ITC issues final decision in key SEP dispute
The ruling comes after the Federal Trade Commission waded into several cases over standard-essential patents last month.
Philips has failed to persuade the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to reverse a decision holding that aerospace and defence company Thales did not infringe four patents covering 3G/3G standards.
The ITC affirmed an administrative law judge (ALJ) decision from April yesterday, July 6, marking the culmination of the case.
This decision comes after the Federal Trade Commission waded into several disputes over standard-essential patents (SEPs) last month, including the dispute between Philips and Thales.
In a public statement, FTC chair Lina Khan and commissioner Rebecca Slaughter urged the ITC to consider the impact that issuing an exclusion order against a willing licensee (ie Thales) would have on competition and consumers in the US.
During the ITC proceedings, Thales was represented by Axinn partners Jeannine Sano, Eric Krause, Paul Zeineddin, Denise Plunkett and Michael Keeley in the investigation, which was instituted in January 2021.
Thales develops cellular communication modules which are used by companies as part of CPAP machines, vehicle monitoring, wireless metres and data terminals.
After Thales and Philips were unable to negotiate a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licence, Philips sued the company at the US District Court for the District of Delaware.
Philips also appealed to the ITC in 2020 to issue an exclusion order on Thales wireless module products, which it claimed infringed in some of its patented components that implement cellular standards—especially 3G and 4G.
The tech firm had argued that Thales was an unwilling licensee as it made five different FRAND offers, which Thales refused to accept.
But last year, an ITC administrative law judge found that Thales was negotiating in good faith, and issued a decision that all the asserted claims of all four patents asserted by Philips were not infringed and unenforceable.
Upon Philips’ requested review of the decision, the ITC found no violation with respect to each of the patents.
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