Post #25: USITC Litigation

In class we have discussed the USPTO, but the USITC is equally important.  The USITC or United States International Trade Commission, is  US-based agency that is supposed to help protect US domestic industry from foreign competition.  This includes, and why I chose to write about it, the unauthorized importation of patented goods.

In addition, someone who has a patent can allege patent infringement at the USITC or Federal Court and that there are no restrictions from doing both at once.  Since the case of eBay v. MercExchange, about 20% of the investigations with companies who have licensed patents don't use the invention, which is well below the numbers seen in federal district courts.  This doesn't stop the fact that the investigations have been on the rise peaking in 2011.  Companies that license patents typically make that money when the patented technology is used by other people and royalties come into effect.  

Post #24: Samsung asks ITC for two month delay

When Samsung first received Ericsson's complaint, back in November of 2012, they expected to go into litigation around April 8, 2014.  Now, just from looking at the second date, we can see just how delayed these battles can drag out for considering it takes up to a year and a half to even get a court date... 

However, Samsung still believes they need more time and have asked the ITC for a 60 day extension on the original court date.  They say it is warranted because "of the breadth of [an] outstanding discovery" and Ericsson's inability to drop patents from the claim meaning Samsung needs more time to prepare.  Yet, Ericsson has only been asserting 134 claims from 11 different patents versus Samsung's 190 claims.  When you look at it, that means there are still 335 that a judge needs to look over just for one case which is a tremendous amount.  Another complication is that seven of Ericsson's patents are FRAND which means they need to get information from third parties to demonstrate that they aren't breaking any laws.

Even though the trial was supposed to originally happen in August 2013 and has now been pushed back to April 2014 and is now being pushed back even farther to June 2014 shows just how massive and complicated this case is and will be when the judge finally starts making decisions.  I feel bad for the judge reviewing this case because he or she will be doing a ton of meticulous work.