Qualcomm Antitrust Ruling Reversed by US Appeals Court docket

A US appeals court docket on Tuesday reversed a decrease court docket ruling towards chip provider Qualcomm in an antitrust lawsuit introduced by the Federal Commerce Fee.

The US Ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals additionally vacated an injunction that might have required Qualcomm to alter its mental property licensing practices.

The choice was a significant vindication for the San Diego-based firm, the most important provider of chips for cell phones and a key generator of wi-fi communications know-how.

Qualcomm was preventing a Might 2019 resolution by US District Decide Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. Koh sided with the FTC, writing that Qualcomm’s observe of requiring telephone makers to signal a patent license settlement earlier than promoting them chips “strangled competitors” and harmed shoppers.

However the appeals court docket, in a Three-Zero ruling written by Circuit Decide Consuelo Callahan, dominated that Qualcomm had no responsibility to license its patents to rival chip suppliers and that it was not anticompetitive to require telephone makers to signal a license settlement.

“As a substitute, these features of Qualcomm’s enterprise mannequin are ‘chip-supplier impartial’ and don’t undermine competitors within the related antitrust markets,” Callahan wrote.

Qualcomm praised the choice whereas the FTC known as it “disappointing.”

“The Court docket of Appeals unanimous reversal, solely vacating the District Court docket resolution, validates our enterprise mannequin and patent licensing program and underscores the large contributions that Qualcomm has made to the trade,” Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s normal counsel, mentioned in assertion.

The FTC’s Bureau of Competitors director, Ian Conner, mentioned in a press release, that the company “will likely be contemplating our choices.”

The case divided US antitrust regulators with the Justice Division intervening to file a short in help of Qualcomm.

The Justice Division didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Qualcomm shares rose about four % on the information. The shares have been up from March lows as the corporate continued to indicate development regardless of a sluggish good telephone market.

Qualcomm had argued that the FTC resolution, if allowed to face, would upend its enterprise mannequin by requiring it for the primary time to license its know-how to rival chipmakers and rework a lot of its patent licensing offers with telephone makers.

Qualcomm received a pause in enforcement of the choice whereas its authorized attraction performed out and voluntarily modified the way it structured a few of its licensing offers for 5G know-how. With the appeals victory and raft of recent agreements signed with clients because the case was determined, Qualcomm is essentially clear to renew conducting enterprise because it had for many years earlier than the FTC case.

Qualcomm’s enterprise mannequin typically prompted battle with telephone makers, most notably Apple, which supported the FTC’s case and mounted a separate antitrust lawsuit towards Qualcomm.

The telephone makers bristled at Qualcomm’s insistence that producers license its broad patent portfolio no matter whose chips they selected.

Apple settled its case towards Qualcomm in 2018 and signed a license deal and chip provide settlement. Different main telephone makers similar to Samsung Electronics and Huawei Applied sciences have additionally settled disputes with the chip provider and signed license offers because the FTC case was determined.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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