FTC vs. Qualcomm-FTC Chairman authorizes another swing at Qualcomm (Analyst Angle)

Right before the passing of the deadline, as expected, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took another swing at Qualcomm by filing a request to reconsider the recent appellate court decision. But to everybody’s surprise, the FTC Chair and Trump appointee Joseph J. Simons , coming out of recusal, authorized that decision .

This request will again set in motion activities at The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit). After a few more weeks of action, I believe, eventually, this case will go into the history books as a great precedent for antitrust law in the realm of patents and licensing. Interestingly, Apple which was the alleged instigator of this case is already using this precedent to fight its case against Epic Games!

Side note: If you would like to know the full background of the case, refer to my earlier articles in the FTC vs. Qualcomm article series.

Well expected action by FTC but not by its chair

Even after the emphatic rebuke from the unanimous Ninth Circuit panel, FTC was well expected to file this request called en banc, as I predicted in my earlier article . There are many reasons for it: First, it doesn’t require much effort, only a short brief need to…