FTC Commissioner Warns of ITC as Forum for Patent Holdup

October 5, 2012 by Tim Warren|Penalties and Courts

The International Trade Commission (ITC) is increasingly used as the legal forum for patent fights, allowing for the potential skirting of anti-competitive rules set through legal precedent, said Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill. Brill spoke at an event Oct. 3 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Brill said the ITC needs to ensure that remedies related to standard-essential patents licensed on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms do not conflict with the public interest. Use of the ITC as a venue for patent challenges has tripled in the last 10 years, said Brill, because the ITC is not required to follow the precedent set by the Supreme Court's decision in eBay vs. MercExchange. The 2006 case barred automatic injunctions for patent infringement. Brill said companies' use of the ITC as a venue for patent challenges "threatens to undermine the pro-competitive aspects of eBay vs. MercExchange, and has the potential to turn the ITC into a forum for patent holdup."