This article summarizes economic and legal theories regarding royalty stacking in view of recent U.S. case law that has addressed the impact of stacking on the reasonableness of patent royalty rates. It critiques the Federal Circuit's decision in Ericsson v. D-Link, holding that actual evidence...

In recent years, high-profile lawsuits involving standards-essential patents (SEPs) have made headlines in the United States, Europe, and Asia, leading to a heated public debate regarding the role and impact of patents covering key interoperability standards. Enforcement agencies around the...

In its 2018 budget, the Government of Canada pledged CDN$85.3 million over five years to support an ambitious new intellectual property (IP) strategy, including CDN$30 million for the formation of a Canadian “Patent Collective.” This paper explores the possible structure and goals of such a...

In an environment in which widely-adopted technical standards may each be covered by large numbers of patents, there have been increasing calls for courts to determine “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) royalties payable to holders of standards-essential patents (SEPs) using...

FRAND commitments are creations of written policy documents and contract law. Accordingly, the existence of a “License to All” obligation under a FRAND commitment must arise from the relevant policy language. Numerous SDO policies expressly impose “License to All” requirements. Some SDO...

This essay challenges the claim that President James Madison, the namesake of the Trump Administration’s “New Madison” Approach to Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law, was an advocate for strong patent rights unconstrained by the limitations of antitrust law. While Madison supported...

Most technical standards-development organizations (SDOs) have adopted internal policies embodying “due process” criteria such as openness, balance of interests, consensus decision making and appeals. These requirements arise from numerous sources including antitrust law, international trade...

The recent assertion of patents originally held by Theranos, the defunct blood analysis company whose founders are under federal indictment for fraud, highlights the existence of patents that claim non-existent and inoperative inventions. While such patents may ultimately be subject to validity...

In a world where patents play an increasingly important role in the technology development and innovation landscape, it is critical that reliable information about the status and history of patents be made available to the public. The USPTO has made a public commitment to the “discoverability,...

This brief seeks to draw to the Court’s attention historical, practical, and policy matters pertaining to technical standardization and dispute resolution that bear on the arguments made on appeal by Samsung and Ericsson, including by providing context on the use of anti-suit injunctions...