Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Price fixing claims against SD card developers proceed as High Court denies review, (Apr 6, 2015)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not disturb a federal appellate court's decision reviving antitrust claims against developers of SD digital memory card technology. Last December, Panasonic Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, SanDisk Corporation, and SD-3C, LLC filed a petition for certiorari with the Court, seeking review of a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversing the dismissal of SD card purchasers' claims on statute of limitations and laches grounds (SD-3C, LLC v. Oliver, Dkt. 14-641).

Left standing is the Ninth Circuit panel's decision that the plaintiffs' federal antitrust claim should not have been dismissed under the Clayton Act's four-year statute of limitations and was not barred by the equitable doctrine of laches. The purchasers' suit is related to an action brought by Samsung, which was a licensee manufacturer of SD cards. The two underlying suits involve challenges to the structure and licensing practices of a standard setting organization and patent pool formed a decade earlier for SD card technology. SD cards are the dominant form of flash memory card on the market and are widely used in cellular phones, digital cameras, audio players, and other forms of mobile electronics. Earlier this year, the High Court denied the developers' petition for review of the Ninth Circuit's decision allowing Samsung's claims to proceed.

In the petition questioning the timing of the SD card purchasers' action, the developers had asked the Supreme Court whether they should be subject to antitrust suits seeking injunctive relief against the foundational terms of a decade-old standard setting and technology licensing arrangement for as long as third parties continue to make sales of goods embodying the technology. In addition, they questioned the Ninth Circuit’s decision to treat statute of limitations analysis as dispositive on the issue of laches, without considering the broader equitable issues associated with permitting challenges to long-settled business arrangements.

Attorneys: Daniel M. Wall (Latham & Watkins LLP) for SD-3C, LLC. Joseph S. Grinstein and Amanda Kate Bonn (Susman Godfrey, L.L.P.) for respondents.

Companies: SD-3C, LLC; Panasonic Corp.; SanDisk Corp.; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Toshiba Corp.

News: Antitrust