A couple months ago, Microsoft asked Judge James L. Robart to confirm that the second phase of the Microsoft-Motorola RAND breach of contract trial — in which the actual breach and damages issues will be addressed — would be tried to Judge Robart himself, and not a jury (a motion that Motorola opposed). Microsoft
Court dismisses USB-related antitrust and RAND licensing claims brought against Foxconn (Lotes v. Hon Hai)
A few months ago, we took note of a dispute in the Southern District of New York between two foreign makers of Universal Serial Bus (USB) products — Lotes and Hon Hai/Foxconn. You can read our prior post for more background on the dispute, but in summary, Lotes accused Foxconn of reneging on licensing commitments
Motorola tells Federal Circuit that its prior SEP licenses were not the result of hold-up, and that injunctions must be available against “intransigent infringers” of FRAND patents
Earlier this week, we noted that Apple directed the Federal Circuit’s attention to Judge Robart’s Microsoft-Motorola decision in Apple-Motorola “Posner Appeal.” (For a recap of the parties’ FRAND-related appellate briefing in the case thus far, see our prior posts on Motorola’s opening brief and Apple’s responsive brief). Yesterday, Motorola’s reply brief became publicly available.
[2013.05.13 Motorola Reply Brief (12-1548)]
In its brief — summarized after the jump — Motorola reiterates its prior arguments to the Federal Circuit that Judge Posner erred in concluding that Motorola could not prove entitlement to either monetary or injunctive relief as compensation for Apple’s alleged infringement. But Motorola does not just repeat the same arguments it made in its opening brief — it also attempts to address arguments raised by Apple concerning patent hold-up and the effect of the January 2013 FTC-Google consent decree.
Apple cites Judge Robart’s Microsoft-Motorola decision as supplemental FRAND authority in Fed Circuit, ITC cases
As many commentators have noted, Judge Robart’s Microsoft-Motorola decision may provide a roadmap to courts and parties in other FRAND disputes. Not surprisingly, Apple recently brought the decision to the attention of both the Federal Circuit (in the appeal of Judge Posner’s decision to dismiss Motorola’s SEP-related claim for damages and injunctive relief) and the
Scope of IEEE RAND obligations a hotly-contested issue in Innovatio IP Ventures WiFi patent litigation
As many of you are aware, a non-practicing entity named Innovatio IP Ventures has been engaged in a widespread licensing and litigation campaign over WiFi-related patents that were formerly owned by Broadcom. As a result, Innovatio has become embroiled in litigation with several suppliers of WiFi-compliant devices (Cisco, Motorola Solutions, Netgear) in the Northern District of Illinois. A few weeks ago, we noted that a debate had arisen in that case over the “essentiality” of certain asserted patents. The presiding judge ordered briefing on the issue, and Innovatio filed its “Essentiality Brief” a couple weeks ago — asserting that not all of its asserted claims were essential or covered by IEEE RAND obligations. This past Friday, the WiFi Suppliers filed their response to Innovatio’s Essentiality Brief. The WiFi Suppliers accuse Innovatio of misconstruing both the IEEE Patent Policy and the relevant RAND licensing Letters of Assurance in an attempt to avoid its RAND obligations.
[2013.05.10 Defendants’ Brief re Essentiality of Patent Claims]
We alluded in our last post on this matter that issues of patent “essentiality” — and therefore, the scope of corresponding RAND obligations — are likely to become a more common issue in standard-essential patent litigation. The WiFi Suppliers’ responsive brief demonstrates why.Continue Reading Scope of IEEE RAND obligations a hotly-contested issue in Innovatio IP Ventures WiFi patent litigation
Nokia opposes InterDigital’s motion to dismiss FRAND counterclaims
If all of these InterDigital-related FRAND issues seem hard to keep track of, they are — InterDigital is currently suing Huawei, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE all in a single ITC action (337-TA-868) and in separate parallel actions in Delaware (as well as some of the same parties in a different ITC case, 337-TA-800
Entropic files patent infringement complaint against ViXS Systems over MoCA-essential home entertainment networking patents
Yesterday Entropic Communications, a designer and maker of semiconductors and “system-on-a-chip” (SoC) technology, filed a patent infringement action against fellow SoC maker ViXS Systems in district court in the Southern District of California. Entropic alleges that ViXS infringes two patents that are essential to the home entertainment networking standards developed and promulgated by the Multimedia Over Coax Alliance, also known as the MoCA family of standards or MoCa specifications (MoCA is a trade group, not a recognized SSO or SDO, so some do not like to refer to the MoCA specifications as “standards”). The MoCA specifications have been widely adopted and are marketed as “the universal standards for home entertainment networking,” allowing users to stream high-definition content at high speeds throughout a house using their existing coax network (e.g., for use in multi-room DVRs, gaming, etc.).
[Entropic v. ViXS Complaint]Continue Reading Entropic files patent infringement complaint against ViXS Systems over MoCA-essential home entertainment networking patents
BlackBerry files amicus brief supporting availability of SEP injunctions in Fed Circuit FRAND appeal (and also gets sued by Wi-LAN for LTE patent infringement)
In a post yesterday, we discussed Nokia’s amicus brief submitted “in support of neither party” in the Apple-Motorola FRAND Federal Circuit appeal (Judge Posner edition). The amicus brief recently filed by BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) is now public, and it is very similar to Nokia’s — at least when it comes to the issue of the availability of injunctive relief. While not expressly supporting Motorola, BlackBerry echoes Motorola’s (as well as Nokia’s) argument that injunction relief should not be categorically precluded for FRAND-encumbered standard-essential patents.
[2013.05.07 BlackBerry Amicus Brief]
Coincidentally, BlackBerry also now finds itself on the receiving end of a new patent infringement complaint from Canadian non-practicing entity Wi-LAN, which is based on BlackBerry’s alleged infringement of a patent that Wi-LAN claims is essential to the ETSI 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE) telecommunications standard.
Nokia amicus brief urges Federal Circuit to reverse Judge Posner’s standard-essential patent rulings
Earlier this week, both Nokia and BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) were both granted leave to file amicus briefs with the Federal Circuit in the Apple v. Motorola appeal of Judge Posner’s June 2012 decision to dismiss the parties’ respective infringement claims. BlackBerry’s brief is still confidential, but Nokia’s is now publicly available.
[2013.05.06 Nokia Amicus Brief]
While Nokia’s amicus brief is styled as being “in support of neither party,” it’s clear that Motorola should be the one happy here — Nokia asks the Federal Circuit to reverse Judge Posner’s decisions relating to Motorola’s standard-essential patents at issue, both with respect to damages and injunctive relief. Nokia claims that Judge Posner’s ruling (1) creates a bright line rule against injunctions that violates Supreme Court precedent, and (2) unnecessarily devalues standard-essential patents by mandating that any damages be based on the smallest salable unit, which runs contrary to industry practices in SEP licensing. A summary is after the jump.
An update on the InterDigital-Huawei/ZTE FRAND fight in Delaware: InterDigital’s reply in support of motion to dismiss FRAND claims
FRAND issues are being hashed out in a lot of jurisdictions right now. Microsoft and Motorola are warring in Washington state, Apple and Motorola are fighting at the Federal Circuit, and Apple and Samsung are awaiting the International Trade Commission’s upcoming ruling later this month. Noted non-practicing entity InterDigital, meanwhile, has been trying