Ninth Circuit Overturns District Court Judge Lucy Koh’s Decision That Qualcomm’s Licensing and Chip Sales Practices Are Antitrust Violations By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Trade Commission has a history of taking positions and aggressively pursuing them, despite getting reversed (sometimes continually) by Circuit Courts (see “Reverse Payments in Generic Drug Settlements”), although occasionally finding an ally in the Supreme Court (see “Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, Inc. (2013)”). Most recently, the FTC has waged a campaign against chipmakers involved in the cell phone industry, and their most spectacular victory was in convincing U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh…
