Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: AAI releases patent acquisition, enforcement recommendations for next President, (May 6, 2016)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) has released the patent law and policy chapter of its Transition Report on Competition Policy to the 45th President of the United States, encouraging the new administration to better align patent and competition law and policy to more effectively promote innovation.

The release of the chapter, entitled “Challenging Anticompetitive Acquisitions and Enforcement of Patents,” is the third in a series of previews of the forthcoming transition report available for download in advance of the November election. The AAI Presidential Transition Report makes policy recommendations based on AAI’s mission of promoting competition that protects consumers, businesses, and society.

The patent chapter makes a number of recommendations to the next administration, including that the FTC and Antitrust Division of the Justice Department should: (1) continue and expand their advocacy on patent policy to ensure that it promotes competition, innovation, and consumer welfare; (2) continue to aggressively challenge anticompetitive holdup conduct by standard-essential patent (SEP) owners; (3) act on AAI’s request for joint enforcement guidelines on the patent policies of standard setting organizations (SSOs), adopting the principle that SSOs should be liable for the anticompetitive effects of holdup conduct enabled by inadequate SSO patent policies; (4) aggressively challenge abusive patent enforcement strategies; (5) challenge patent assertion entities’ (PAEs’) patent portfolio aggregations and disaggregations that create and enable the exercise of market power; (6) support legislation that requires more transparency by PAEs regarding patent ownership and assignments, grounds for assertions of patent infringement, and related matters; and (7) look for opportunities to clarify and develop the law to restrict the application of Noerr-Pennington immunity when SEP owners and PAEs engage in abusive patent enforcement conduct.

AAI is an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to promoting competition that protects consumers, businesses, and society. The Washington, D.C.-based organization serves the public through education, research, and advocacy on the benefits of competition and the use of antitrust enforcement as a vital component of national and international competition policy.

News: Antitrust