Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to determine the antitrust implications of sales bans based on infringement of standard-essential patents. The FTC and Justice Department are also weighing in, in order to help determine whether patent holders should be forbidden from asking for the bans in the first place. Standard-essential patents are for inventions that a device needs to have in order to conform to an industry standard, like Bluetooth or MPEG. These kinds of patents, which differ from something like Apple’s patent on “slide-to-unlock,” are typically licensed on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms

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Senate Committee to debate ending sales bans stemming from essential patents

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