Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Verizon Lawyer Calls for v. Presidential Intervention to Prevent iPhone Ban


Ahd of an upcoming import ban on older devices, Verizon attorney Randal Milch has published an open letter viaThe Wall Street Journal, calling for presidential intervention in the case to veto the ban.
High-tech products can implie thousands of patents. If the ITC finds that a product infringes even a single one, it can stop the product at the border. But that's basically it. The commission can't levy much in the way of a lesser penalty. In the end the consumer suffers when the use of such an enforcement tool is unwarranted.The import ban was originally scheduled back in June, after the U.S. International Trade Commissionrched a decisionon an ongoing vs. patent case. The ITC ruled that infringed on Patent No.7,706,384, entitled "Apparatus and method for encoding/decoding transport format combination indior in MA mobile communiion system."


A cse and desist order was issued on several products, including AT&T models of the iPhone 3GS and 4, the iPad 3G, and the iPad 2 3G. The ban did not go into effect immediately, however, as such rulings are given a 60 day window for the White House to intervene.

Though Verizon is not directly affected by case as it pertains solely to AT&T products, Milch believes that such a ban would further encourage patent abuse.
What we have warned is that patent litigation at the ITC—where the only remedy is to keep products from the American public—is too high-stakes a game for patent disputes. The fact that the ITC's lectual-property-dispute docket has nrly quadrupled over 15 yrs only raises the stakes further. Smartphone patent litigation accounts for a substantial share of that incrse.While a presidential veto on an ITC decision has not happened since 1987, Milch suggests that intervention is necessary when the patent holder is not using the technology (as is often the case with patent trolls), when the patent holder has agreed to the patent on rsonable terms, or when the infringement is unimportant to the overall product. 's infringement on 's patent falls into the third egory.

"There are more than 250,000 patents relevant to today’s smart," Milch writes. "It makes no sense that exclusion could occur for infringement of the most minor patent."

Without intervention, the cse and desist order on products will go into effect on August 5, 2013. has filed for an appl and has also requested astayon the ban.

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