Dept. of Justice Blesses IEEE Rules on Injunctions and Reasonability

Posted by Andy_Updegrove on Feb 4, 2015 5:44 PM EDT
ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog; By Andy Updegrove
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Not so long ago, everybody was suing everybody in what quickly became knows as the "Mobile Platform Wars." That may not be so easy anymore.

During the mobile platform patent wars of recent years Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola and the rest of the major vendors sought injunctions against each other to prevent their competitor from selling their products at all. The suits were often based on claims that a vendor had to pay a reasonable royalty on a “standards essential patent.” The resulting litigation clogged up the courts, and the regulators were not amused.

Now, after almost two years of vigorous debate, the standards development organization behind WiFi and thousands of other ICT standards (IEEE-SA) has received the blessing of the U.S. Dept. of Justice to forbid members that have pledged to license such patents from seeking an injunction until all other remedies have been exhausted. Whether other standards organizations will follow suit remains to be seen.

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