O'Dog, Ghors and other board attorneys:
Thanks a lot for all the free legal viewpoints you guys provide for us all. I have two questions regarding Arima and Pegatron. Both questions relate to statements in IDCC's 2014 10-K.
On Arima, the 10-K has this statement:
On December 18, 2014, InterDigital was served with a complaint filed by Arima in Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Court on July 25, 2014. The complaint names as defendants InterDigital’s wholly owned subsidiaries InterDigital Technology Corporation and IPR Licensing, Inc. The complaint alleges that InterDigital abused its dominant position by forcing Arima to sign its patent license agreement with InterDigital in 2005, setting an unreasonably high and discriminatory royalty rate, and including other abusive and discriminatory provisions in the license agreement, in violation of the Fair Trade Act of Taiwan. The complaint seeks damages in the amount of NTD 100,000,000 (approximately $3.2 million based on the exchange rate as of December 31, 2014), and that this amount be trebled as an intentional violation. On December 18, 2014, InterDigital was also served with a motion filed by Arima on July 25, 2014 to enjoin its wholly owned subsidiaries InterDigital Technology Corporation and IPR Licensing, Inc. from enforcing the terms of their patent license agreement with Arima. On December 23, 2014, there was an initial hearing on these matters. InterDigital filed jurisdictional objections and an opposition to the injunction motion on January 23, 2015. On February 3, 2015, the Intellectual Property Court held a hearing on the jurisdictional issues and the injunction motion, during which Arima submitted a supplemental brief on jurisdiction. The court set of deadline of March 3, 2015 for Arima to submit its next brief, and March 19, 2015 for InterDigital to submit its response to Arima’s brief. Another hearing on those issues has been set for March 24, 2015.
My question: Can this ongoing action delay the Arima payment in the US?
On Pegatron, the 10-K states:
We recently learned that on or about February 3, 2015, Pegatron Corporation, one of our licensees, filed a civil suit in Taiwan Intellectual Property Court against InterDigital, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries alleging breach of the Taiwan Fair Trade Act. We have not yet been served with or otherwise received a copy of the complaint.
My question: This appears to be a desperate attempt to weasel out of the licensing obligations. Could it possibly tie up payments due to IDCC?
Thanks in advance.
LA
AI
