Today, the Second Circuit will hear argument in an important case on the extent that foreign injury (reduced foreign sales and closure of foreign plants) arising from foreign RAND breaches can have remedy in the U.S. based on their impact on U.S. commerce.  The case, Lotes Co., Ltd. V. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

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

usbIt’s no surprise that most of the attention being paid to standard-essential patent issues is focused on the companies involved in the “smartphone wars” — Motorola, Microsoft, Apple. Samsung, etc.  But while these consumer product companies are of course affected by issues involving standard-essential patents, so too are their component suppliers.  A lawsuit filed this past fall in the Southern District of New York by Lotes Co. against Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and Foxconn over SEP issues relating to the Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 standard is a great example of this.  Here, we attempt to provide a brief overview of the issues in the Lotes-Hon Hai case.
Continue Reading Catching up on…Lotes v. Foxconn RAND/antitrust dispute over USB 3.0 standard-essential patents