Samsung, Intel, ACT File in Support of FTC Qualcomm Patent Complaint

Samsung, Intel and others filed in support of the FTC’s complaint against Qualcomm alleging the smartphone chip manufacturer had a monopoly in baseband processors used in cellphones and other devices (see 1701170065 and 1704040040). The entities Friday filed proposed amicus briefs in support of the FTC’s opposition to Qualcomm’s April motion to dismiss the complaint (see 1704040037). Qualcomm’s licensing practices are “exclusionary,” Samsung said (in Pacer). “Despite having requested a license from Qualcomm, Samsung cannot sell licensed Exynos chipsets to non-Samsung entities because Qualcomm has refused to license Samsung to make and sell licensed chipsets.” Qualcomm has “inflicted and continues to inflict precisely the harms that the antitrust laws seek to protect against,” Intel said (in Pacer). ACT│The App Association said it believes standard essential patent “abuses” of the type the FTC has claimed limit its members’ “ability to obtain fully licensed standardized components, or that and usurp value or technology that our members’ have themselves created.” The FTC’s complaint outlines behavior that if allowed to continue “would grievously harm industry and consumer interests in adapting current industries -- and building new industries -- that utilize technologies associated with 5G and IoT,” ACT wrote (in Pacer). “Such behaviors stunt businesses that rely on -- or will soon rely on -- an efficient, fair and balanced approach to licensing of wireless communication standards.” Dismissal of the FTC’s complaint “not only would prevent the FTC from addressing a serious anticompetitive problem in the mobile cellular industry, but would undermine the enforcement of the antitrust laws in other industries that are dependent on standard setting and throughout the economy,” the American Antitrust Institute said (in Pacer).