“Smartphone rivals Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have dueled over patents in courts around the globe,” Brent Kendall and Ian Sherr report for The Wall Street Journal. “Now they are sparring in front of the Obama administration, which faces a looming decision on whether to veto a trade body’s order blocking the U.S. sale of some Apple devices.”
“At issue is a June ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission, an increasingly hot venue for patent fights, that said Apple infringed on a Samsung patent and ordered a ban on some older-model Apple iPhones and iPads,” Kendall and Sherr report. “Antitrust officials from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are also weighing in on the ruling, according to people familiar with the matter. The two agencies have been vocal over the past year with concerns that companies may be unfairly harming competition when they assert essential technology patents in lawsuits to block rivals’ products from the marketplace.”
Kendall and Sherr report, “U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has the authority to make the final decision on whether to allow the ITC ban. It is rare for a presidential administration to veto an ITC order, the most recent instance occurring in 1987. If Mr. Froman doesn’t intervene, the ban would take effect on Aug. 4… BSA, a trade group representing software makers including Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. and chip maker Intel Corp., said the use of essential industry patents to ban products shouldn’t be allowed except under unusual circumstances.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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