Intel sues SoftBank firm over “meritless” patent actions
Intel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against a SoftBank Group-owned investment firm, which allegedly stockpiles “meritless patents” to use in litigation against technology companies.
The complaint, filed on Monday October 21 at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleged that “patent assertion entity” (PAE), Fortress Investment Group, has acquired control of more than 1,000 US technology patents.
“Rather than promote the progress of science and useful arts, patent assertion entities aggressively pursue meritless litigation have long been recognised to harm and deter innovation,” the complaint said, claiming that Fortress is a “central player in this emerging strategy”.
Intel said that “by employing a network of PAEs that it either owns or controls, Fortress has created a web of entities that obscures Fortress’s puppeteering role in this scheme”.
It said Fortress makes its money by asserting “weak patents—ie those that never would have been asserted by their former owners—in order to stretch the resources of their targets”, with the hope that targets, like Intel, will resolve the threat posed by Fortress by agreeing to licence the patent.
“Fortress and its PAEs acquire and seek to monetise meritless patents”, Intel added.
Fortress, which was acquired by SoftBank in 2017 for $3.3 billion, allegedly owns and controls a web of PAEs.
Intel said it was filing its lawsuit “to end a campaign of anticompetitive patent aggregation”.
“Fortress has used its stable of PAEs to aggregate a massive portfolio of patents that purportedly read on high-tech consumer and enterprise electronic devices and components or software used to manufacture them,'' the complaint said.
Intel asked the court for damages and to declare all licencing agreements obtained by Fortress, which violate US antitrust laws, as void.
WIPR has approached SoftBank for comment.
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