Taiwan FTC ends FRAND investigation into InterDigital
Wireless technology provider InterDigital has come out unscathed from an investigation by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (FTC) into patent licensing.
According to a company announcement on Tuesday, October 24, the FTC said InterDigital had not violated Taiwan’s Fair Trade Act and has now closed the investigation, which began in 2013.
The FTC had been probing the company over patent licensing on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) grounds.
It comes after the FTC fined semiconductor company Qualcomm $773 million for violating competition rules.
The commission said in a statement on October 11 that Qualcomm had a monopoly over the chip market for several modem technologies and refused to license its technology to “other industry players”, thus falling foul of local rules.
However, Qualcomm has disputed the finding and said it will appeal.
InterDigital’s patent licensing surrounding mobile standards was previously investigated by China’s competition authority, the National Development and Reform Commission, but the case was settled in 2014.
As part of the agreement, InterDigital reportedly agreed to offer Chinese manufacturers the chance to take a worldwide licence to its standard-essential patents and to comply with FRAND principles when entering into licensing with them.
InterDigital’s announcement on the Taiwan case was made as it released its third quarter results for 2017.
Total revenue for the quarter was $97.3 million, down from $208.3 million in the third quarter of last year, but the company said that amount included $124 million of past patent royalties.
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