Intel Asks US Court To Revive Fortress Antitrust Case

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals weighed dueling arguments Tuesday in Intel’s bid to revive its antitrust lawsuit against SoftBank-owned Fortress.

The panel voiced some skepticism of Intel’s argument that Fortress and affiliated entities broke US antitrust law by stockpiling patents and using them to extort tech companies.

VLSI Technology, which is owned by investment funds that Fortress manages, won $2.2 billion from Intel in a patent case in Texas last year and has other lawsuits pending against the chipmaker.

Intel and Apple Inc sued Fortress in 2019 for alleged antitrust violations based on its patent activities. Apple withdrew from the case last year, and US District Judge Edward Chen dismissed the lawsuit months later.

Chen found that Intel had failed to show Fortress’ patent aggregation had anti-competitive effects on pricing.

US Circuit Judges Mary Schroeder, Johnnie Rawlinson and Daniel Bress on Tuesday grilled Intel attorney Seth Waxman of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr about his definition of “pricing,” which he said were the royalties that Fortress-related entities would demand to use the patented technology.

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