Posts in Licensing

The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) and the Department of Commerce today published a draft version of a Federal Register Notice seeking comments on a proposed framework for deciding whether and when to exercise march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act that would significantly broaden the criteria for compulsory licensing of patented technology developed with federal funding. While Bayh-Dole contemplates march-in rights, the law strictly limits the situations in which they can be exercised and does not make any reference to pricing as a criterion for marching in. But under the proposed framework, an agency may consider “[a]t what price and on what terms has the product utilizing the subject invention been sold or offered for sale in the U.S.” and whether “the contractor or licensee [has] made the product available only to a narrow set of consumers or customers because of high pricing or other extenuating factors”.

Last weekend, The Federalist Society hosted a panel as part of its 2023 National Lawyers Convention featuring in-house counsel from Google and Qualcomm, as well as two federal judges and an academic, to discuss whether U.S. law around IP injunctions is promoting or harming markets for innovators and creators. Predictably, Google’s and Qualcomm’s counsel had starkly different perspectives on that topic.

Following a panel that examined the international landscape for standard essential patents (SEPs), IPWatchdog’s Founder and CEO, Gene Quinn, and Chief Operating Officer, Renee Quinn, presented The Honorable Randall Rader with the IPWatchdog Masters™ Hall of Fame award and a sketched portrait to add to the Wall of Fame at IPWatchdog’s headquarters. Judge Rader served as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from 1990 through 2010, and as the court’s Chief Judge from 2010-2014. He has won numerous awards and now works an arbitrator, mediator and consultant with the Rader Group. In his explanation of the origins of the IPWatchdog Masters™ Hall of Fame in 2022, Quinn said he wanted an IP Hall of Fame that included only “real IP professionals; people who mean something to me, people I want you to hear from.”

On October 16, a jury verdict  entered in the District of Delaware awarded $9 million to 3G Licensing, a subsidiary of European patent pool operator Sisvel, after finding that Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC Corp. willfully infringed upon a pair of cellular telecommunications patents. The verdict follows summary judgment rulings in the case against HTC and other defendants, who argued that the asserted patents were encumbered by fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations without establishing the patents’ essentiality to any standard.

On  April 27, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for how the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) should be governed in the EU. The draft regulation states that the initiative aims to incentivize participation by European firms in the standard development process and the broad implementation of such standardized technologies, particularly in IoT industries. The developments are of interest to any business that develops, implements or markets connective technologies.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) released a sprawling report on Tuesday analyzing market dynamics surrounding the question of whether to extend the waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 technologies under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to diagnostics and therapeutics. The report stopped short of making any recommendations, but ultimately did not find any definitive evidence that IP rights present a barrier to access in the context of COVID diagnostics and therapeutics. However, it largely amounts to a reiteration of talking points on both sides and seemingly does little to further the debate.

In Sur-Replies filed late last week in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, Urban Intel, Inc. told the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that threats made by ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions “to file IPR petitions and a declaratory judgment action unless granted a free license to three valuable patents,” among other allegations, “runs directly counter to the purpose and goals of the post-grant administrative challenge system.” The sur-replies are in response to petitioner’s replies filed earlier this month by hotel security company ASSA, addressing abuse of PTAB process allegations by Urban Intel. ASSA argued that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cannot enter sanctions against it because ASSA did not seek payment from Urban Intel’s exclusive licensee when it threatened to “rain down an avalanche of IPRs” if ASSA didn’t obtain a cost-free license to Urban Intel’s patents, according to the patent owner’s preliminary response.

In recent months, two U.S. government executive initiatives have reshaped the landscape concerning intellectual property and the domestic production of products resulting from federally funded research. These initiatives are poised to bring substantial changes to the dynamics of academic-industry collaborations as inventions are brought to market.

Just about everyone bundles. It’s about as American as apple pie: if you buy more, you get a better price. Most of the time, that’s a good thing. Consumers benefit from lower prices. The question is, can bundling violate the antitrust laws? It can. So, the real question is, how do we determine when a generally good thing – bundling – should be condemned under the sledgehammer that is antitrust? In cases where usually beneficial conduct is challenged as anticompetitive, clear standards and tests are critically important so that a good thing is not stifled by uncertainty.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has extended the deadline for comments on its joint request for comments (RFC) with the International Trade Administration (ITA) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) on the agencies’ collaboration initiative concerning standards and intellectual property. In a Federal Register Notice (FRN) published today, the USPTO announced the new deadline will be November 6, 2023. The original deadline was September 29.

Yesterday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held a “public listening session” to hear from industry leaders on the topic of standard essential patents. The event was specifically related to the USPTO’s effort to obtain stakeholder input on questions regarding proposed international standards that were presented in a recent Federal Register Notice, as well as strategies identified in the White House’s National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies.

A recent decision out of the Eastern District of Texas granted the plaintiff patent owner summary judgment with respect to the defendants’ counterclaim that the plaintiff breached licensing related obligations owed to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) by not communicating with the defendants prior to suing for infringement…. While the result is reasonable, the explanations provided by the court raise several questions.

IPWatchdog will host the 5th Annual Standards, Patents and Competition Masters™ program on November 14-15, 2023. The program will take place at IPWatchdog Studios in Ashburn, Virginia, approximately 10 minutes from Dulles International Airport. The purpose of this high-level, interactive, limited enrollment program is to discuss what is happening in the Standard Essential Patents (SEP) industry today, from FRAND, to bilateral licensing, patent pools, multi-jurisdiction enforcement strategies and more.

In 2000, Wizards of the Coast (“Wizards”), the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, faced a red pill or blue pill scenario. On the one hand, Wizards could continue to build its Dungeons & Dragons game, while carefully preserving its intellectual property rights. On the other hand, Wizards could risk or even waive its intellectual property rights by allowing third parties, especially the players, to use the Dungeons & Dragons’ intellectual property for their own creations with few limitations, allowing its players to help expand the D&D franchise. Wizards’ chose the second option – to limit its claims over its intellectual property and allow third parties to create their own custom D&D content. A Dungeons & Dragons empire was born. Twenty-three years later, we examine Wizards’ choice and its impact. In early January of this year, the gaming industry was outraged over a leaked document published by pop culture news outlet io9. The document was a draft of the most recent version of Wizards’ Open Game License, or OGL.

While the 5G program launch is a step into the right direction, the biggest challenge will be the new royalty rate. The 5G program is targeted at automotive OEMs, who if they join within the next 6 months (or before they ship their first 5G vehicle, whichever is later) will get access to all members’ cellular SEPs for a discounted rate of $29 per vehicle. After the 6 months the rate increases to $32 per vehicle for late joiners. While the whole automotive market will be happy about a SEP market share of 80%-83% (table 1), the new royalty rates will likely be discussed with a lot more controversy.