Intel, Apple Are Using Antitrust Suit As Intimidation Claims Fortress

SoftBank Group subsidiary Fortress Investment fired back at antitrust claims filed in San Francisco federal court by Apple and Intel, calling the lawsuit “an attempt to intimidate” Fortress affiliates out of enforcing their patent rights, reported Bloomberg Law.

“It is ironic that Apple and Intel, who have been accused for many years of violating the antitrust laws, charging supracompetitive prices, and using their patents to block competitors, have brought these claims,” Fortress stated in court papers filed Tuesday, February 4.

The antitrust suit accuses Fortress of anticompetitive stockpiling of patents in a bid to enforce them, and have asked the court to “remedy the harms that they had already suffered” from Fortress and unravel Fortress’s operations.

Intel contests the legality of Fortress’s massive patent aggregation business through a network of patent assertion entities (PAEs) in a bid to license them (usually in packages) to Intel and other high-tech companies. In particular, Intel claims that it had to license patents originally owned by NXP Semiconductors after the latter were acquired by Fortress. That lawsuit has since been withdrawn and replaced with the new lawsuit from Intel and Apple.

Full Content: CNBC

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