19-11-26 Jorge Contreras Acb

Case: 19-16122, 11/26/2019, ID: 11514075, DktEntry: 145, Page 1 of 42
No. 19-16122
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
QUALCOMM INCORPORATED,
Defendant – Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of California,
The Honorable Lucy H. Koh, District Judge
Case No. 5:17-cv-00220-LHK
BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE PROFESSOR JORGE L. CONTRERAS

IN SUPPORT OF APPELLEE AND AFFIRMANCE
Filed Unopposed by the Federal Trade Commission and Qualcomm

Incorporated Pursuant to Ninth Circuit Rule 29-2(a)
DAVID W. KESSELMAN, ESQ.

AMY T. BRANTLY, ESQ.
MONICA M. CASTILLO VAN PANHUYS, ESQ.
KESSELMAN BRANTLY STOCKINGER LLP
1230 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 400
Manhattan Beach, California 90266
(310) 307-4555 Telephone
(310) 307-4570 Facsimile
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Prof. Jorge L. Contreras

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES .................................................................................. iii
IDENTITY AND INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE............................................1
RELEVANCE OF PROFESSOR CONTRERAS’S AMICUS BRIEF....................2
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP AND CONSENT .............................................2
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................3
ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................7
I. THE DISTRICT COURT CORRECTLY CONCLUDED THAT
QUALCOMM WAS REQUIRED TO LICENSE ITS SEPS TO ALL
APPLICANTS ................................................................................................7
A. FRAND Commitments Have Their Origins in Remedial Patent
Access Requirements ...........................................................................7
B. SDO-Based FRAND Commitments are Widely Understood to
be Universal Access Requirements ......................................................8
C. The Unambiguous Language of the ATIS and TIA Policies
Requires Participants to License SEPs to All Applicants ..................10
D. Qualcomm Cannot Comply with its FRAND Commitments by
Unilaterally Refraining from Asserting its SEPs against
Applicants for Licenses ...................................................................... 11
E. Modem Chip Suppliers “Implement” Wireless
Telecommunications Standards and are Thus Entitled to
Receive FRAND Licenses from Qualcomm ......................................12
II. QUALCOMM’S DESIRE TO USE ITS OWN ROYALTY RATES
TO DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF A “REASONABLE” ROYALTY
IS AN EXERCISE IN CIRCULAR REASONING .....................................15
III. QUALCOMM’S ARGUMENT THAT THE DISTRICT COURT’S
REMEDIAL ORDER COULD THREATEN U.S. NATIONAL
SECURITY MISCHARACTERIZES BOTH PATENT LAW AND
STANDARDS IN THE MARKET ..............................................................19
A. Curtailing a Monopolist’s Illegal Practices Should Never Be
Viewed as Detrimental to the Public Interest .....................................20
B. Firms That Do Not Emulate Qualcomm’s Anticompetitive
Business Practices Are Still Profitable and Able to Make Large
Investments in R&D and Standardization ..........................................22
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont d)

Page
C.
Qualcomm’s Compliance with the District Court’s Injunction
Will not Impair its Ability to Supply Products to U.S.
Government Agencies ........................................................................23
1. The District Court’s Injunction Will Not Eliminate
Qualcomm’s Ability to Develop, Manufacture and Sell
Modem Chips to Government Agencies ..................................24
2. Eliminating the Barriers to Market Entry Previously
Imposed by Qualcomm Will Likely Open the Chip
Market to More U.S. Competitors ...........................................25
3. A Hostile Foreign Government Could Not Capture 5G
Standardization in a Manner That Would Hobble
Chips to Government Agencies ...............................................26
4. The United States Government and its Contractors Have
the Right Under 28 U.S.C. § 1498 to Manufacture and
Use any Patented Invention Without the Consent of the
Owner for Governmental Purposes..........................................28
5. Qualcomm’s Compliance with the District Court’s
Injunction Will Not Increase a Hostile Government’s
Ability to Incorporate Cyber Espionage or Other
Malicious Features into 5G Standards .....................................29
D. Qualcomm is Only One of Several Leading Firms Engaged in
5G Technology and Standards Development .....................................30
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................34
ii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page(s)
Cases
Ericsson, Inc. v. D-Link Sys. Inc.,
773 F.3d 1201 (Fed. Cir. 2014) .....................................................................17
Faulkner v. Gibbs,
199 F.2d 635 (9th Cir. 1952).........................................................................16
Georgia-Pacific v. United States Plywood Corp.,
318 F. Supp. 1116 (S.D.N.Y. 1970) ..............................................................16
Hartford-Empire Co. v. United States,
323 U.S. 386, modified by 324 U.S. 570 (1945) ......................................8, 17
In re Certain Mobile Elec. Devices and Radio Frequency and Processing
Components Thereof, USITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1065, 2018 WL
6011829 (Sept. 28, 2018), rev’d and modified on other grounds,
Commission Opinion, 2019 WL 2635510 (Apr. 5, 2019) ......................20, 26
In re Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC Patent Litigation,
No. 11 C 9308, 2013 WL 5593609 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 3, 2013) ...................18, 19
Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc.,
696 F.3d 872 (9th Cir. 2012) [Microsoft II] ..............................................9, 10
Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola Inc.,
795 F.3d 1024 (9th Cir. 2015) [Microsoft III] ............................10, 17, 18, 19
Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp.,
No 3:05-cv-1958 (S.D. Cal. Oct. 14, 2005)..................................................12
Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp.,
No. 05-cv-1392 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 9, 2006) .....................................................12
Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc.,
553 U.S. 617 (2008)................................................................................13, 14
United States v. Univis Lens Co.,
316 U. S. 241 (1942).....................................................................................13
Statutes
15 U.S.C. § 1 .............................................................................................................5
15 U.S.C. § 2 .............................................................................................................5
15 U.S.C. § 45 ...........................................................................................................5
iii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES (contd)

Page(s)
Statutes (contd)
28 U.S.C. § 1498 .....................................................................................................28
35 U.S.C. § 284 .......................................................................................................16
Other Authorities
2018 Broadcom Inc. Form 10-K,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1730168/000173016818
000084/avgo-11042018x10k.htm ......................................................................22
2018 Intel Corporation Form 10-K,
0007/a12292018q4-10kdocument.htm ..............................................................22
2018 QUALCOMM Incorporated Form 10-K, ,
00095/qcom10-k2018.htm .................................................................................22
Justus Baron et al., Making the Rules: The Governance of Standard
Development Organizations and their Policies on Intellectual
Property Rights, JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 29655
(Nikolaus Thumm ed., Mar. 2019) ....................................................................29
Justus Baron & Tim Pohlmann, Mapping Standards to Patents Using
Declarations Standard-Essential Patents, 27 J. Econ. & Mgmt.
Strategy 504 (2018) .............................................................................................4
Justus Baron & Daniel F. Spulber, Technology Standards and
Standard Setting Organizations: Introduction to the Searle Center
Database, 27 J. Econ. & Mgmt. Strategy 462 (2018) ...................................4, 23
Jorge L. Contreras, A Brief History of FRAND: Analyzing Current
Debates in Standard-Setting and Antitrust through a Historical
Lens, 80 Antitrust L.J. 39 (2015) ...........................................................7, 8, 9, 21
Jorge L. Contreras, Much Ado about Hold-Up, 2019 U. of Ill. L. Rev.
875 (2019) ....................................................................................................17, 19
Thomas F. Cotter et al., Reasonable Royalties, in Patent Remedies and
Complex Products: Toward a Global Consensus 36 (C. Bradford
Biddle et al. eds., 2019) .....................................................................................17
IPLytics, Who is leading the 5G patent race? A patent landscape
analysis on declared SEPs and standards contributions, Intell.
Asset Mgmt. (July 2019), https://www.iam-media.com/who-lead-
ing-5g-patent-race-0...........................................................................................31
iv
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES (contd)

Page(s)
Other Authorities (contd)
Matthew Noble et al., Determining which companies are leading the
5G race, Intellectual Asset Mgmt., July/Aug. 2019 ..........................................32
Martin Sauter, From GSM to LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G: An
Introduction to Mobile Networks and Mobile Broadband (3d ed.
2017) ..................................................................................................................13
Tim Wu, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age
(2018) .................................................................................................................21
v
IDENTITY AND INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE
Amicus Curiae Jorge L. Contreras, a Presidential Scholar and Professor of
Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, is an internationally-
recognized expert on the legal aspects of technical standardization, including
intellectual property and antitrust issues. He has edited five books and published
more than fifty law review articles and book chapters on these topics and has won
numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, including the IEEE Standards
Association’s 2018 Standards Education Award and first prize in the Standards
Engineering Society (SES) 2011 and 2015 paper competitions.
Professor Contreras is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia
and has represented a number of standards development organizations (SDOs) and
companies involved in standardization. Among these, he served for twenty years as
the principal legal counsel for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the
primary SDO responsible for standards relating to the Internet. He has also
authored or co-authored numerous research studies on standards and
standardization, including for the National Academies of Science, the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the European Commission.
He holds a B.S.E.E. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Rice
University and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. His J.D. from Harvard Law School was also conferred cum laude.
1
Professor Contreras has no personal interest in the outcome of this case but
has a professional interest in seeing that this case, which has provoked heavy
lobbying and controversy, is decided in accordance with longstanding and well-
settled principles of law and with a full understanding of the historical context of
industry standard-setting.
RELEVANCE OF PROFESSOR CONTRERAS’S AMICUS BRIEF
This brief is filed on behalf of Professor Contreras and not on behalf of his
academic institution. Professor Contreras does not represent any of the parties and
has no vested interest in the outcome of this litigation. He writes in support of the
FTC and affirmance of the district court’s decision. As noted below, Professor
Contreras takes issue with arguments raised by Qualcomm, the Department of
Justice (“DOJ”), the Department of Defense (“DOD”), and the Department of
Energy (“DOE”). In Professor Contreras’ view, the arguments raised by Qualcomm
and these federal agencies mischaracterize the import of the district court’s ruling
and the applicable legal standards.
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP AND CONSENT
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29(a)(4)(E), amicus curiae
Jorge L. Contreras certifies that no party or party’s counsel authored this brief in
whole or in part, no party or party’s counsel contributed money that was intended
to fund preparing or submitting this brief, and no person or entity—other than
2
amicus curiae or his counsel—authored the brief or made a monetary contribution
to the preparation or submission of this brief.
Appellant Qualcomm Incorporated (“Qualcomm” or “Appellant”) and
Appellee Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Appellee”) have consented to the
filing of Professor Contreras’s amicus brief. On November 19, 2019 Tom
Goldstein, counsel for Qualcomm, stated that Qualcomm consents to Professor
Contreras’s participation as amicus. Counsel also contacted Michele Arington,
counsel for the FTC. On November 20, 2019, Ms. Arington stated that the FTC
consents to Professor Contreras’s amicus filing.
INTRODUCTION
Technical interoperability standards connect billions of devices around the
world in a manner that is largely invisible to the consumer. The effectiveness and
global reach of such standards derives in large part from the fact that they are
developed collaboratively within international standards development
organizations (SDOs) that are open to all participants and that make the resulting
standards publicly accessible.
3
Standards are often covered by patents held by the firms that participated in
their development. 1 In order to encourage the broad adoption of standards and to
prevent patent owners from “blocking implementation of a given standard,”
ER252, many SDOs require their participants to license any patents that are
essential to the implementation of the SDO’s standards (known as standards-
essential patents or SEPs) to anyone wishing to incorporate the standard into a
product. U.S. Dept. Justice & Fed. Trade Comm’n, Antitrust Enforcement and
Intellectual Property Rights: Promoting Innovation and Competition 45-48 (2007).
Some SDOs require that those licenses be granted on a royalty-free basis (e.g., the
SDOs responsible for Bluetooth, USB and most Internet standards), but other
SDOs (e.g., the SDOs responsible for Wi-Fi and wireless telecommunications
standards) permit patent holders to charge product manufacturers a royalty that is
“reasonable and nondiscriminatory” (RAND) or “fair, reasonable and
nondiscriminatory” (FRAND). 2 Justus Baron & Daniel F. Spulber, Technology
Standards and Standard Setting Organizations: Introduction to the Searle Center
Database, 27 J. Econ. & Mgmt. Strategy 462, 479, tbl. 4 (2018).
1
See, e.g., Justus Baron & Tim Pohlmann, Mapping Standards to Patents Using
Declarations Standard-Essential Patents, 27 J. Econ. & Mgmt. Strategy 504, 521,
tbl. 7 (2018) (the 4G LTE standard is covered by 45,279 patents; the 3G UMTS
standard is covered by 39,748 patents).
2
Courts have generally treated the terms RAND and FRAND as synonymous. For
consistency with the briefing and opinions in this case, this brief uses the term
FRAND.
4
As described by the district court, Qualcomm participated in the
development of 3G and 4G wireless telecommunication standards under the
auspices of two SDOs, the Telecommunications Industry Association (“TIA”) and
the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (“ATIS”). ER253. Each of
these SDOs had adopted intellectual property rights policies (IPR Policies) that
required their participants to grant licenses of SEPs to implementers of their
standards on FRAND terms. Yet, over the course of several years, Qualcomm
refused to license its SEPs to numerous actual and potential modem chip rivals
including MediaTek, Project Dragonfly (a joint venture of NTT DoCoMo,
Samsung and several Japanese manufacturers), Samsung, VIA Telecom, Intel,
HiSilicon (a subsidiary of Huawei), Broadcom, Texas Instruments, and LGE.
ER1280-90. The district court also found that when Qualcomm did license its SEPs
to smartphone vendors, its royalty rates were “unreasonably high.” ER1211.
Accordingly, the district court found that Qualcomm violated its FRAND
commitments to ATIS and TIA, as well as Sections 1 , and Section 5 of the FTC
Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1, 2 , and Section 5
of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a). ER1381-82. As a remedy, the district court
entered an injunction that, inter alia, required Qualcomm to license its SEPs on
FRAND terms to rival chip makers, and to renegotiate its existing SEP licenses to
reflect reasonable royalty rates. ER1391, ER1393-95. Qualcomm now appeals.
5
This brief seeks to draw to the Court’s attention historical, practical and
policy matters pertaining to technical standardization that bear on the arguments
made on appeal by Qualcomm and its federal agency amici curiae. In particular,
this brief argues that: (1) the district court was correct to conclude that Qualcomm
is required to license its SEPs to all applicants on FRAND terms, (2) the
“reasonable” royalty level required by Qualcomm’s commitments to the relevant
SDOs should not be measured by Qualcomm’s own royalties charged to others,
and (3) enforcement of the district court’s injunction against Qualcomm will not
threaten U.S. national security, and the arguments made to that effect
mischaracterize or misunderstand the nature of both patent law and standards.
Qualcomm has undeniably played a significant role in the development of
wireless telecommunications technology. However, the antitrust laws must be
enforced rigorously and even-handedly to eliminate anticompetitive conduct. An
enterprise that has engaged in anticompetitive conduct should not be excused
simply because it contributes to the national economy or to national infrastructure
or defense. Giving Qualcomm special treatment in this case would open the door to
such arguments in practically every antitrust case involving major industrial or
technology players. And, as such, the force of the antitrust laws would be severely
weakened to the detriment of American competition and consumers. Accordingly,
this brief urges the Court to affirm the decision and order of the district court.
6
ARGUMENT
I. THE DISTRICT COURT CORRECTLY CONCLUDED THAT

QUALCOMM WAS REQUIRED TO LICENSE ITS SEPS TO ALL
APPLICANTS
The district court found that Qualcomm was required to license its SEPs on
FRAND terms to rival modem chip suppliers pursuant to the IPR Policies of ATIS
and TIA, ER1395, and that Qualcomm’s refusal to grant such licenses was
evidence that it violated the antitrust laws. Id. In its Opening Brief, Qualcomm
challenges both of these conclusions, arguing that, at a minimum, there is a
material question of fact as to the meaning of the ATIS and TIA policies which
precludes summary judgment. This section draws the Court’s attention to historical
and other factors supporting the district court’s interpretation of the ATIS and TIA
Policies, which require Qualcomm to license its SEPs to “all applicants,” including
rival modem chip suppliers.
A. FRAND Commitments Have Their Origins in Remedial Patent

Access Requirements
Commitments to license patents on FRAND terms first appeared during
World War II in remedial orders intended to address anticompetitive arrangements
involving patents. Jorge L. Contreras, A Brief History of FRAND: Analyzing
Current Debates in Standard-Setting and Antitrust through a Historical Lens, 80
7
Antitrust L.J. 39, 49-51 (2015).3 In more than one hundred of these orders entered
from the 1940s through the 1970s, the patent holder was required to grant licenses
(on a paid or a royalty-free basis) to “all applicants.” Id. at 41, 74. The purpose of
this requirement was to remove barriers that the patent holder had improperly
imposed on competition, thereby making the patented technology available to all
who wished to use it. See id. at 74. Thus, in Hartford-Empire Co. v. United States,
323 U.S. 386, modified by 324 U.S. 570 (1945), the Supreme Court affirmed the
lower court’s order that each defendant patent holder grant to any applicant a
license to make, have made, use and/or sell any patented machine at “a reasonable
royalty.” 323 U.S. at 413.
B. SDO-Based FRAND Commitments are Widely Understood to be

Universal Access Requirements
Like their historical antecedents, voluntary SDO-based FRAND
commitments are mechanisms for ensuring broad access to patented technologies.
In the early twentieth century, there was a general discomfort with including
patented technologies in industry standards. The American Standards Association
(ASA) adopted its first policy relating to patents in 1932, stating that “as a general
3
Unlike today’s FRAND commitments, which are made voluntarily by SEP
holders, these early FRAND commitments were largely imposed on patent holders
as remedies for antitrust law violations. Nevertheless, it is informative to consider
these early remedial FRAND orders, as the language of the FRAND commitments
themselves is remarkably similar to today’s SDO-based FRAND commitments and
both serve a market-opening function.
8
proposition patented designs or methods should not be incorporated in standards,”
unless the patentee was “willing to grant such rights as will avoid monopolistic
tendencies.” Contreras, FRAND History, supra at 43, n.17.
By 1959, ASA updated its policy to provide that “[s]tandards should not
include items whose production is covered by patents unless the patent holder
agrees to and does make available to any interested and qualified party a license on
reasonable terms….” Id. at 43 (emphasis added). And by 1969 the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI), the successor to ASA, provided that if a
patent covers any portion of a proposed American National Standard, the relevant
SDO must obtain an assurance from the patent holder that a license will be made
available to applicants under reasonable terms and conditions “that are
demonstrably free of any unfair discrimination.” Id. at 44, n. 26. Through all of
these stages of development, it is clear that the FRAND commitment is intended to
ensure broad access to patented technologies included in industry standards.
When considering the FRAND commitment imposed by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), this Court previously reasoned that the SEP
holder promised to “grant a license to an unrestricted number of applicants on a
worldwide, non-discriminatory basis,” and that such language “admits of no
limitations as to who or how many applicants could receive a license.” Microsoft
Corp. v. Motorola, Inc., 696 F.3d 872, 884 (9th Cir. 2012) [hereinafter Microsoft
9
II]. Three years later, this Court reiterated this principle, holding that under the ITU
Policy, a “SEP holder cannot refuse a license to a manufacturer who commits to
paying the [F]RAND rate.” Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola Inc., 795 F.3d 1024, 1031
(9th Cir. 2015) [Microsoft III]. Thus, the access enabling function of FRAND
commitments has been widely recognized, including by this Court.
C. The Unambiguous Language of the ATIS and TIA Policies

Requires Participants to License SEPs to All Applicants
The language of the ATIS and TIA IPR Policies to which Qualcomm agreed
to abide clearly follows the historical treatment of FRAND commitments as access
requirements. The TIA IPR Policy states that “[a] license under any Essential
Patent(s), the license rights which are held by the undersigned Patent Holder, will
be made available to all applicants under terms and conditions that are reasonable
and non-discriminatory.” ER252 (emphasis added). And the ATIS Policy simply
mirrors the ANSI policy discussed above, requiring that “applicants”, without
limitation, have access to licenses from SEP holders. ER253. As a result, the TIA
and ATIS policies must be understood as requiring SEP holders to grant licenses on
FRAND terms to all applicants. As such, Qualcomm’s refusal to license its SEPs to
modem chip suppliers violates these policies.4
4
As pointed out by the District Court, Qualcomm itself has viewed SDO FRAND
commitments as requiring licensing to all applicants in contexts outside the present
litigation. ER1291-94.
10
D. Qualcomm Cannot Comply with its FRAND Commitments by

Unilaterally Refraining from Asserting its SEPs against
Applicants for Licenses
Qualcomm argues in its Opening Brief that it cannot be deemed to have
violated its FRAND commitments because “it does not assert its SEPs against
modem chipmakers.” Opening Brief for Appellant Qualcomm at 146, FTC v.
Qualcomm Inc., No. 19-16122 (9th Cir., Aug. 23, 2019), ECF No. 80. In other
words, because Qualcomm does not enforce its SEPs against chip makers, it should
be deemed to have complied with its obligation to grant them a license to its
patented technology. Or, in other words, by licensing its SEPs to end product
(smartphone) manufacturers, Qualcomm effectively gives the suppliers of the chips
included in those end products access to its SEPs. Qualcomm Opening Br. at 44-45
(“because Qualcomm enforces its SEPs at the OEM level, its chip rivals have
access to Qualcomm’s standardized technology”).
But as Qualcomm points out elsewhere, there is a clear legal difference
between granting a license to an applicant, and simply ignoring that applicant’s
request for a license. Namely, the recipient of a license has a legal immunity from
suit, whereas the ignored applicant continues to infringe Qualcomm’s patents and
runs a continual risk that Qualcomm might – as it has done in the past5 – sue for
5
For example, Qualcomm filed various actions against its then-rival Broadcom in
the mid-2000s, including claims for infringement based on SEPs relating to
11
infringement. That is, with no license from Qualcomm, the suppliers of chips that
embody Qualcomm’s patented technology remain vulnerable to suit, subject only
to Qualcomm’s unilateral discretion not to sue them. This places chip suppliers in a
significantly compromised position and, as the district court noted, “has promoted
rivals’ exit from the market, prevented rivals’ entry, and delayed or hampered the
entry and success of other rivals.” ER1280. It is simply not the case that
Qualcomm’s unilateral decision not to assert patents against an applicant is
equivalent to granting that applicant a license.
E. Modem Chip Suppliers “Implement” Wireless

Telecommunications Standards and are Thus Entitled to Receive
FRAND Licenses from Qualcomm
Qualcomm further argues that, even if the ATIS and TIA policies require
Qualcomm to grant SEP licenses to all applicants, that requirement is limited to
applicants that “implement” or “practice” the relevant standards. Qualcomm
Opening Br. at 133. Modem chip suppliers, Qualcomm argues, cannot implement
or practice standards for wireless telecommunications: “only a complete cellular
device (such as a phone or tablet) or cellular infrastructure (such as a base station)
can implement or practice such standards.” Id. As a result, Qualcomm argues that it
3GPP’s cellular GSM standard, see First Amended Complaint, Qualcomm Inc. v.
Broadcom Corp., No. 05-cv-1392 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 9, 2006), ECF No. 43, and to the
ITU’s H.264 standard; and Complaint, Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., No.
3:05-cv-1958 (S.D. Cal. Oct. 14, 2005), ECF No. 1.
12
has no obligation to grant SEP licenses to rival chip suppliers.
But in today’s world of miniaturized, plug-and-play components, the
technical protocols that power interoperability standards are, by and large,
embodied in chips. A smartphone manufacturer must purchase chips for all of the
major interfaces in a phone – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, camera, audio, and memory,
as well as wireless telecommunications. See Martin Sauter, From GSM to LTE-
Advanced Pro and 5G: An Introduction to Mobile Networks and Mobile
Broadband 61 (3d ed. 2017). While the chips themselves do not enable all of the
functionality specified by the standard (e.g., one does not actually speak into a
modem chip to make a phone call), these highly complex chips do embody the
principal technical features of the standard. 6
The Supreme Court has long held that the sale of an article that partially
embodies a patent is sufficient to exhaust the patent if the “only and intended use”
of the article is for it to be used in a manner that infringes the patent. United States
v. Univis Lens Co., 316 U. S. 241, 250-51 (1942) (sale of lens blanks exhausted
patents in finished lenses); Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc., 553 U.S.
617, 628 (2008) (patent is exhausted “when the item sufficiently embodies the
6
Moreover, it is not clear that a smartphone implements the entirety of the relevant
standards either, as Qualcomm seems to argue, given that some functionality
described in those standards is implemented in base stations and other central
facilities.
13
patent—even if it does not completely practice the patent—such that its only and
intended use is to be finished under the terms of the patent.”). Thus, in Quanta, the
Court held that LG’s licensing of a patent to Intel for purposes of making a
computer chip exhausted LG’s patent covering the chip’s operation in a computer,
even though Intel did not manufacture or sell routine computer components such as
memory and buses along with the chips. Quanta, 553 U.S. at 630-34. As observed
by the Court, “[e]verything inventive about each patent” was embodied in the chip,
and as such LG’s initial license to Intel exhausted the patent. Id. at 633.
The situation in this case is analogous to the one in Quanta. Qualcomm’s
SEPs cover key aspects of 3G/4G wireless telecommunications standards. Those
standards are embodied in modem chips manufactured by Qualcomm. In many
cases, these chips embody “everything inventive about each patent” (i.e., the
protocols and technology necessary to connect to and communicate via a wireless
cellular network). While the smartphone manufacturer that buys these chips
connects them to routine components such as a power supply and buses, the
addition of these elements would not serve to insulate the patents covering the
chips from exhaustion. Likewise, the attachment of these routine components to a
14
modem chip should not be deemed necessary to “implement” or “practice” the
wireless telecommunications standard embodied in the chip.7
As such, Qualcomm should not be excused from its commitment to license
its SEPs to modem chip suppliers simply because they do not provide all of the
standard elements of a smartphone. Just as the Univis lens blanks embodied the
patented technology in finished lenses, and Intel’s computer chips embodied the
patented technology in a computer system, the relevant TIA and ATIS wireless
telecommunications standards are embodied in Qualcomm’s modem chips.
II. QUALCOMM’S DESIRE TO USE ITS OWN ROYALTY RATES TO

DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF A “REASONABLE” ROYALTY IS
AN EXERCISE IN CIRCULAR REASONING
The district court found that Qualcomm’s royalty rates for SEPs were
“unreasonably high,” putting it in breach of its FRAND commitments and
constituting evidence that it violated the Sherman Act. ER1323. In its Opening
Brief, Qualcomm argues that the district court erred by failing to assess the
reasonableness of Qualcomm’s royalty rates using the “best measure” for a
reasonable royalty: “Qualcomm’s previously established royalty for the same
portfolio.” Qualcomm Opening Br. at 86. That is, though the district court found
that Qualcomm had monopoly power in the modem chip market beginning in
7
Qualcomm acknowledges that its patents would likely be exhausted if it granted
licenses to chip makers. Qualcomm Opening Br. at 45.
15
2006, Qualcomm’s royalty rate for its patent portfolio remained relatively constant
both before and after that date, “demonstrating that those royalties were not the
result of Qualcomm supposedly leveraging its monopoly power in the relevant chip
markets.” Id. at 86-87. Qualcomm then cites a line of patent damages cases holding
that an “established royalty” is “the best measure” of value in a reasonable royalty
calculation. Id. at 86 (citing, inter alia, Faulkner v. Gibbs, 199 F.2d 635, 638 (9th
Cir. 1952) and Georgia-Pacific v. United States Plywood Corp., 318 F. Supp. 1116,
1120 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)). In effect, Qualcomm argues that its royalty during the
period of monopolization should be compared with its royalty prior to
monopolization and, because they are similar, its royalty during the period of
monopolization should be deemed “reasonable.”
Even if one accepts Qualcomm’s premise that a damages-based “reasonable
royalty” analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 284 (2012) is appropriate to determine whether
a SEP royalty satisfies the patent holder’s FRAND commitment, using the patent
holder’s own prior royalties as a benchmark is problematic. As explained by Cotter
et al., the use of prior licenses as “comparables” when determining a reasonable
royalty can result in a significant “circularity” problem. That is, “if the prior
licenses being used as comparables were negotiated in circumstances where the
16
licensee was subject to holdup 8 … the comparable will reflect holdup … value, not
just the value of the patented technology.” Thomas F. Cotter et al., Reasonable
Royalties, in Patent Remedies and Complex Products: Toward a Global Consensus
36 (C. Bradford Biddle et al. eds., 2019).
This issue was recognized by the Supreme Court as early as 1945. In
Hartford-Empire, the Supreme Court reviewed a remedial order requiring the
defendant patent holders to license their patents to all applicants at “standard
royalties.” The Court held that the term “standard royalties” should be changed to
“uniform reasonable royalties” in order to “avoid any misunderstanding” that the
patent holders’ “present royalties are reasonable.” 324 U.S. at 574.
In this case, the district court found that Qualcomm’s royalties were
“unreasonably high” and that Qualcomm maintained these unreasonable royalty
levels despite changes to Qualcomm’s patent portfolio and the underlying
standards. ER1323-59. 9 While the FTC’s antitrust case against Qualcomm focused
8
The term holdup is used frequently in cases involving technical standards. See,
e.g., Microsoft III, 795 F.3d at 1031 (“The tactic of withholding a license unless
and until a manufacturer agrees to pay an unduly high royalty rate for an SEP is
referred to as ‘hold-up.’”); Ericsson, Inc. v. D-Link Sys. Inc., 773 F.3d 1201, 1209
(Fed. Cir. 2014) (holdup occurs “when the holder of a SEP demands excessive
royalties after companies are locked into using a standard.”). See generally, Jorge
L. Contreras, Much Ado about Hold-Up, 2019 U. of Ill. L. Rev. 875 (2019).
9
The district court did not calculate the precise FRAND royalty that Qualcomm
should have charged to any given implementer of the 3G/4G standards. For
purposes of the district court’s antitrust analysis, it was sufficient to determine that
Qualcomm’s royalties, based on the evidence, were “unreasonably high.”
17
on the time period beginning in 2006, there is nothing in the record to indicate that
Qualcomm’s pre-2006 royalties were reasonable. Moreover, the district court notes
that Qualcomm’s share of the SEPs embodied in relevant standards has steadily
declined over time, that its modem chips no longer drive the value of cellular
handsets, and that its royalty rates remain higher than those of any other SEP
holder. ER1323. These facts alone tend to refute the use of Qualcomm’s pre-2006
royalty rates when assessing the reasonableness of its post-2006 royalty rates.
More importantly, Qualcomm seems to argue that the FTC’s failure to assert
that Qualcomm’s pre-2006 conduct violated the antitrust laws implies that
Qualcomm’s pre-2006 royalties were reasonable. Yet there need not be an antitrust
law violation in order for a royalty to exceed the reasonable level mandated by the
patent holder’s FRAND commitment. While the violation of antitrust law is
certainly an indication that a patent holder is not charging a reasonable royalty as
required by its FRAND commitment, overcharges can and do occur absent any
violation of antitrust law. In fact, in prior cases in which FRAND royalty rates have
been assessed by U.S. courts, no antitrust violation was found notwithstanding
massive royalty overcharges. See, e.g., Microsoft III; In re Innovatio IP Ventures,
LLC Patent Litigation, No. 11 C 9308, 2013 WL 5593609 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 3,
18
2013). 10
Accordingly, Qualcomm’s argument that its challenged royalty rates be
measured for reasonableness against its pre-2006 royalty rates falls into the
circularity flaw identified by Cotter et al., as there is no evidence demonstrating
that those pre-2006 royalties were not themselves unreasonable at the time they
were imposed.
III. QUALCOMM’S ARGUMENT THAT THE DISTRICT COURT’S

REMEDIAL ORDER COULD THREATEN U.S. NATIONAL
SECURITY MISCHARACTERIZES BOTH PATENT LAW AND
STANDARDS IN THE MARKET
Qualcomm argues that the remedial order imposed by the district court could
threaten national security. Qualcomm Opening Br. at 123. In particular, Qualcomm
raises concerns regarding the district court’s injunction requiring that Qualcomm
license rival modem chip suppliers, and that Qualcomm negotiate or renegotiate its
licenses with licensed device manufacturers on terms that are reasonable. Such
remedies, Qualcomm argues, could reduce Qualcomm’s ability to invest in the
development of 5G technologies that are critical to U.S. infrastructure and national
security. Id. at 123-25.
10
In Microsoft III, the SEP holder’s royalty demand was approximately 2,000
times higher than the FRAND rate determined by the court. See Contreras, Hold-
Up, supra, at 889. In Innovatio, the royalty demand was in some cases more than
300 times higher than the court-determined FRAND rate. Id.
19
The U.S. Department of Justice, in an amicus brief filed in this case, echoes
these concerns, arguing that “diminishment of Qualcomm’s competitiveness in 5G
innovation and standard-setting could harm U.S. national security.” Brief for
Department of Justice as Amicus Curiae Supporting Appellant at 32, FTC v.
Qualcomm Inc., No. 19-16122 (9th Cir. Aug. 30, 2019), ECF No. 86. The U.S.
Departments of Defense and Energy filed statements in an earlier stay proceeding
in this Court, making similar arguments. ER319 ⁋ 3; ER315-16 ⁋ 8-9. In its amicus
brief before this Court, the DOJ asks the Court to take judicial notice of the DOD
and DOE positions. DOJ Amicus Br. at 3, n. 1.
Yet neither Qualcomm nor the federal agencies supporting it have explained
precisely how the district court’s injunction would threaten national security.
Indeed, one court has held exactly the opposite. 11 This section explains how these
concerns are misplaced and reflect a misunderstanding of the role and function of
patents and standards in the market.
A. Curtailing a Monopolist’s Illegal Practices Should Never Be

Viewed as Detrimental to the Public Interest
Throughout the history of the antitrust laws, serious remedies have been
11
Initial Determination at *108, In re Certain Mobile Elec. Devices and Radio
Frequency and Processing Components Thereof, USITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1065,
2018 WL 6011829 (Sept. 28, 2018) (finding “a real and palpable likelihood the
National Security interests will be jeopardized” by Qualcomm’s exclusionary
conduct), rev’d and modified on other grounds, Commission Opinion, 2019 WL
2635510 (Apr. 5, 2019).
20
levied against corporate enterprises that have engaged in anticompetitive conduct,
even when those enterprises have been at the heart of industries critical to the
national infrastructure security. Prominent historical examples have included major
antitrust enforcement actions and remedies against large players in the domestic
steel, aluminum, oil, lighting, chemical and aviation industries – all of which were,
and continue to be, critical to the national interest. See generally Tim Wu, The
Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (2018); Contreras, FRAND
History, supra, at 49-71. More recently, significant structural remedies have been
levied against AT&T and Microsoft, major architects of the U.S. technology
infrastructure. Wu, supra, at 93-100; Contreras, FRAND History, supra, at 64-66.
In none of these cases did national security concerns soften the remedial measures
imposed to address these companies’ anticompetitive conduct.
It is undisputed that Qualcomm has made significant contributions to
wireless telecommunications technology. But can it truly be said that Qualcomm is
more vital to the national interest today than U.S. Steel, Alcoa, Standard Oil,
General Electric, AT&T or Microsoft were in their day? Such an assertion would
be absurd, no matter how integral Qualcomm may claim to be to the development
of 5G and other mobile wireless technologies.
21
B. Firms That Do Not Emulate Qualcomm’s Anticompetitive

Business Practices Are Still Profitable and Able to Make Large
Investments in R&D and Standardization
It is possible that Qualcomm will become less profitable once it is required
to comply with the district court’s injunction barring that conduct found by the
court to be anticompetitive. Yet this is not to say that Qualcomm will not continue
to be a profitable firm. In fact, there are many firms in the semiconductor industry
that have not engaged in the kinds of anticompetitive business practices that
Qualcomm has been found to violate, but which are profitable nonetheless.12
Moreover, these firms also engage in significant R&D activity, 13 including
12
For example, based on publicly-reported 2018 financial information, Intel
achieved a profit margin of approximately 62% on net revenue of $70.8 billion,
and Broadcom achieved a profit margin of approximately 52% on net revenue of
$20.8 billion. 2018 Intel Corporation Form 10-K, at 20-21,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/50863/000005086319000007/a12292018
q4-10kdocument.htm; 2018 Broadcom Inc. Form 10-K, at 33, 43,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1730168/000173016818000084/avgo-
11042018x10k.htm. Qualcomm, by comparison, reported a profit margin of 55%
on revenue of $22.7 billion. 2018 QUALCOMM Incorporated Form 10-K, at 41,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/804328/000172894918000095/qcom10-
k2018.htm.
13
In 2018, Intel invested $13.5 billion in R&D (19% of revenue) and Broadcom
invested $3.7 billion in R&D (18% of revenue). 2018 Intel Corporation Form 10-
K, at 22;2018 Broadcom Inc. Form 10-K, at 43. Qualcomm, by comparison,
invested $5.6 billion in R&D (25% of revenue). 2018 QUALCOMM Incorporated
Form 10-K, at 53.
22
participation in, and leadership of, numerous standards development
organizations. 14
Accordingly, while Qualcomm may be less profitable after complying with
the district court’s injunction, it may still be a profitable firm, and can, as dictated
by competitive pressures in the semiconductor industry, continue to make
significant investments in R&D. Thus, the assertion that enforcement of the district
court’s injunction will lead to a drastic reduction in, or elimination of, Qualcomm’s
R&D expenditures, appears to be significantly overstated. Qualcomm will still
have every incentive to build next generation chips for its customers, and to invest
in future products and technologies.
C. Qualcomm’s Compliance with the District Court’s Injunction

Will not Impair its Ability to Supply Products to U.S.
Government Agencies
Both the DOD and DOE express concern that the district court’s injunction
will impair or eliminate Qualcomm’s ability to supply 5G mobile chips for use in
critical governmental applications such as secure wireless sensors for nuclear
control and emergency communications systems, ER316-17 ¶ 10, and military
communications channels, ER321-22 ⁋ 9. The DOE further explains that “[i]f
14
By way of example, through 2013, Intel was a member of 100 different SDOs
(more than any company other than IBM). Baron & Spulber, supra, at 485, tbl. 5.
Broadcom was a member of 52 SDOs, and Qualcomm was a member of 53 SDOs.
Id.
23
Qualcomm is not able to compete and provide chipsets for those [applications] …
foreign entities that may not support supply chain secure solutions may make
irreversible gains in the chipset market and 5G standards.” ER316 ¶ 9.
Thus, these agencies equate Qualcomm’s reduced profits flowing from the
district court’s injunction with an inability to supply components for critical
national infrastructure and security applications. These concerns are misplaced,
however, as they are based on an inaccurate understanding of the nature of
technical standardization and patents covering standardized technologies.
1. The District Court’s Injunction Will Not Eliminate

Modem Chips to Government Agencies
The district court’s injunction requires Qualcomm, among other things, to
grant SEP licenses to rival modem chip suppliers (a practice that Qualcomm
engaged in until it realized that licensing only to device manufacturers was
“humongously more lucrative,” ER1395), and to renegotiate existing license
agreements so that royalty levels are not “unreasonably high.” ER1391. As an
initial matter, these remedial measures, while serious, are not likely to put an end to
Qualcomm’s ability to design, manufacture and sell chips to governmental and
non-governmental customers.
There are many suppliers of critical technologies and components to
government agencies that do not engage in the kind of anticompetitive practices of
24
which Qualcomm has been accused. And the failure of these suppliers (i.e.,
virtually every supplier other than Qualcomm) to engage in such practices does not
appear to have hampered their ability to supply the DOE, DOD and other agencies
with a wide range of secure and reliable technology products. Thus, it is unclear
why the DOD and DOE feel that the cessation of such anticompetitive practices by
Qualcomm will materially affect its ongoing ability to supply them with modem
chips. Certainly, no evidence to that effect has been adduced in this case.
2. Eliminating the Barriers to Market Entry Previously

Imposed by Qualcomm Will Likely Open the Chip Market
to More U.S. Competitors
The DOE expresses concern that, if the district court’s injunction is
enforced, “the unique role played by Qualcomm in the U.S. telecommunications
supply chain would not be filled by another U.S. entity.” ER316 ¶ 9. If
Qualcomm’s role in the U.S. telecommunications supply chain today is ‘unique’,
perhaps this is because, as found by the district court, Qualcomm has refused to
license to rival modem chip suppliers. ER1395. As the district court noted,
Qualcomm’s anticompetitive behavior “has promoted rivals’ exit from the market,
prevented rivals’ entry, and delayed or hampered the entry and success of other
rivals.” ER1280.The district court’s injunction requires Qualcomm to make its
patented technology available to rival chip makers on FRAND terms, enabling
those rivals to “enter modem chip markets without fear of an infringement action.”
25
ER1395. As such, enforcement of the district court’s injunction is likely to open
chip markets to competitors, thereby increasing the number of domestic suppliers
of modem chips to the government rather than reducing it.15
3. A Hostile Foreign Government Could Not Capture 5G

Standardization in a Manner That Would Hobble
Chips to Government Agencies
The DOD and DOE also express concern that Chinese companies,
particularly Huawei, will fill the void left by Qualcomm’s reduced participation in
5G standardization, and “an aggressive, eager China will set standards to
accommodate its own wishes.” ER323-24 ¶ 14-15. What’s more, the DOD fears
that “cyber espionage” may result from a more competitive Huawei, “as China’s
laws require companies to support the national security goals of China’s
intelligence community.” Id. ¶ 15.
Notwithstanding the fact that Huawei already leads 5G standardization by
some measures, see Table 1, suppose, for the sake of argument, that Qualcomm’s
compliance with the district court’s injunction were to give Huawei or another
foreign SEP holder a further advantage in the area of 5G standardization. If that
occurred, the foreign SEP holder would likely develop further technologies for
15
Initial Determination, supra note 10, at *108.
26
incorporation into 5G standards and acquire additional patents covering those
technologies.
But the virtue of international standards is that they are open and publicly
accessible, so that Qualcomm and other chip makers would have full access to the
information contained in them. Moreover, to the extent that the foreign SEP
holder’s patents covered portions of 5G standards, the foreign SEP holder would be
required to license those SEPs to all applicants, including Qualcomm, on FRAND
terms. Thus, Qualcomm, like every other modem chip supplier, would have access
to the foreign company’s patents on FRAND terms, as today it has access to
Huawei’s and many other foreign companies’ 3G and 4G SEPs. Thus, from the
standpoint of patent access, a more influential and competitive Huawei would not
diminish the ability of U.S. modem chip suppliers like Qualcomm to manufacture
and sell chips conforming to 5G standards.
Even if a foreign SEP holder were pressured by its government to violate its
FRAND commitments and refused to license rival chip suppliers (as Qualcomm
itself was found by the district court to have done), Qualcomm and other U.S. chip
suppliers could still manufacture and sell 5G chips in reliance on the foreign SEP
holder’s commitment to grant them FRAND licenses. The foreign SEP holder’s
only recourse would then be to sue those unlicensed chip makers for patent
infringement in the countries where they made or sold 5G chips. But the infringing
27
chip makers, including Qualcomm, would have an airtight defense: the foreign SEP
holder remains committed to grant them FRAND licenses under the asserted SEPs.
Thus, it is hard to find a basis for the fears expressed by the DOD and DOE
regarding the potential loss of a key supplier of components essential to national
security if Qualcomm is required to comply with the district court’s injunction.
4. The United States Government and its Contractors Have

the Right Under 28 U.S.C. § 1498 to Manufacture and Use
any Patented Invention Without the Consent of the Owner
for Governmental Purposes
Even if a foreign firm refused to grant a patent license to Qualcomm or other
U.S. government chip suppliers, the U.S. government could ensure the continued
supply of chips for governmental use under 28 U.S.C. § 1498. This important
statutory provision permits the U.S. government and its contractors to manufacture
and sell products covered by U.S. patents so long as they are used by or for the
federal government. The patent holder’s only recourse in such situations is to bring
an action in the United States Court of Federal Claims for the recovery of royalties.
28 U.S.C. § 1498(a).
Thus, no matter what action a hostile foreign nation or firm took with
respect to patents covering 5G technology (whether or not such patents are SEPs),
the U.S. government could authorize Qualcomm and other chip suppliers to
continue to manufacture and sell such chips to the government for the national
infrastructure and security applications that are of concern. As a result, there is no
28
reason, from a national security perspective, to excuse Qualcomm from complying
with the terms of the district court’s injunction.
5. Qualcomm’s Compliance with the District Court’s

Injunction Will Not Increase a Hostile Government’s
Ability to Incorporate Cyber Espionage or Other Malicious
Features into 5G Standards
The DOD worries that the increased influence of Chinese vendors such as
Huawei on 5G standardization (filling the void left by a less profitable Qualcomm)
would enable the Chinese government to insert malicious features such as “cyber
espionage” capabilities into 5G standards. ER323-24 ¶ 15. This fear is unfounded.
International SDOs typically adopt standards on the basis of consensus
among the members of the relevant technical committee or working group, and
then by the SDO as a whole. Justus Baron et al., Making the Rules: The
Governance of Standard Development Organizations and their Policies on
Intellectual Property Rights, JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 29655 at 107
(Nikolaus Thumm ed., Mar. 2019). In some cases, formal voting or balloting
occurs. Yet voting representation is not weighted based on the number of patents
held or technical contributions made by a firm. Typically, one member firm, or one
participating individual, gets one vote, though in some SDOs such as ISO, voting
is by country/national delegation. Id. at 93. Thus, due to the careful design of SDO
governance procedures, a single firm or country could not influence a standard to
29
include technical features that were objectionable to a significant number of other
SDO participants.
Accordingly, it would not be feasible for Huawei or other Chinese firms to
introduce malicious technologies into 5G standards unless a significant number of
other, non-Chinese firms supported the inclusion of such technology. 16
D. Qualcomm is Only One of Several Leading Firms Engaged in 5G

Technology and Standards Development
The DOD states, without substantiation, that Qualcomm is “currently the
leading United States based company in the development and standard setting for
5G technology.” ER319 ⁋ 3. It goes on to equate Qualcomm’s participation in 5G
standards development with U.S. leadership in this area, predicting that “[w]ithout
the voice of U.S. industry, other competitor nations could stifle standards that sup-
port innovation, competitiveness, and an open ecosystem – in favor of standards
which would support the parochial goals of a single state-owned company.”
ER322-23 ⁋ 12.
Likewise the DOE worries that requiring Qualcomm to comply with the
district court’s injunction might “allow[] foreign-aligned firms to advance and
16
This is not to say, of course, that foreign firms could not incorporate such
malicious technologies into 5G products. But products are a different matter than
standards. If the U.S. government is concerned with potential malicious code
contained within foreign-made products, then it may refrain from purchasing those
products, as it has done in the past.
30
drive the development and intellectual property underpinnings of international 5G
standards instead of the U.S.” ER316.
Notwithstanding conclusory statements such as these, Qualcomm is not the
global leader in 5G standards or technology development, nor does the U.S. lead in
this technology sector. According to one study, as of July 2019 the firms declaring
the most patents as essential to international 5G standards were the following:
Table 1 17
Ranking Firm Country 5G Declared
Patent Families
1 Huawei China 2,160
2 Nokia/Alcatel Finland/France 1,516
3 ZTE China 1,424
4 LG Korea 1,359
5 Samsung Korea 1,353
6 Ericsson Sweden 1,058
7 Qualcomm U.S.A. 921
8 Sharp Japan 660
9 Intel U.S.A. 618
Another analysis, which sought to weigh patent ownership based on the
essentiality of patents to 5G standards, produced the following rankings:
17
Adapted by the author from IPLytics, Who is leading the 5G patent race? A
patent landscape analysis on declared SEPs and standards contributions, Intell.
Asset Mgmt. at 6, tbl. 2 (July 2019), https://www.iam-media.com/who-leading-5g-
patent-race-0.
31
Table 2 18
Ranking Firm Country 5G Patent
Declarations
with essentiality
weighting
1 Ericsson Sweden 15.8%
2 Samsung Korea 14.1%
3 Qualcomm U.S.A. 12.6%
4 Nokia/Alcatel Finland/France 10.9%
4 Huawei China 10.9%
6 LG Korea 8.8%
7 ZTE China 8.6%
8 Intel U.S.A. 6.8%
9 Sharp Japan 5.4%
As both of these tables show, Qualcomm, while a significant participant in
5G technology development and standardization, is only one of many leading firms
engaged in this collaborative international activity. If the DOJ, DOD and DOE fear
non-U.S. dominance of 5G technology, then their fears have already been realized.
Only two U.S. firms (Qualcomm and Intel) appear in the top nine players in this
technology sector, as do two Chinese firms, two Korean firms, two European firms
and one Japanese firm.
Given the existing international character of 5G standards development, and
the fact that a large majority of patents and standards covering emerging 5G
technology are already in foreign hands, it is difficult to understand why DOJ,
18
Adapted by the author from Matthew Noble et al., Determining which companies
are leading the 5G race, Intellectual Asset Mgmt., July/Aug. 2019, at p. 36, fig. 1.
32
DOD and DOE believe that enjoining Qualcomm from pursuing anticompetitive
business practices will significantly weaken the U.S. position in this technology
area. The U.S. does not have a “dominant” position in 5G now, nor is the
preservation of Qualcomm’s current profitability level likely to give it one.
Thus, if there is a risk that a hostile foreign nation will seek to disadvantage
the U.S. through the exertion of control over 5G patents and standards, that risk
already exists today, and allowing Qualcomm to continue to engage in
anticompetitive activity is not likely to alleviate that risk in the future. But even
without the ability to charge monopoly rents, Qualcomm is likely to remain a
significant 5G contributor. And if it were to drop a place or two in the list of
contributors, such a decline would hardly have a significant effect on national
security.
In short, while DOD and DOE might prefer that the U.S. dominate 5G
technology and standard-setting, 5G standardization today is truly an international
activity dominated by no individual nation. Releasing Qualcomm from the district
court’s injunction is unlikely to change this reality. And, more importantly,
reducing the penalty for anticompetitive conduct solely to bolster a local
champion’s domestic market and profitability smacks of the sort of “parochial,”
protectionist behavior that the United States routinely, and justifiably, condemns
when it occurs abroad.
33
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court should affirm the district court’s
judgment and injunction.
Dated: November 26, 2019 Respectfully submitted,

KESSELMAN BRANTLY STOCKINGER LLP
By: /s/ David W. Kesselman

DAVID W. KESSELMAN
AMY T. BRANTLY
MONICA M. CASTILLO VAN PANHUYS
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae
Jorge L. Contreras
34
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on November 26, 2019, I electronically filed the
foregoing BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE PROFESSOR JORGE L.
CONTRERAS IN SUPPORT OF APPELLEE AND AFFIRMANCE with the
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Case: 19-16122, 11/26/2019, ID: 11514075, DktEntry: 145, Page 1 of 42

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

Appeal from the United States District Court

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE PROFESSOR JORGE L. CONTRERAS

Filed Unopposed by the Federal Trade Commission and Qualcomm

DAVID W. KESSELMAN, ESQ.

Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Prof. Jorge L. Contreras

TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont d)

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES (contd)

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES (contd)

IDENTITY AND INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE

Amicus Curiae Jorge L. Contreras, a Presidential Scholar and Professor of

Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, is an internationally-

recognized expert on the legal aspects of technical standardization, including

Engineering Society (SES) 2011 and 2015 paper competitions.

Professor Contreras is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia

and has represented a number of standards development organizations (SDOs) and

companies involved in standardization. Among these, he served for twenty years as

authored or co-authored numerous research studies on standards and

standardization, including for the National Academies of Science, the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the European Commission.

He holds a B.S.E.E. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Rice

University and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

lobbying and controversy, is decided in accordance with longstanding and well-

RELEVANCE OF PROFESSOR CONTRERAS’S AMICUS BRIEF

Contreras takes issue with arguments raised by Qualcomm, the Department of

Justice (“DOJ”), the Department of Defense (“DOD”), and the Department of

Energy (“DOE”). In Professor Contreras’ view, the arguments raised by Qualcomm

and the applicable legal standards.

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP AND CONSENT

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29(a)(4)(E), amicus curiae

to fund preparing or submitting this brief, and no person or entity—other than

amicus curiae or his counsel—authored the brief or made a monetary contribution

to the preparation or submission of this brief.

Appellant Qualcomm Incorporated (“Qualcomm” or “Appellant”) and

Appellee Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Appellee”) have consented to the

filing of Professor Contreras’s amicus brief. On November 19, 2019 Tom

Goldstein, counsel for Qualcomm, stated that Qualcomm consents to Professor

Contreras’s participation as amicus. Counsel also contacted Michele Arington,

consents to Professor Contreras’s amicus filing.

Technical interoperability standards connect billions of devices around the

developed collaboratively within international standards development

standards publicly accessible.

their development. 1 In order to encourage the broad adoption of standards and to

prevent patent owners from “blocking implementation of a given standard,”

essential to the implementation of the SDO’s standards (known as standards-

essential patents or SEPs) to anyone wishing to incorporate the standard into a

Intellectual Property Rights: Promoting Innovation and Competition 45-48 (2007).

standards) permit patent holders to charge product manufacturers a royalty that is

“reasonable and nondiscriminatory” (RAND) or “fair, reasonable and

nondiscriminatory” (FRAND). 2 Justus Baron & Daniel F. Spulber, Technology

Standards and Standard Setting Organizations: Introduction to the Searle Center

Database, 27 J. Econ. & Mgmt. Strategy 462, 479, tbl. 4 (2018).

As described by the district court, Qualcomm participated in the

development of 3G and 4G wireless telecommunication standards under the

auspices of two SDOs, the Telecommunications Industry Association (“TIA”) and

the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (“ATIS”). ER253. Each of

required their participants to grant licenses of SEPs to implementers of their

including MediaTek, Project Dragonfly (a joint venture of NTT DoCoMo,