Continental AG, which makes control units for Daimler AG cars, cannot pursue antitrust claims against a group of patent owners, including Qualcomm Inc, which are seeking royalties on telecommunications technology, a federal judge in Texas ruled.
Avanci LLC, a licensing pool formed by Qualcomm, Nokia Oyj, Sharp Corp and other owners of patents on technology standards, is not breaching antitrust laws when it negotiates license agreements with automakers rather than the component makers, Barbara Lynn, chief district judge for the Northern District of Texas, said in dismissing the suit in a decision posted on Friday.
The licensing group charges US$15 per vehicle for the use of patented technology that is key to an industry standard for 4G telecommunications, and is developing a price for 5G, the next generation of wireless technology that promises to alter everything from driverless vehicles to robotic surgery.
Companies that develop standardized technology so electronics can work together to license any relevant patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, known as Frand. It is a phrase that has never been defined, although Continental said that Avanci’s licensing plan is neither fair nor reasonable.
Automakers traditionally have their component makers handle any patent licensing issues and indemnify the automaker from infringement suits.
Continental, which makes the telematics control units for Daimler vehicles, said that the US$15 charge would more than wipe out any profit it makes from the US$100 part it sells Daimler.
In dismissing the lawsuit, Lynn relied in part on a US appeals court decision that threw out an antitrust lawsuit the US Federal Trade Commission had lodged against Qualcomm over its licensing practices.
In that ruling, the court said that Qualcomm was within its rights to demand royalties from the end product rather than a component part.
“A patent owner may use price discrimination to maximize the patent’s value without violating antitrust law,” Lynn wrote.
Avanci’s request to dismiss the lawsuit was bolstered by the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, which wrote to the judge in February to say that any breach of the Frand obligation would be a contract dispute, not an antitrust case.
The case was part of a closely watched group of lawsuits in the US and Europe pitting Daimler and its parts makers against the telecom industry. Nokia has been winning court rulings in Germany.
“This decision further confirms that Avanci’s one-stop licensing solution for the auto industry is consistent with US antitrust law,” Avanci founder and chief executive Kasim Alfalahi said in a statement.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
RSS