ITC Not Impressed With Latest Smartphone Patent Thicket Cases

from the patent-protectionism dept

Wed, Apr 20th 2011 9:01pm — Mike Masnick

In the past, we've pointed out how many patent holders now get two entirely separate cracks at trying to get those they accuse of patent infringement to pay up. There's the regular court system and there's an entirely separate International Trade Commission (ITC) process, as well. Basically, the ITC can make rulings preventing importing infringing works, totally outside of the court system. And, of course, since so many things are made outside the US these days, this could create an effective injunction against those products in the entire US market. One of the key problems is that the ITC uses different standards than the court system to determine if such an injunction is an appropriate step.

With the massive patent thicket on smartphones, leading to a bunch of lawsuits, many are using both the court system and the ITC to try to force the other side to give in and just pay up. However, so far, it appears that the ITC is not playing along. We recently noted that the ITC indicated it was rejecting Nokia's claims that Apple's iPhone violated some of its patents, and now the ITC has indicated that it won't side with Apple in its claims against HTC and Nokia.

In other words: keep your silly patent pissing fight out of the ITC.

If the ITC keeps rejecting these attempts to stifle competition via the patent system, then hopefully companies will stop using this little loophole to get to extra bites of the (proverbial) apple.

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Filed Under: itc, patent thicket, patents, smartphones
Companies: apple, htc, nokia

11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2011 @ 9:05pm

I am not sure the report about Apple is accurate. It is my understanding that the staff at the ITC is making such a recommendation, but as regards the final outcome at the ITC it is merely advisory.
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- Florian Mueller, 20 Apr 2011 @ 9:59pm
  
  Re: Just a recommendation, but a certain trend
  You are right that the ITC staff only makes a recommendation, not a decision. It's a third party to the proceedings, not like a team working directly for the judge. That said, there's now a pattern of negative tendencies in smartphone-related ITC complaints. It remains to be seen what happens in some of the other cases (especially the ones between Apple and Motorola, and Microsoft and Motorola).
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abc gum, 21 Apr 2011 @ 5:40am

Smart phone? Don't need it.
These folks will evenutally lose their customer base due to their infighting and ridiculous pricing. And they will point the finger elsewhere, of course.
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- DannyB (profile), 21 Apr 2011 @ 6:55am
  
  Re:
  > These folks will evenutally lose their customer base
  
  Smartphone market share is growing very rapidly.
  
  > due to their infighting
  
  Not all smartphone OEM's or builders of operating systems are bad guys.
  
  > and ridiculous pricing
  
  My android smartphone cost $108 on contract. 1 GHz. 1 GB RAM. 16 GB internal storage + empty microSD card slot. 5 Megapixel.
  
  My wife's android smartphone also cost $108 on contract. 1.2 GHz. 768 MB RAM. 2 GB internal storage + 8 GB microSD card. 8 megapixel.
  
  > And they will point the finger elsewhere, of course.
  
  Assuming your scenario comes true, which all evidence seems to be against.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2011 @ 1:32pm
    
    Re: Re:
    "$108 on contract."
    =
    over $2000 for entire length of contract. We're not including app fees, overages, accessories, etc.
    
    Let's not get into the app store models are far far more restrictive than what you get with other computing devices. They also have been proven to spy on you (developers of legit programs, we're not even talking malicious intent programs!)
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  - Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2011 @ 8:27am
    
    Re: Re:
    "My android smartphone cost $108 on contract."
    
    You should have come to me. I could have gotten it for you for "free", on one of my special contracts of course.
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DannyB (profile), 21 Apr 2011 @ 7:03am

What the ITC should do
Whenever the ITC has a PAIR of parties locked in suit-countersuit, then they should AUTOMATICALLY GRANT both sides request for a total injunction on importation and sale of both companies' products.

Yes, I'm serious.

I seem to recall a patent suit/countersuit between Intel/Motorola back in the late 1980s'. Don't remember who started what. Back in the day we read the industry trade rags like MacWeek, PC Week, etc, before the web. What I do distinctly remember is this: the judge granted both parties injunctions. It was immediately illegal for both Intel and Motorola to ship their respective microprocessors in the US. A settlement was announced the following business day.

Amazing how that worked.
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- Chris Rhodes (profile), 21 Apr 2011 @ 7:55am
  
  Re: What the ITC should do
  +1, I like it.
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- Atkray (profile), 21 Apr 2011 @ 10:33am
  
  Re: What the ITC should do
  But think of the Lawyers.
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wvhillbilly (profile), 22 Apr 2011 @ 9:52pm

Patent thickets
IMO, the proper way to deal with patent thickets would be to invalidate all overlapping patents as evident obviousness.
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patent litigation, 25 Apr 2011 @ 3:27pm

Even so, the outcome of the patent litigation between Apple and Nokia is far from certain. As noted by Alexander Poltorak at GPC: "One cannot help wondering if the latest round [of suits between Apple and Nokia] is not a proxy for a fight between Microsoft and Apple, which are rivals as well." It's questionable whether these mobile wars should take place in the courts, in the form of patent litigation, or should be properly restricted to the marketplace, where they rightfully belong. Whatever one's position on the issue, however, it's true that as long as IP rights exist, then patentees have every legal right to enforce them.
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