Patent Law Institute to ITC: Order VideoLabs to Divulge Its Licensees

VideoLabs asked the International Trade Commission for cease and desist and limited exclusion orders on a “wide range” of consumer tech devices, but it’s withholding the identities of the licensees it alleges “can be relied on to satisfy domestic needs for the articles it seeks to exclude,” commented the Public Interest Patent Law Institute Monday in docket 337-3626. As long as the identities of the VideoLabs licensees remain secret, the public “cannot ascertain or explain how the requested exclusion order would impact consumers, economic conditions, or public health in this country,” said the institute. The consumer tech market “is already struggling with disruptions to the supply chain for electronic devices while the COVID-19 pandemic makes access to such devices more essential than ever,” it said. It urged the ITC to deny the VideoLabs request to “keep this basic yet crucial information secret and give the public an opportunity to comment once it can access the information it needs.” VideoLabs alleges in a Tariff Act Section 337 complaint that devices from Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Micro-Star, Motorola Mobility and MSI infringe four of its patents, including three involving H.264 and H.265 video compression and a fourth describing a method for readjusting a screen’s orientation when a portable device is rotated for different viewing positions (see 2207070054).