Gamco: I had some spare time so I looked up Microsoft's anti-trust complaint. Below are the complaint's wording regarding the setting up of Signal Trust:
Nature of Action
6. After deceiving the SSO and its members, InterDigital has exploited its
unlawfully acquired power against Microsoft. It has:
• transferred hundreds of SEPs to a controlled entity in order to “double dip” in its royalty demands;
INTERDIGITAL’S ABUSE OF ITS MONOPOLY POWER
58…….InterDigital’s creation of new licensing entities and assignment of selected SEPs to those entities has compounded this royalty stacking effect. InterDigital’s licensing conduct has thus subjected the Relevant Technology Markets to patent hold-up.
B. InterDigital’s Creation Of Additional Licensing Entities To Extract Higher
And Discriminatory Royalties.
62. In October 2013, shortly after Microsoft announced its intended acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business, InterDigital arbitrarily transferred hundreds of patents to a new licensing entity for enforcement against Standards implementing companies. InterDigital created the Signal Trust for Wireless Innovation (“Signal Trust”) as this new licensing entity.
InterDigital is the primary beneficiary of any licensing revenues secured by Signal Trust.
63. In 2015, Signal Trust demanded that Microsoft take a license to the transferred InterDigital patents separate and apart from any license Microsoft might obtain from InterDigital for any remaining patents in InterDigital’s portfolio. Contemporaneously, InterDigital confirmed that its licensing demands for its portfolio exclusive of the patents transferred to Signal Trust had not been reduced from its prior demands for its entire portfolio.
64. On information and belief, InterDigital had previously licensed Microsoft’s
competitors to its combined portfolio without requiring additional and separate royalties for rights to the patents transferred to Signal Trust. In this manner, InterDigital has discriminated against Microsoft to the advantage of Microsoft’s competitors and weakened Microsoft’s ability to compete in the sale of cellular devices.
E. Harm To Microsoft And To Competition In The Relevant Technology
Markets.
82. As a consequence of InterDigital’s transfer of patents to Signal Trust, Microsoft faces inherently discriminatory royalty demands for access to InterDigital’s SEPs. Standing alone, InterDigital’s transfer of patents necessarily added to the cost for access to the cellular technologies allegedly necessary for the manufacture of Standard-compliant products even beyond that which Microsoft would have paid in a competitive market, harming Microsoft’s ability to compete in the sale of cellular devices.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Microsoft respectfully requests that this Court enter the following relief in its favor and against InterDigital:
H. Injunctive relief requiring InterDigital to re-assign any declared SEPs that it has assigned to controlled entities, such as Signal Trust;
AI
