 (1964), and maintained its ruling that a patent holder cannot charge royalties for the use of his invention where the use occurs after the patent term has expired. The Supreme Court held that stare decisis
Antitrust
Upcoming programs on IEEE IPR Policy change
There are a couple of programs coming up this week and next that you may want to check out on the IEEE’s recent intellectual property rights (“IPR”) policy change (see our Feb. 3, 2015 post and Feb. 5, 2015 post). Both of these are programs that can be accessed remotely.
ABA Program. This…
Qualcomm reaches agreement with Chinese government on standard essential patent investigation
Yesterday, Qualcomm issued a press release announcing resolution of the investigation under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) of Qualcomm’s licensing practice for standard essential patents. In addition to Qualcomm paying a $975 million fine, the China’s NDRC approved Qualcomm’s proposed rectification plan, summarized as follows:
- Qualcomm will offer licenses
…
N.D. Cal. grants patent holder judgment on the pleadings on defendants’ antitrust and unfair competition counterclaims with leave to amend
The Northern District of California recently granted judgment on the pleadings in favor of patent-plaintiff ChriMar Systems, Inc. on antitrust and state law unfair competition counterclaims filed by accused infringers Cisco and Hewlett-Packard (HP). According to the court, the crux of Cisco’s and HP’s counterclaims alleged that ChriMar failed to disclose and commit to license…
Second Circuit affirms dismissal of RAND/antitrust dispute based on foreign activity (Lotes v. Hon Hai Precision)
Yesterday, the Second Circuit in Lotus v. Hon Hai Precision affirmed the district court’s dismissal of antitrust and breach of contract claims arising from foreign activity based on the patent owner not licensing, but asserting in litigation in China, patents subject to FRAND-Z (i.e., royalty free) standard setting obligations. Consistent with the U.S. Federal Trade…
European antitrust decisions establish “safe harbour” for willing licensees of standard essential patents
Yesterday, the European Commission issued decisions in two antitrust proceedings centered around the enforcement of standard essential patents (SEPs). The decisions, one involving Samsung and the other Motorola, essentially create a “safe harbour” for willing licensees of FRAND-encumbered SEPs to avoid an injunction and address the circumstances under which an SEP holder may seek injunctive…
Ninth Circuit punts on preliminary injunction that precludes LSI from enforcing any exclusion order (Realtek v. LSI)
Well that didn’t take long — yesterday the Ninth Circuit dismissed LSI’s appeal from Judge Whyte’s preliminary injunction that enjoined LSI from seeking to enforce any exclusion order entered by the ITC on the standard essential patents at issue in the district court litigation before LSI first offered a RAND license to Realtek. Our March…
SawStop sues power tool makers because its patented technology was not adopted into UL safety standard
As a reminder that standard essential patent issues go beyond information technology, last week SawStop LLC sued manufacturers of table saws alleging that they conspired to convince Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (“UL”) to not adopt SawStop’s patented table saw safety technology into UL standard 987 (Stationary and Fixed Electric Tools) and to adopt a different technology…
U.S. Dept. of Justice closes investigation of Samsung’s assertion of standard essential patents
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it was closing its investigation into Samsung’s use of standard essential patents, which investigation had “focused on Samsung’s attempts to use its SEPs to obtain exclusion orders from the [ITC] relating to certain iPhone and iPad models.” DOJ stated that further investigation was no longer…
Competition Commission of India initiates another investigation of Ericsson’s licensing of FRAND committed cellular patents
In an order dated January 16, 2014, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) ordered another investigation into Ericsson’s licensing of cellular patents that are subject to FRAND obligations, which investigation will parallel a similar investigation of Ericsson that CCI ordered on November 12, 2013 (discussed in our prior post). The rationale for this…