A federal district court in California granted partial summary
judgment for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and ordered a
standard essential patent (SEP) holder to license its intellectual
property for cellular communication standards to all willing
applicants. FTC v. Qualcomm Inc., Case No.
17-cv-00220 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 6, 2018) (Koh, J).
The decision requires Qualcomm to license its alleged SEPs to
all comers, regardless of whether they make component products or
end-devices, and represents a significant victory for the FTC in
enforcing its view of an SEP holder's commitments to license
patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND)
terms.
The FTC sued Qualcomm in 2017, alleging that the company
violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by refusing to license its
alleged SEPs to other modem chip suppliers in violation of industry
agreements, thus ensuring that customers had to rely on Qualcomm
for their modem chip supply. Section 5 of the FTC Act
