Apple, patent foe urge court to keep license terms secret in smartphone case


    The Apple Inc logo in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 13, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

    • Opponents Apple and Uniloc both argued for sealing patent licenses
    • Electronic Frontier Foundation says information is in public interest

    (Reuters) – Apple Inc and its frequent patent litigation opponent Uniloc USA Inc were united in rare agreement before a U.S. appeals court panel Monday, arguing that the public shouldn’t have access to details about Uniloc’s licenses in a fight over smartphone patents.

    The companies hope to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse a lower court’s decision to keep details about third-party licenses to Uniloc patents public at the request of nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    Uniloc sued Apple in 2017 for allegedly infringing patents related to smartphones, in one of several lawsuits Uniloc entities have filed against the tech giant. The parties settled the case in June.

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    The dispute is at the Federal Circuit for the second time. The appeals court earlier affirmed U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s decision to unseal information about Uniloc’s business practices but told him to reconsider whether information about Uniloc’s patent licenses with several third parties should be kept secret.

    On remand, Alsup refused to order the information sealed, writing that a patent owner “is a tenant on a plot within the realm of public knowledge,” and the public “has every right to account for all its tenants, all its sub-tenants, and (more broadly) anyone holding even a slice of the public grant.”

    Alexandra Moss of the Public Interest Patent Law Institute, representing EFF, said Monday the Supreme Court has “repeatedly recognized that the public’s interest in the patent system is paramount.”

    “But not in the amount of royalties, the details of patent licenses,” Circuit Judge Alan Lourie said. “The Supreme Court has never stated there’s a public interest in that, has it?”

    “Where has there ever been a proper, governing holding that the public has an interest in how much people license a patent for?” Lourie asked.

    Apple and Uniloc, an affiliate of Softbank’s Fortress Investment Group, both argued that the information was confidential.

    Attorneys for the companies warned that Alsup’s decision could lead to “information asymmetry,” which Uniloc lawyer Aaron Jacobs called “the most dangerous thing that can happen in licensing negotiation.”

    Apple lawyer Doug Winnard said that the public interest in the information was “de minimis,” but U.S. Circuit Judge Haldane Mayer was skeptical.

    “When we have cases with people like you and [Jacobs] on opposite sides, the public interest loses,” Mayer said. “You have no interest in the public interest.”

    The case is Uniloc USA Inc v. Apple Inc, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 21-1568.

    For Uniloc: Aaron Jacobs of Prince Lobel Tye

    For Apple: Doug Winnard of Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum

    For EFF: Alexandra Moss of the Public Interest Patent Law Institute

    Read more:

    Uniloc must unseal information about its business practices – Federal Circuit

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    Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Reach him at blake.brittain@thomsonreuters.com



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