Posts Tagged: "Edith Ramirez"

FTC report on PAEs could have an outsized effect on U.S. patent reform debate

The information the FTC has been collecting regarding patent assertion entities is extensive. Along with standard corporate information, the FTC is making a survey of each patent in PAE portfolios going back to 2008 to investigate the date of patent acquisition, the patent’s maintenance fee status as well as the assertion history for all patents upon which the PAE has attempted to enforce its rights. Firms are also being asked to describe their business model, the methods used to organize their patent portfolios and the aggregate costs of patent acquisition and assertion. The FTC has sent information requests to 25 PAEs in order to build its evidence.

William Cory Spence

August 16, 2016

Senators told FTC report on patent assertion entities due out this spring

When patents were brought up in the hearing, however, it seemed to focus mainly on their effects in the pharmaceutical world. Ramirez’s prepared remarks for the hearing touched on pay for delay in pharmaceutical patent infringement settlements, and she noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2013 decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis has given the FTC a greater capacity to challenge pay for delay schemes in court. Ramirez also stated that a report on the FTC investigation into patent assertion entities (PAEs) will be made available sometime this spring.

Steve Brachmann

March 13, 2016

FTC Chairwoman Testifies in House on Antitrust, Patents

The testimony further discusses the Commission’s interest in the problem of “patent hold-up” that can arise during an industry standard-setting process. Patent hold-up occurs when the holder of a standard essential patent (SEP), which has previously committed to license that SEP on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms, violates its RAND commitment and uses the leverage of the standard setting process to negotiate higher royalties than it could have before the patent was incorporated into the standard. The FTC recently pursued several enforcement actions related to patent holders who seek injunctive relief or exclusion orders for alleged infringement of their RAND-encumbered SEPs.

Federal Trade Commission

November 15, 2013