President of the Association for Competitive Technology, Jonathan Zuck, issued the following statement on the Intel-FTC settlement announced today. This agreement brings to a close the Commission’s case against Intel regarding alleged anti-competitive trade practices. As part of the settlement, Intel agreed to modify its rebate program and licensing agreements. [...]
The Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyright conducted another thorough review of requested exemptions to the DMCA and issued six new well-reasoned exemptions. ACT believes the exemptions issued demonstrate the flexibility of the DMCA to adequately protect copyright owners, provide incentives for new innovation, and enable consumers and [...]
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in Bilski v. Kappos, finding that Bilski’s patent was not valid, but reaffirming the patentability of methods and software.
As we’ve discussed before, the FTC recently decided to dust off its Section 5 authority to go after “unfair methods of competition” in lieu of using its tradition antitrust authority (Section 2) to pursue some of its tougher cases. This has many antitrust experts concerned, most notably, Bob Litan, former Clinton administration. Apparently, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is also concerned by the FTC’s use of Section 2.
Over the past few weeks an online debate has been brewing between antitrust scholars over the FTC case against Intel. The focus of the debate has been the FTC's decision to pursue most of its case using its Section 5 authority to prevent "unfair and deceptive" practices, rather than its Section 2 authority for combating anti-competitive behavior. The discussion began with a piece by Bob Litan, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department in the Clinton Administration, entitled "The FTC's Radical Application of Section 5." As the title suggests, Litan has some serious concerns about the FTC's case in general and its application of Section 5. It's a pretty compelling piece that I recommend to all you antitrust geeks, but if you're short on time/attention span I'll try to summarize.