NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[clawmann]

Anyway, Bena was on to something with her "cartel" remark. Any agreement or arrangement to restrain competition is almost certainly going to attract the unwanted attention of the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (and probably the FCC). Did CTIA run that white paper past legal counsel? It doesn't look like it. Sometimes an arrangement or agreement with a modest anti-competitive effect can be justified on the basis that it substantially promotes consumer welfare, but I can't see how the proponents of the CTIA white paper could make that argument here.

Thankfully, a patent is one of the exceptions to the antitrust laws, because a patent is, in essnce, a legal grant to the patent holder of a monopoly over the concerned invention for the life of the patent.