“On Thursday (June 21), Apple filed FRAND contract and antitrust claims against HTC for the abuse of patents that are allegedly essential to the 4G/LTE standard,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “Apple brought those claims as counterclaims in the investigation of HTC’s second ITC complaint against Apple. Counterclaims cannot be adjudicated by the ITC. They have to be severed immediately and filed in federal court. Apple did so in a filing with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.”
“This is a serious issue,” Mueller reports. “There will probably be more cases in the future in which companies try to use 4G/LTE-essential patents as strategic weapons or for hold-up. Lawmakers, regulators and industry players are profoundly concerned over the rampant abuse of standard-essential patents (SEP). HTC has just become the third major Android device maker to be accused of SEP abuse.”
Read more in the full article here.