September 2010

Spotlight Info

In Princo Corp. v. International Trade Commission, No. 07-1386 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 30, 2010) (en banc), the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, considered whether Philips had engaged in patent misuse by entering into an agreement with Sony, whereby the parties jointly license the asserted Raaymakers patent, as well as the alternative Lagadec patent.  The parties agreed that the alternative Lagadec technology would not be licensed in competition with the Raaymakers technology, or used to develop competing, alternative technology.  The Court held that such an agreement did not impermissibly enlarge the physical or temporal scope of the patents, was not per se anticompetitive, nor did it have the effect of unlawfully restraining competition in the relevant market.  Rather, the Court viewed the agreement as a legitimate exchange of assurances that the resources invested by one party to a joint venture would not be undermined or competitively exploited to the sole benefit of the other.  Moreover, under a rule of reason analysis, the Court concluded that the Legadec technology was not a commercially viable technological alternative to the Raaymakers patents, nor was it likely to become so.  Accordingly, the Court affirmed the decision of the ITC that the agreement between the parties did not constitute patent misuse.  For a full discussion of this case, please see the full summary below.