It’s no secret that government agencies in the United States and abroad are paying more attention to standard-essential patent issues. More evidence of this trend came this past Friday, when Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice delivered a speech at the Global Competition Review Antitrust Law Leaders Forum in Miami. Hesse’s speech makes it clear that FRAND licensing issues are a high priority for the DOJ’s antitrust division, and that the agency remains open to exploring new ways of enforcing FRAND commitments — potentially including pursuing standard-essential patent holders for violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act (anticompetitive monopolies or attempts to monopolize).
Continue Reading Antitrust Deputy Assistant AG’s speech may foreshadow increased DOJ enforcement activities relating to standard-essential patents