Today Judge Whyte issued his awaited post-trial rulings following the jury’s RAND determination on LSI’s IEEE 802.11 WiFi patents in which he (1) denied JMOL motions by both Realtek and LSI, (2) ruled on Realtek’s injunction and declaratory relief requests by denying Realtek’s request to enjoin LSI from seeking to enforce RAND-obligated patents without first
Update: ITC issues public version of decision to terminate LSI-Realtek investigation (Inv. No. 337-TA-837)
The ITC has now released the public version of its decision to terminate the LSI-Realtek investigation without addressing RAND issues, which we discussed in our March 5, 2014 post. The public version does not provide any more insight into the decision not to address the standard essential patent RAND issues beyond it being moot…
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…
Judge Whyte schedules permanent injunction and post-trial motion hearing (Realtek v. LSI)
Yesterday Judge Whyte entered a post-trial scheduling order setting briefing and hearing dates for post-trial motions as well as Realtek’s request to permanently enjoin LSI “from enforcing, or seeking to enforce, any exclusion order or injunction that Defendants [LSI] might obtain with regard with regard to the ‘958 and ‘856 patents [LSI’s WiFi SEPs at…
ITC terminates LSI-Realtek 337 investigation without addressing RAND issues (Inv. No. 337-TA-837)
Yesterday the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a Notice that it was terminating the investigation of whether certain LSI 802.11 and H.264 alleged standard essential patents were infringed by Realtek and others given various circumstances that mooted the investigation as to most patents and a finding of no liability for the remaining patent. In…
Jury returns RAND-royalty rate of 0.19 percent of WiFi chip sale price (Realtek v. LSI)
Yesterday, the jury in the Realtek v. LSI case before Judge Whyte returned a verdict finding that a RAND royalty for LSI’s two patents alleged essential to IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard would total about 0.19% of the total sales prices of Realtek’s WiFi chips (0.12% for one patent plus 0.07% for the other). This RAND…
ITC releases public versions of Initial and Recommended Determinations in Realtek-LSI Section 337 case (Inv. No. 337-TA-837); SEP issues abound
Last month, the ITC issued a Notice of ALJ David P. Shaw’s Final Initial Determination on Violation in In the Matter of Certain Audiovisual Components and Products Containing the Same (Inv. No. 337-TA-837), the investigation into LSI/Agere’s allegations that Realtek and Funai infringed 802.11-essential and H.264-essential patents (as well as one non-SEP). The ITC found…
Chipmakers LSI and Agere get a partial preliminary win at the ITC, but not on SEP infringement (Inv. No. 337-TA-837)
Yesterday, Administrative Law Judge David P. Shaw issued a Notice of Initial Determination in In the Matter of Certain Audiovisual Components and Products Containing Same (No. 337-TA-837), an ITC Section 337 investigation based on an infringement complaint brought by LSI and Agere against Funai, Realtek, and Mediatek (who had previously settled out of the case). …
Realtek draws ITC’s attention to recent N.D. Cal. order & preliminary injunction (Inv. No. 337-TA-837) — and Apple does too
Earlier this week, we discussed N.D. Cal. Judge Ronald Whyte’s order granting partial summary judgment and issuing a preliminary injunction in a Realtek v. LSI district court case. As we explained in our post, while the district court found that LSI had breached its contractual RAND obligations by filing an ITC complaint without first making…
District court judge issues order enjoining enforcement of ITC exclusion order pending judicial RAND determination — but does it matter? (Realtek v. LSI/Agere)
While much of the focus on standard-essential patent litigation issues has been focused on Microsoft-Motorola, Apple-Samsung, and the InterDigital cases, these are far from the only cases dealing with SEP issues. District courts and the ITC continue to develop case law on SEP and RAND-related issues.
In an order issued yesterday in Realtek Semiconductor v. LSI (No. 12-cv-03451, N.D. Cal.), Judge Ronald Whyte of the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction that purports to prevent LSI from enforcing an ITC exclusion order until LSI has complied with its IEEE-related RAND obligations. According to the order [LINK], this means that LSI must wait to enforce any exclusion order until: (1) the court has determined an appropriate RAND rate for LSI’s 802.11-essential patents, (2) LSI offers a license to Realtek at that rate; and (3) Realtek refuses to enter into a license at the judicially-determined RAND rate (which, as the court states, “Realtek indicates it will not do.).
With the ITC’s decision in the 337-TA-794 investigation (on the propriety of exclusion orders for FRAND-pledged essential patents) involving Samsung and Apple due by the end of the month, this is certainly an interesting development. But given the way the ITC operates, we’re not so sure that the court’s order is going to have the desired effect. Let’s take a look at Judge Whyte’s order, shall we?