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19-12-16 Qualcomm Reply Brief
November 16, 2019 reply brief by Qualcomm in its Ninth Circuit appeal of the FTC's antitrust win in the Northern District of California
saveSave 19-12-16 Qualcomm Reply Brief For Later
19-11-12 Eric Stasik Presentation on Component Level Licensing
19-11-22 FTC Answering Brief to Qualcomm's Appeal
19-08-23 Qualcomm Opening Brief (9th Cir. - FTC Case)
19-11-29 AGA and AAM (automotive) acb.pdf
19-11-12 Dave Djavaherian Presentation
19-11-28 R Street Institute Acb
19-07-25 Qualcomm Reply ISO Motion to Stay Enforcement
19-11-29 MediaTek acb.pdf
19-07-30 Unopposed QCOM Motion to Extend Time
19-11-27 ACT acb
19-08-23 Ninth Circuit Order of Stay of Enforcement of FTC Remedies
FOSS Patents 19-11-12 Conference Program (Final)
19-11-27 Law & Econ Profs Acb
19-11-29 Continental and Denso Acb
19-11-29 AAI and Public Knowledge Acb
19-11-12 Joachim Henkel Patent Royalties in IoT
19-07-10 Order Granting Qualcomm's Motion for Expedited Appeal
19-11-12 Evelina Kurgonaite Presentation
19-07-25 MediaTek Amicus Brief ISO FTC Opposition
19-11-26 Jorge Contreras Acb
Case: 19-16122, 12/16/2019, ID: 11533748, DktEntry: 228, Page 1 of 80
No. 19-16122
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, A DELAWARE CORPORATION,
Defendant – Appellant.
Appeal from the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of California
The Honorable Lucy H. Koh (No. 5:17-cv-00220-LHK)
REPLY BRIEF FOR
APPELLANT QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
(REDACTED)
Gary A. Bornstein Thomas C. Goldstein
Antony L. Ryan Kevin K. Russell
Yonatan Even Eric F. Citron
M. Brent Byars GOLDSTEIN & RUSSELL, P.C.
CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP 7475 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 850
825 Eighth Avenue Bethesda, MD 20814
New York, NY 10019-7475 (202) 362-0636
Counsel for Appellant Qualcomm Incorporated
(additional counsel listed on inside cover)
Robert A. Van Nest Richard S. Taffet
Eugene M. Paige MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP
Cody S. Harris 101 Park Avenue
Justina Sessions New York, NY 10178-0060
KEKER, VAN NEST & PETERS LLP (212) 309-6000
San Francisco, CA 94111-1809 Willard K. Tom
(415) 391-5400 MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP
Michael W. McConnell Washington, DC 20004-2541
WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & (202) 739-3000
650 Page Mill Rd. Geoffrey T. Holtz
Palo Alto, CA 94304 MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP
(650) 849-3135 One Market, Spear Street Tower
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ....................................................................... v
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS FOR CITATIONS ................................... x
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1
ARGUMENT ............................................................................................... 7
I. THE FTC ADMITS THE DISTRICT COURT ERRED IN ITS
ANTITRUST DUTY-TO-DEAL HOLDING, AND THE FTC'S
ATTEMPT TO DEFEND THE JUDGMENT ON OTHER
GROUNDS IS WITHOUT MERIT. .................................................. 7
A. The Holding that Qualcomm Must Grant Its Chip
Rivals Exhaustive Licenses Must Be Reversed. ..................... 7
B. This Court Should Reverse the District Court's
Summary Judgment Ruling that SEP Owners Have
Contractually Committed to Two SDOs To License
Component Manufacturers. ................................................... 12
II. THE DISTRICT COURT'S "SURCHARGING" HOLDING
SHOULD BE REVERSED FOR THREE SEPARATE
REASONS. ....................................................................................... 15
A. The District Court Erred as a Matter of Law in Ruling
that Qualcomm's Royalty Rates Are Unreasonable. ............ 16
1. The District Court Erroneously Disregarded
Qualcomm's Established Royalties for the Same
Portfolio. ........................................................................ 18
2. The District Court Erroneously Relied on
Supposed Alternative Measures of Qualcomm's
Patent Portfolio. ............................................................ 21
B. The District Court Erred in Holding that Qualcomm's
Royalties Harm the Competitive Process. ............................ 25
1. The "Surcharge" Theory Does Not Describe a
Harm to the Competitive Process. ............................... 26
2. The FTC Failed To Prove that Qualcomm's
Practices Caused Substantial Anticompetitive
Effects. ........................................................................... 37
C. The District Court Improperly Failed To Account for
Legitimate Justifications for Qualcomm's Business
Practices. ................................................................................ 47
III. QUALCOMM'S DISCOUNTING AGREEMENTS WERE
NOT UNLAWFUL "EXCLUSIVE DEALING"
ARRANGEMENTS.......................................................................... 49
A. The District Court's Holding Concerning the Non-
Apple Agreements Must Be Reversed. .................................. 50
B. The Apple Agreements Were Per Se Legal Above-Cost
Discounts. ............................................................................... 51
C. The Apple Agreements Did Not Foreclose a Substantial
Share of the Relevant Market. .............................................. 54
IV. THE DISTRICT COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW
IN IMPOSING ITS INJUNCTION. ............................................... 57
A. In Imposing an Injunction, the District Court
Erroneously Deemed It Irrelevant Whether Qualcomm
Would Continue To Have Market Power. ............................. 58
B. The District Court Erred by Issuing an Injunction
Without Regard to Its Effect on the Public Interest. ........... 61
C. The District Court Erred in Imposing a Worldwide
Injunction. .............................................................................. 63
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 66
Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. United Airlines, Inc., 948 F.2d 536
(9th Cir. 1991) ...................................................................................... 31
Allied Orthopedic Appliances Inc. v. Tyco Health Care Grp.
LP, 592 F.3d 991 (9th Cir. 2010) ............................................. 50, 52, 55
Allied Tube & Conduit Corp. v. Indian Head, Inc.,
486 U.S. 492 (1980) .............................................................................. 10
Ambassador Hotel Co. v. Wei-Chuan Inv., 189 F.3d 1017
Apple Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., 757 F.3d 1286 (Fed. Cir. 2014) .................. 17
Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp.,
472 U.S. 585 (1985) ................................................................................ 8
Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485
(1984) .................................................................................................... 49
Brantley v. NBC Universal, Inc., 675 F.3d 1192
Broadcom Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., 501 F.3d 297
(3d Cir. 2007) ........................................................................................ 11
Brooke Grp. Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.,
Caldera, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 87 F. Supp. 2d 1244
(D. Utah 1999) .............................................................................. passim
Cascade Cabinet Co. v. W. Cabinet & Millwork, Inc., 710
F.2d 1366 (9th Cir. 1983) ..................................................................... 32
Cascade Health Solutions v. PeaceHealth, 515 F.3d 883
(9th Cir. 2008) ................................................................................ 52, 54
City of Anaheim v. S. Cal. Edison Co., 955 F.2d 1373
Commonwealth Scientific & Indus. Research Org. v. Cisco
Systems, Inc., 809 F.3d 1295 (Fed. Cir. 2015) .................................... 25
Concord Boat Corp. v. Brunswick Corp., 207 F.3d 1039
eBay v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388 (2006) ............................... 62
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A.,
FTC v. H.N. Singer, Inc., 668 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. 1982) .................. 61, 62
Image Tech. Services, Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 125 F.3d
1195 (9th Cir. 1997) ............................................................................. 49
Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int'l, Inc., 137 S. Ct. 1523
(2017) .............................................................................................. 47, 49
In re Elevator Antitrust Litig., 502 F.3d 47 (2d Cir. 2007) ....................... 8
In re Qualcomm Litig., 2018 WL 6062352
(S.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2018) ...................................................................... 47
In re Rubber Chems. Antitrust Litig., 504 F. Supp. 2d 777
(N.D. Cal. 2007) .................................................................................... 64
In re Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) Antitrust Litig.,
No. 07-md-01819 CW, 2010 WL 5477313
(N.D. Cal. Dec. 31, 2010) ............................................................... 64, 65
John Doe 1 v. Abbott Labs., 571 F.3d 930 (9th Cir. 2009) .......... 34, 35, 36
Kirola v. City & Cnty. of S.F., 860 F.3d 1164 (9th Cir. 2017) ................ 49
Masimo Corp. v. Tyco Health Care Group, 350 F. App'x 95
Masimo Corp. v. Tyco Health Care Grp. L.P., 2006 WL
1236666 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 22, 2006), aff'd, 350 F. App'x 95
McWane, Inc. v. FTC, 783 F.3d 814 (11th Cir. 2015) .............................. 53
Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc., 795 F.3d 1024
Mujica v. AirScan Inc., 771 F.3d 580 (9th Cir. 2014) ............................. 65
Ohio v. Am. Express Co., 138 S. Ct. 2274 (2018) ..................................... 37
Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications, Inc.,
555 U.S. 438 (2009) .................................................................. 34, 35, 36
Premier Elec. Constr. Co. v. Nat'l Elec. Contractors Ass'n, 814
F.2d 358 (7th Cir. 1987) ....................................................................... 28
Rambus Inc. v. FTC, 522 F.3d 456 (D.C. Cir. 2008) ................... 11, 32, 38
Reno Air Racing Ass'n v. McCord, 452 F.3d 1126
ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc., 594 F.3d 860
(Fed. Cir. 2010)............................................................................... 18, 23
Singh v. Ashcroft, 393 F.3d 903 (9th Cir. 2004) ...................................... 65
SmileCare Dental Grp. v. Delta Dental Plan of Cal., Inc., 88
Tampa Elec. Co. v. Nashville Coal Co., 365 U.S. 320 (1961) .................. 55
Tektronix, Inc. v. United States, 552 F.2d 343 (Ct. Cl. 1977) ................. 21
United Shoe Machinery Corp. v. United States, 258 U.S. 451
United States Nat'l Bank of Portland v. Fabri-Valve Co. of
Am., 235 F.2d 565 (9th Cir. 1956) ........................................... 16, 17, 18
United States v. AT&T Inc., 310 F. Supp. 3d 161 (D.D.C.
2018), aff'd, 916 F.3d 1029 (D.C. Cir. 2019) ....................................... 23
United States v. Dentsply International, 399 F.3d 181
United States v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 366 U.S.
316 (1961) ............................................................................................. 62
United States v. LSL Biotechnologies, 379 F.3d 672
United States v. Microsoft, 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001) ............ 25, 38, 55
United States v. Syufy Enters., 903 F.2d 659 (9th Cir. 1990) ................. 33
United States v. Tootick, 952 F.2d 1078 (9th Cir. 1991) ......................... 55
United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 345 U.S. 629 (1953) ............................ 58
Verizon Commc'ns Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko,
LLP, 540 U.S. 398 (2004) ....................................................... 8, 9, 11, 30
W. Parcel Express v. United Parcel Serv. of Am. Inc., 190
Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co.,
Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7
ZF Meritor, LLC v. Eaton Corp., 696 F.3d 254 (3d Cir. 2012).... 50, 52, 53
Federal Statutes
15 U.S.C. §§ 6(a)(1), 45(a)(2) .............................................................. 63, 64
Sherman Act § 1, 15 U.S.C. § 1 .......................................................... 10, 28
Sherman Act § 2, 15 U.S.C. § 2 ............................................................ 8, 10
Areeda & Hovenkamp, Antitrust Law (4th ed. Supp. 2019)............. 53, 57
Douglas H. Ginsburg et al., The Troubling Use of Antitrust
To Regulate FRAND Licensing, 10 CPI Antitrust Chron.
1, 6 (Oct. 2015) ..................................................................................... 12
Joshua D. Wright, SSOs, FRAND, and Antitrust: Lessons
from the Economics of Incomplete Contracts, 21 Geo.
Mason L. Rev. 791, 803 (2014) ............................................................ 10
Case: 19-16122, 12/16/2019, ID: 11533748, DktEntry: 228, Page 10 of 80
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS FOR CITATIONS
Abbreviation Description
Briefs for the Parties
OB Opening Brief for Appellant
Qualcomm Incorporated (Dkt. No. 80,
filed August 23, 2019)
AB Answering Brief of the Federal Trade
Commission (Dkt. No. 144, filed
November 22, 2019)
Excerpts of Record
ER Qualcomm's Excerpts of Record (Dkt.
No. 75, filed August 27, 2019)
SER FTC's Supplemental Excerpts of
Record (Dkt. Nos. 139, 140, filed
FER Qualcomm's Further Excerpts of
Record (filed together with this Reply
Brief)
Briefs of Amici Curiae
Automakers Brief of Association of Global
Automakers and Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers as Amici
Curiae Supporting Appellee (Dkt. No.
161, filed November 29, 2019)
Continental Brief of Amici Curiae Continental
Automotive Systems, Inc. and DENSO
Corporation in Support of Appellee
Federal Trade Commission (Dkt.
No. 162, filed November 29, 2019)
Dolby Brief of Amicus Curiae Dolby
Laboratories, Inc. in Support of
Neither Party (Dkt. No. 84, filed
August 30, 2019)
Intel Brief of Intel Corporation as Amicus
Curiae in Support of Appellee and
Affirmance (Dkt. No. 160, filed
Law&EconCenter&Profs Brief of Amici Curiae International
Center for Law and Economics and
Scholars of Law and Economics in
Support of Appellant and Reversal
(Dkt. No. 99, filed August 30, 2019)
Michel Amicus Curiae Brief of the Honorable
Paul R. Michel (Ret.) in Support of
Nokia Brief of Amicus Curiae Nokia
Technologies Oy in Support of Neither
Party (Dkt. No. 98-2, filed August 30,
USA Brief of the United States of America
in Support of Appellant and Vacatur
In granting Qualcomm's motion to stay, this Court recognized that
the District Court's ruling is either a "trailblazing application of the an-
titrust laws" or "an improper excursion beyond the outer limits of the
Sherman Act." 2ER280. One thing it is not is a routine application of set-
tled antitrust principles. Now, the FTC disclaims huge portions of the
decision. The dubious quality of the District Court's reasoning is also un-
derscored by regulators' own stark disagreement about this case. The De-
partment of Justice's Antitrust Division, the government's co-equal anti-
trust enforcer, has advised this Court that the FTC's claims and District
Court's ruling rest on "fundamental errors of antitrust law." USA at 4.
The FTC itself initiated the suit only on a 2-1 vote, over an uncustomary
written dissent objecting to an enforcement action based on flawed legal
theory that lacks economic and evidentiary support. OB69.
The cellular industry as we know it today was born in the lab of
Qualcomm's founders, and the company has remained the leading inno-
vator in cellular technology ever since. The company has invested some
$60 billion in research and development, building a global portfolio of
tens of thousands of patented inventions that cover virtually every aspect
of mobile communications and are used by every cellphone, no matter
what modem chip it includes.
The company licenses its technology to manufacturers of cellphones
(original equipment manufacturers or OEMs) rather than the manufac-
turers of cellphone components, such as cellular modem chips. That is the
settled practice of the major licensors of cellular standard essential pa-
tents (SEPs). Because Qualcomm licenses its patents at the OEM level,
chipmakers make and sell chips practicing some Qualcomm technologies
without paying Qualcomm any royalties at all.
The District Court nonetheless required Qualcomm to grant ex-
haustive licenses to its chip rivals. The FTC repudiates the District
Court's reasoning, recognizing that settled precedent does not compel
Qualcomm to deal with rivals except under narrow circumstances not
present here. The FTC's half-hearted request that this Court impose the
identical duty based on Qualcomm's supposed contractual obligations
conflicts with that same precedent.
The District Court also theorized that Qualcomm leverages its mar-
ket power in modem chips to require OEMs to pay a patent royalty "sur-
charge." The FTC caricatures Qualcomm as extorting exorbitant license
fees from OEMs by threatening to destroy them by cutting off their sup-
ply of chips. Putting aside the fact Qualcomm is not alleged to have
harmed competition in the cellphone market, the FTC's narrative is fan-
ciful. Qualcomm has the right to license its patent portfolio to OEMs. For
many years, Qualcomm's license rate has been stable and reaffirmed by
numerous customers that are not subject to any alleged market power.
The OEMs are companies worth billions or even hundreds of billions of
dollars. Far before they seek to purchase Qualcomm's chips, they are well
aware of both the license requirement and the market rate and have am-
ple time to account for them and to contest the rate. The OEMs negotiate
hard. They threaten not to purchase Qualcomm's chips and threaten to
(or actually do) stop complying with the license to dispute its terms. On
its side, Qualcomm takes steps to preserve its patent rights. There is no
basis for the FTC's attempt to recharacterize this common bargaining
between sophisticated companies as federal antitrust violations.
The District Court violated the requirement that it determine the
reasonableness of a patent royalty based on the most comparable agree-
ments for the same patents. Here, Qualcomm receives the same royalties
for its patent portfolio under agreements entered into before Qualcomm
ever had a chip business, agreements entered into during lengthy periods
of time in which Qualcomm had no market power, and agreements en-
tered into with OEMs that did not buy Qualcomm chips.
Even if one assumes a surcharge exists, the surcharging ruling
must be reversed. The District Court hypothesized an attenuated—and
unproven—mechanism, the heart of which was that Qualcomm's license
rates somehow lower its rivals' revenues. But as explained by the United
States, the ruling below is "[b]ereft of a legally sufficient theory of com-
petitive harm" because the antitrust laws forbid only conduct that under-
mines the competitive process, not conduct that merely harms competi-
tors. USA at 18.
Recognizing as much, the FTC principally relies on inapposite cases
in which a monopolist imposed a penalty on its customer for transacting
with a rival. Qualcomm does not make it more expensive for an OEM to
use a rival's product rather than its own. Qualcomm's royalties are "chip-
neutral"; chip suppliers compete for business on an even playing field.
The FTC also substitutes its own, equally unsupportable theory
that Qualcomm uses its royalty revenues to reduce its chip prices, and in
turn uses low prices to squeeze rival chip manufacturers out of the mar-
ket. The District Court affirmatively found the opposite: that Qualcomm
charges "monopoly prices" for its chips. 6ER1364. But even if the FTC's
subsidization theory had some factual basis, it would be precluded by the
Supreme Court's holding that a monopolist may use supposedly excess
profits from one product to reduce prices on another, so long as they do
not go below cost—which Qualcomm's indisputably did not.
The surcharging ruling also must be reversed because neither the
FTC nor the District Court identified a factual basis for finding that
Qualcomm's practices are anticompetitive. The direct evidence is that the
cellular industry has been dynamic and thriving. Innovation is unceas-
ing. Output is growing. Quality-adjusted prices are declining.
With respect to indirect evidence, the FTC introduced no proof that
Qualcomm's royalty rates undermined competition in chip markets, or
impaired chip manufacturers' ability or incentive to invest in R&D. In-
stead, the District Court and the FTC posit hypothetical possibilities,
based on speculation.
The FTC only seriously tries to defend a sliver of the District
Court's "exclusive dealing" ruling, dismissing the District Court's broad
condemnation of Qualcomm's actual and offered discounts as mere "con-
text." The FTC argues only that two expired discount agreements be-
tween Qualcomm and Apple, which provided for a "clawback" of discounts
if Apple changed chip suppliers, excluded competitors. That theory fails
as a matter of law, because Qualcomm's pricing—even with the "claw-
backs"—was at all times above cost. Far from exclusionary, even with
those conditional discounts available, Apple switched to Intel as a sup-
plier.
The disconnect between the FTC and the District Court—not to
mention the United States' rejection of the views of both—highlights the
speculative theories and errors of law upon which the District Court's
judgment rests. It also highlights the overreach of the injunction, which
would restrict Qualcomm's activities even absent market power, would
endanger national security, and would regulate conduct affecting only
foreign commerce that is already subject to foreign regulation.
The judgment should be reversed.
GROUNDS IS WITHOUT MERIT.
Rivals Exhaustive Licenses Must Be Reversed.
It is now common ground that the District Court erred as a matter
of law in "holding that Qualcomm's refusal to license its patents to com-
peting chipmakers violated" an antitrust duty to deal. AB4-AB5, AB30.
As the Department of Justice explains, reversing that holding invalidates
the judgment outright. USA at 5 n.2. This includes not only the specific
injunction entered by the District Court based directly on its erroneous
liability finding, 6ER1395, but also its further holding that Qualcomm
unlawfully imposed excessive licensing fees. The court hypothesized
those fees would be lower if chip manufacturers held exhaustive licenses.
See AB68-AB69 (citing 6ER1290; 6ER1356-6ER1359).
Below, the FTC argued that this case was controlled by the very
precedents it now admits preclude the imposition of liability. 7ER1722.
Here, it argues that those precedents are irrelevant because they address
a "heightened" refusal-to-deal standard, whereas cases involving SEPs
should uniquely be subject to a different, far more interventionist rule.
AB69.
That is not the law. Under settled precedent, the default rule is that
even a monopolist has the right to determine with whom it will do busi-
ness, and on what terms. Verizon Commc'ns Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis
V. Trinko, LLP, 540 U.S. 398, 407-08 (2004); Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen
Highlands Skiing Corp., 472 U.S. 585, 600 (1985). Those precedents gov-
ern all duty-to-deal claims, whatever contractual or other commitment
the monopolist may have to its rivals; they set the terms of "the sole ex-
ception to the broad right of a firm to refuse to deal." In re Elevator Anti-
trust Litig., 502 F.3d 47, 52 (2d Cir. 2007). Aspen Skiing is already "at or
near the outer boundary of § 2 liability" for recognizing any antitrust
duty to deal. Trinko, 540 U.S. at 409. The FTC's position would imper-
missibly require this Court to go far beyond that outer boundary of § 2
liability by imposing an antitrust duty to deal where Aspen Skiing's tests
are not met.
Antitrust law imposes a duty to deal only in very limited circum-
stances: when the refusal to do so (1) involves a break from prior volun-
tary conduct, that (2) results in a sacrifice of short-term profits that can
only be explained as an attempt to impair competition. Trinko, 540 U.S.
at 407-09; see also OB47-OB48. The FTC cannot, and does not try to, sat-
isfy that demanding standard. The District Court expressly found that
Qualcomm's licensing of OEMs rather than chip rivals increases its prof-
its, including in the short term. 6ER1285; 6ER1295-96. Further, follow-
ing the industry-wide practice of major cellular SEP licensors to license
OEMs is not an attempt to harm competition; it is among other things a
"rational response[] to avoid the potentially negative effects of patent ex-
haustion." Michel at 25.
The FTC now urges the Court to recognize the same duty to deal
under what it dubs "traditional" rather than supposedly "heightened" an-
titrust grounds. The FTC argues that Qualcomm made and breached
FRAND "commitments" to two standards development organizations
(SDOs). AB81-AB86. But Trinko makes clear that duties to deal that
arise outside of antitrust, such as regulatory requirements or (as here)
contractual commitments, are not antitrust duties. The FTC's new pro-
posed "voluntary commitment" standard is nothing more than an effort
to negate the second of Trinko's two elements, which strictly limits the
imposition of a duty to deal to circumstances in which a monopolist sac-
rifices short-term profits in a way that can only be explained as anticom-
petitive. It is not enough that, as the FTC would have it, the refusal to
deal could "deter rivals' entry and investment." AB77.
To justify its new rule, the FTC asserts that because SDOs can raise
competitive concerns under certain circumstances, any conduct related
to them should be subject to heightened antitrust scrutiny. AB83-AB85.
In fact, the special antitrust issue arising from SDOs is the prospect that
competitors could engage in collusive standard setting, which is subject
to Section 1 of the Sherman Act. See Allied Tube & Conduit Corp. v. In-
dian Head, Inc., 486 U.S. 492, 500 (1980). But such possibly conspirato-
rial concerns are distinct from the unilateral conduct at issue here, which
is subject to Sherman Act Section 2 scrutiny.
The FTC asserts that courts have "recognized that conduct that
breaches or otherwise 'side-steps' these [SDO] safeguards is [exempt from
the] Aspen/Trinko standard." AB84. In fact, "courts have uniformly re-
jected this view." Joshua D. Wright, SSOs, FRAND, and Antitrust: Les-
sons from the Economics of Incomplete Contracts, 21 Geo. Mason L. Rev.
791, 803 (2014). The very decision on which the FTC principally relies
holds that antitrust liability can arise in connection with the breach of a
FRAND commitment only if the breaching party intentionally misled the
SDO, and the SDO relied on the "intentionally false promise" by the pa-
tentee "when including the [patentee's] technology in a standard." Broad-
com Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., 501 F.3d 297, 314 (3d Cir. 2007); see also
Rambus Inc. v. FTC, 522 F.3d 456, 466-67 (D.C. Cir. 2008). Here, the FTC
never alleged, nor did the District Court find, that Qualcomm intention-
ally misled SDOs.
Even if Qualcomm had a contractual obligation to license its SEPs
to chip rivals, that fact "does not automatically lead to the conclusion that
[the obligation] can be enforced by means of an antitrust claim." Trinko,
540 U.S. at 406. Instead, Qualcomm's chip competitors would have the
ability to bring a contract action to enforce any supposed FRAND obliga-
tion; the District Court did not find any impediment to chip competitors'
doing so. By contrast, the prospect that violations of FRAND commit-
ments will be deemed antitrust violations, resulting in treble damages
awards, will deter participation in the SEP process and discourage the
development of standards. E.g., Douglas H. Ginsburg et al., The Trou-
bling Use of Antitrust To Regulate FRAND Licensing, 10 CPI Antitrust
Chron. 1, 6-7 (Oct. 2015).
Component Manufacturers.
The District Court's erroneous duty-to-deal holding was premised
on its equally unsound summary judgment ruling that cellular SEP own-
ers have committed contractually to grant exhaustive SEP licenses for
the manufacture of modem chips. 6ER1290. In reversing the duty-to-deal
holding, this Court should disavow that ruling because it erroneously re-
solved disputed issues of material fact. It also undermines the global na-
ture of standards with a disjointed licensing rubric and threatens to sub-
stantially disrupt licensing throughout the cellular industry.
The language of the two SDO policies at issue (TIA and ATIS)
evinces their ambiguity. Cellular SEP owners are obligated to grant li-
censes only "to the extent necessary for practice of any or all Normative
portions of the standard" (TIA) or "to applicants desiring to utilize the
license for the purpose of implementing the standard" (ATIS). AB70-
AB71. Citing nothing, the FTC declares it obvious that a modem chip by
itself practices some of the "normative portions" of a standard. AB70-
AB71. But the FTC's assertion is not proof of the terms' meaning.
Under California law, such terms must be construed in accordance
with their "technical" or specialized meanings. OB134. The record con-
tains undisputed testimony from SDO participants that in determining
whether a product "implements" the standard or "practices" a normative
portion of a standard, the industry considers and tests whether the prod-
uct meets the written requirements and specifications of a standard.
4ER929-4ER935; 4ER951-4ER958; see also Dolby at 13. The evidence,
construed most favorably to Qualcomm as the non-moving party, showed
that the standards are implemented or practiced by a phone, not a com-
ponent chip. OB133-OB134. Additionally, a standard may contain "thou-
sands of instances stating that the 'mobile station [or UE, i.e., phone]
shall' meet some particular performance or communication require-
ment," but standards impose no requirements concerning modem chips
and do not even mention them. 4ER918; 4ER920; 4ER941; 4ER945. Qual-
comm made a factual showing that a modem chip does not "implement"
or "practice" the standard; thus, no contractual obligation to license such
products can be found.
California law also requires the court to consider extrinsic evidence.
OB135-36. That includes the practice recognized by industry participants
on both sides of the case and the FTC's expert that the major cellular SEP
licensors grant licenses at the OEM level, rather than the component
level. OB136-OB137; see also Dolby at 16-22; Nokia at 16-20; Continental
at 6; Automakers at 18-19; 1FER180:9-24; 7ER1737:8-7ER1738:25. The
FTC's contrary argument reduces to the implausible claim that industry
participants have uniformly flouted the agreements' plain meaning for
Also telling is the FTC's own recognition that it was not entitled to
summary judgment with respect to the policies of ETSI, which is the lead-
ing SDO in the cellular industry. OB138; 1FER174. ETSI, TIA, and ATIS
play interlocking parts in global cellular standards development efforts.
To ensure patentholders can maintain a single, worldwide licensing pro-
gram, the three organizations have committed to maintain compatible
patent policies. OB137-OB138; 1FER174-1FER176. Qualcomm accepted
the relevant FRAND commitments based on its understanding that the
SDOs' policies would remain consistent. 1FER176. Yet ETSI has rejected
a patent policy of an SDO that required component-level licensing as in-
compatible with its own. 7ER1726:4-7ER1730:18; contra AB76-AB77.
The FTC's reliance on its own (disputed) extrinsic evidence only
highlights the disputed issued of material fact. The FTC relies on cross-
licenses that Qualcomm has received. AB75. Those demonstrate only
that Qualcomm, like other patentholders, tries to avoid the possibility it
would grant a portfolio-wide license to an OEM, which would then oppor-
tunistically assert its patents against Qualcomm. 4ER1012-4ER1016.1
REASONS.
The District Court held that Qualcomm leverages its power in two
chip markets to charge an unreasonable patent royalty, which it deemed
an anticompetitive "surcharge" that supposedly injured its chip rivals by
The other evidence on which the FTC relies is similarly misplaced.
Qualcomm's 2005 statement that it "acquired licenses from its licensees
and others," AB75, does not relate to SEPs in particular. And Qualcomm
argued that Ericsson should not be permitted to use SEPs to "shut down"
Qualcomm's manufacture of modem chips and cellphones (which Qual-
comm sold at the time) through an injunction, AB74-75, without ever as-
serting that Ericsson had the duty to grant component-level SEP licenses
even if it were not asserting its patents against chipmakers.
reducing their revenues, lowering their R&D budgets, and in turn im-
pairing their ability to create competitive products. That holding rests on
three separate legal errors: (1) the District Court applied an erroneous
standard in deeming Qualcomm's license rates to be unreasonable; (2)
the District Court and the FTC rely on theories of injury that are not
legally cognizable theories of harm to the competitive process; and (3)
even if there were a viable theory, the District Court improperly resorted
to supposition and conjecture that anticompetitive harm actually oc-
curred.
that Qualcomm's Royalty Rates Are Unreasonable.
The District Court's "surcharge" theory rests on the premise that
Qualcomm's royalty rates are dramatically excessive. 6ER1323-
6ER1349. But that holding collapses at the outset because the Court
failed to apply the governing legal standard, under which Qualcomm's
royalties are reasonable as a matter of law.
Well-settled rules govern the determination whether patent royal-
ties are reasonable. The "best measure" is an established arm's-length
royalty for the same portfolio in relevant markets. OB85-OB86; see also
United States Nat'l Bank of Portland v. Fabri-Valve Co. of Am., 235 F.2d
565, 568 (9th Cir. 1956) ("the primary method" for determining reasona-
ble royalty is "using the claimant's established royalties"). If there is no
such established royalty, the court may base the reasonableness deter-
mination on a comparison with royalty rates for other portfolios that are
proven to be technically and economically comparable. OB91-OB92.
The FTC now says the District Court could ignore those legal tests
because it "was not fixing a specific royalty" but instead was confirming
Qualcomm's royalties do not reflect the "value of its patents." AB50. That
is no distinction—the processes of fixing a reasonable value for a portfolio
and of assessing whether an established portfolio value is reasonable are
the same. Thus, in Microsoft Corp. v. Motorola, Inc., 795 F.3d 1024, 1040
(9th Cir. 2015), this Court employed this settled patent-law methodology
to assess whether a patentee offered a reasonable royalty under a
FRAND commitment, which is exactly what the District Court purported
to determine here.
Failure to follow the legal rule governing the reasonable royalty de-
termination is reversible legal error. Apple Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., 757 F.3d
1286, 1324-25 (Fed. Cir. 2014); see also Ambassador Hotel Co. v. Wei-
Chuan Inv., 189 F.3d 1017, 1024 (9th Cir. 1999) ("Whether the district
court applied the correct legal standard in computing damages receives
de novo review."). For example, in ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc., 594
F.3d 860, 871-73 (Fed. Cir. 2010), a district court committed "legal error"
in relying on non-comparable licenses when determining a reasonable
royalty. The judgment therefore cannot stand.
The District Court failed to apply the "best measure" of reasonable-
ness: Qualcomm's well-established royalty rate received on hundreds of
licenses for the identical patent portfolio. See, e.g., U.S. Nat'l Bank of
Portland, 235 F.2d at 568 (reversing holding that 1.5% royalty was rea-
sonable where patentee had established licenses at 5%). Those licenses
could not even arguably be impacted by Qualcomm chip market power,
because they were (a) entered when Qualcomm was not alleged to hold
monopoly power in the chips relevant to the license, (b) licensing phones
using chips that Qualcomm is not alleged to have monopolized, or (c) with
OEMs that did not purchase chips from Qualcomm. 2FER182-2FER187;
6ER1418-6ER1421; OB86-OB88. Indeed, Qualcomm's royalty rates were
established before Qualcomm began selling chips at all, then reaffirmed
repeatedly in new licenses and extensions of existing licensing agree-
ments in markets in which Qualcomm is not alleged to have market
power. See 1FER24:9-1FER27:15; 1FER29:23-1FER34:6; 1FER18-
1FER20.
The FTC argues these established licenses are meaningless because
Qualcomm's expert did not disprove there was also "chip leverage" asso-
ciated with them. AB51-AB52. That argument is upside down: the FTC
bore the burden of proving Qualcomm's royalty rate was unreasonable
because Qualcomm's established licenses are not proper comparators. See
OB89-OB90 n.14. It could not and did not satisfy that burden. It merely
cites evidence Qualcomm had "leadership" in another type of modem
chip. AB51-AB52. That is no substitute for a finding of monopoly power
and does not prove the relevant licenses were not at arm's length. Indeed,
FTC's whole theory centers on the purported "must have" nature of Qual-
comm's chips, not on mere "leadership."
Nor did the FTC prove that Qualcomm's licenses with companies
that did not purchase Qualcomm modem chips were tainted. OB87. There
are dozens of examples. 6ER1418-6ER1421. The FTC's claim that "Qual-
comm was found to have coerced" certain OEMs "through other means,"
AB52, again does not rest on a District Court finding. Instead, it cites
testimony discussing an order from a Japanese agency that has since
been reversed. 1FER7; 1FER3.
The FTC does not defend the District Court's conclusion that Qual-
comm's royalties should have decreased with its share of SEPs. That con-
clusion confuses Qualcomm's numerical share of SEPs with the value of
its specific, continually pioneering SEPs that are foundational to multi-
ple generations of cellular standards. 2ER451:6-2ER452:8; 2ER452:23-
2ER453:4; OB88-OB89. Qualcomm's patent portfolio continually grows,
adding an increasingly broad array of technologies, 3ER631:17-
3ER633:2; 3ER659, while its nominal royalty rate remained constant and
its effective rate decreased, OB88; 6ER1339.
Furthermore, Qualcomm's licensed portfolio includes tens of thou-
sands of other valuable patents (Non-SEPs). OB89. The FTC's only re-
sponse is to claim that Qualcomm collects "de minimis" royalties on Non-
SEPs, citing the testimony of its expert Michael Lasinski, AB51, whom
the District Court expressly found unreliable, 6ER1348. In any case,
Mr. Lasinski did not conclude that the Non-SEPs have de minimis value,
2FER196:16-21, and he conceded that Qualcomm has multiple licensees
who pay more for a license that includes Non-SEPs than for a "cellular
SEP only license," 2FER197:19-2FER199:1. In fact, Qualcomm's estab-
lished licensing rates are 3.25% for a cellular SEP-only license, and 5%
for a license that also includes Non-SEPs. See 2ER428:17-2ER430:2;
3ER564:5-14; 3ER630:2-631:13. This sets the floor for the Non-SEPs at a
non-de minimis 1.75%. See Microsoft v. Motorola, 795 F.3d at 1044 (port-
folio of SEPs and Non-SEPs not comparable to SEP-only portfolio).
Patent Portfolio.
The District Court based its unreasonableness finding on royalty
rates charged by a few other SEP licensors for different patent portfolios
based on a handful of agreements. But because the court erroneously re-
jected the best measure of reasonableness, there was no basis to consider
other portfolios at all. See, e.g., Tektronix, Inc. v. United States, 552 F.2d
343, 347 & n.5 (Ct. Cl. 1977) (only if no established royalty exists can
alternative measures be used).
Ignoring the governing legal standard, the FTC argues that "[n]o
patent-by-patent parsing was required to assign probative weight to
'staggering' disparities in the royalties charged on roughly comparable
portfolios." AB50. But that argument assumes its own conclusion: that
the portfolios in question (Nokia's and Ericsson's) were in fact compara-
ble. The FTC introduced no objective evidence that they were.
The FTC did not prove that other patent portfolios were in fact com-
parable to Qualcomm's through objective evidence. Importantly, the Dis-
trict Court rejected as unreliable the testimony of the FTC's only patent
valuation witness (Mr. Lasinski). 6ER1348. But then the District Court
committed the same error the court correctly identified in Mr. Lasinski's
testimony: using "contribution counting to value a patent portfolio."
6ER1348; OB92-OB93. As the District Court explained, merely counting
contributions is unreliable because "a company can receive credit for an
approved contribution based on a mere cosmetic change to an existing
standards document." 6ER1348.
The FTC now defends its reliance on the number of contributions
(and equally irrelevant "rapporteurships") because "Qualcomm itself in-
ternally charts the major players" using these metrics. AB49 & n.9. But
Qualcomm's use of various metrics to confirm it is a "major player" in
SDOs says nothing about technical or economic comparability of its pa-
tent portfolio vis-à-vis other licensors. The FTC identifies no evidence
that these metrics are used as "portfolio-value proxies." Id.2
The FTC principally relies on self-interested statements by licen-
sees that want to pay a lower royalty rate. AB46-AB47. But that is no
substitute. See United States v. AT&T Inc., 310 F. Supp. 3d 161, 211
(D.D.C. 2018) (in weighing evidence of competitive harm, "competition
authorities and courts . . . refus[e] to take the views expressed by custom-
ers at face value and insist[] that customer testimony be combined with
economic evidence providing objective support for those views"), aff'd, 916
F.3d 1029 (D.C. Cir. 2019). This testimony does not meet the legal re-
quirement to establish that other licensors' patents were technologically
or economically comparable to Qualcomm's. OB94-OB95; see ResQNet,
2 Nor does Qualcomm's participation in the "Avanci" patent pool for
licensing a subset of its SEPs in entirely different fields—automotive and
smart meters—demonstrate that its full portfolio royalties for cellphones
are unreasonable. Contra AB49. That very limited alternative licensing
program does not cover cellphones, relates to far more limited use cases,
and is in no way comparable to Qualcomm's much broader SEP and Non-
SEP portfolio license. OB94 n.16 (citing testimony of Mr. Gonell). Rather
than refute this evidence, the FTC notes that the District Court declined
to accept Mr. Gonell's testimony on unrelated points, AB49 n.10, but ig-
nores that the District Court credited his testimony regarding Avanci, see
6ER1334.
594 F.3d at 871, 873. For example, it does not provide necessary evidence
that the other portfolios contain seminal patents. Nor does it say any-
thing about whether the other portfolios contain numerous Non-SEPs
covering a broad set of technologies used in cellphones, like Qualcomm's
does. OB89; OB94-OB95.
The FTC also relies on snippets from internal Qualcomm docu-
ments discussing a potential corporate separation of its licensing and
chip businesses. AB45-AB47. Those documents cannot countervail actual
market evidence of the established rates Qualcomm repeatedly received
during times when it had no alleged chip power. In none of them did
Qualcomm "recognize[]" that "QCT's monopoly chip power sustains QTL's
unreasonably high royalty rates." 6ER1325. Rather, most speak only to
the challenges of monitoring licensees' compliance when they source their
chips elsewhere (because Qualcomm cannot track the number of chips
they buy from other suppliers and therefore the number of phones they
sell). See OB99 n.18. The FTC quotes a single sentence in an email where
a Qualcomm executive surmised that separating the chip and licensing
businesses could pose challenges to "maintaining the royalty rate" and
"sustaining our royalties." AB46. This was simply one person's view that
the chip business may at times have helped Qualcomm maintain its es-
tablished royalty rate without the need for uncertain litigation. See
1FER163:6-1FER164:3-4. Even if that singular view were correct, noth-
ing about it suggests the established rates were unreasonable—a sepa-
rate question that turns on an objective assessment of value, which the
FTC did not provide.
Finally, the FTC does not seriously defend the District Court's le-
gally erroneous conclusion that it is unreasonable for Qualcomm to cal-
culate royalties as a percentage of the cellphone price. It has no response
to the Federal Circuit's express rejection of that proposition as "untena-
ble." OB96-OB99; Commonwealth Scientific & Indus. Research Org. v.
Cisco Systems, Inc., 809 F.3d 1295, 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2015); Michel at 5-17.
Royalties Harm the Competitive Process.
Even if the District Court could properly find that a "surcharge"
exists, the surcharging ruling must be reversed. Under the rule of reason,
the District Court was required to find harm to competition in a relevant
market for modem chips. United States v. Microsoft, 253 F.3d 34, 58 (D.C.
Cir. 2001) (requiring that monopolist "harm the competitive process"). Its
theory was that Qualcomm's royalty charges to OEMs include a "sur-
charge" that somehow reduces the margins of rival cellular modem chip
suppliers, limits their R&D efforts, and stunts their competitiveness, to
the benefit of Qualcomm.
The "surcharge" theory fails as a matter of law for two reasons.
First, it does not describe a harm to the competitive process. See Sec-
tion II.B.1. That is a question of law subject to de novo review. SmileCare
Dental Grp. v. Delta Dental Plan of Cal., Inc., 88 F.3d 780, 783 (9th Cir.
1996); City of Anaheim v. S. Cal. Edison Co., 955 F.2d 1373, 1376
(9th Cir. 1992). Second, even if the theory were viable, the District Court
erred in holding that it could find harm to competition without proof that
its theoretical predictions actually occurred in the real world. See Sec-
tion II.B.2.
Harm to the Competitive Process.
The District Court and the FTC have offered varying (and some-
times conflicting) theories for how the supposed royalty surcharge paid
by OEMs harms competition among chip manufacturers. Each fails as a
matter of law.
1. The Caldera Theory. The FTC errs in arguing that "[t]his case
involves the same mechanism of anticompetitive harm" as the per-pro-
cessor license charged by Microsoft in Caldera, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.,
87 F. Supp. 2d 1244 (D. Utah 1999). See AB37-AB39; AB41-AB44. In Cal-
dera, Microsoft forced OEMs to sign software licenses requiring the
OEMs to pay for Microsoft's operating system on every computer they
made—even those that had a rival's operating system. So when an OEM
chose Microsoft's operating system, it just paid the Microsoft fee. But if
an OEM chose a rival's operating system, it would have to pay both the
price of the rival system and the price of Microsoft's. See Caldera, 87 F.
Supp. 2d at 1249-50.
Caldera is different on two grounds. See, e.g., OB66. First, Mi-
crosoft's agreements were exclusionary—and hence anticompetitive—be-
cause they imposed costs that were borne only when purchasing a rival's
software. The agreements made rivals' software more expensive than Mi-
crosoft's in every instance. No matter what Microsoft's rivals charged for
their software, it would be in addition to (not instead of) the price an OEM
would pay for Microsoft's. See Caldera, 87 F. Supp. 2d at 1249-50. Thus,
competitors in Caldera had to compete against Microsoft's product that
had already been paid for. This was blatantly exclusionary; it gave OEMs
a massive incentive to choose Microsoft's software over rivals'.3
This case is very different. Unlike Microsoft in Caldera, Qualcomm
sells two separate products—a license and a chip. When an OEM pays
for a Qualcomm patent license, that license covers all phones. It does not
provide the OEM with chips; the OEM pays separately for chips, from
Qualcomm or a rival. And the choice of chip does not change the Qual-
comm royalty.4 Thus, an OEM can make its chip choice based solely on
3 The same is true in other cases cited by the FTC. See United Shoe
Machinery Corp. v. United States, 258 U.S. 451, 456-58 (1922) (defendant
manufacturer of shoe machines imposed leases that, among other things,
"require[d] the payment of a royalty on shoes operated upon by machines
made by competitors"); Premier Elec. Constr. Co. v. Nat'l Elec. Contrac-
tors Ass'n, 814 F.2d 358, 359 (7th Cir. 1987) (association members en-
tered into Section 1 price-fixing conspiracy forcing non-member competi-
tors to pay 1% into union negotiating fund for the association's benefit,
in addition to their own negotiating costs).
4 The FTC does not seriously press its passing statement in a footnote
asserting that "Qualcomm sometimes expressly charged higher royalties
on phones that used rivals' chips." AB42 n.6. That claim singles out
agreements with two OEMs signed over 15 years ago based on terms ap-
proved by relevant foreign governments and which were replaced years
ago. They are not representative of the license agreements at issue in this
case. 6ER1215-6ER1216; 1FER139:2-1FER140:15; 6ER1229; 6ER1233;
1FER73:1-1FER74:5.
the price and quality of chips; the royalty does not push the OEM in ei-
ther direction. Instead, all chip manufacturers including Qualcomm com-
pete for the OEM's business on an even footing.5
Second, in Caldera, Microsoft had no basis—other than exclusion—
for charging anything on computers with rivals' operating systems.
See 87 F. Supp. 2d at 1250. By contrast, Qualcomm has a right to "require
customers to pay Qualcomm even when they deal with its rivals." AB1.
Qualcomm's patents cover all cellphones, whether or not they use a Qual-
comm chip. See 3ER629:9-3ER631:13; 3ER638:13-3ER645:22; AB10.
Thus, although the FTC opens its brief by complaining that Qualcomm
charges OEMs "even on phones that use rivals' chips," AB1, the FTC ul-
timately concedes that "Qualcomm is entitled to collect a royalty" on
every phone, AB39.
Because the FTC concedes that Qualcomm may charge a royalty on
all cellphones, the "surcharge" theory depends on the contention that
5 The FTC's repeated assertions that Qualcomm conceded the applica-
bility of Caldera are false, as shown by the quote from Qualcomm's brief
the FTC cites. See AB41. Qualcomm explained that Microsoft's agree-
ments gave OEMs "a large incentive to choose [Microsoft's software] over
the competitor's," OB66—precisely what is missing here.
some undefined portion of Qualcomm's royalties "exceed[s] the reasona-
ble value of its patents," and this supposed "excess" is a surcharge on
rivals' sales. AB39. Thus, despite its protestations, AB35, and unlike Cal-
dera, the FTC's legal theory does indeed require a court to assess whether
royalties are "too high." Accordingly, it raises the acute dangers of "false
positives" that led the Supreme Court to conclude that courts should not
make antitrust decisions on the basis of whether a price is too high.
See Trinko, 540 U.S. at 407-08, 414 ("Mistaken inferences and the result-
ing false condemnations 'are especially costly, because they chill the very
conduct the antitrust laws are designed to protect.'"). "Premising liability
on 'unreasonably high' prices, as the court did here—instead of harm to
competition—can radically undermine important incentives to innovate."
USA at 9 (emphasis added). Unlike Caldera, the FTC's theory would drag
courts into the business of assessing whether firms charge "excessive"
prices.
The FTC claims that Qualcomm's supposed "surcharge" is different
from typical monopoly pricing—which antitrust law regards as benign—
because Qualcomm purportedly obtains high prices for its patents by ex-
ercising monopoly power in completely different markets (for chips).
AB35. Even if that were true, that is a form of monopoly leveraging that
does not violate the antitrust laws. As this Court explained in Alaska
Airlines, Inc. v. United Airlines, Inc., "[t]he danger that a lawful monop-
oly will . . . unduly perpetuate itself is no more evident when a lawful
monopoly is leveraged [in a different market] than when a lawful monop-
olist reaps its monopoly profit solely from price increases in the monopoly
market." 948 F.2d 536, 549 (9th Cir. 1991) (emphasis added); see also
USA at 8 ("Notwithstanding the court's misbranding of these conse-
quences as 'anticompetitive,' none establish the requisite harm to compe-
tition."). If Qualcomm were indeed extracting a surcharge from OEMs to
access chips, that would "undermine monopoly power," because OEMs
would have "more incentive to find an alternative supplier," spurring ri-
val chipmakers to take share from Qualcomm. See Alaska Airlines,
948 F.2d at 549 (emphasis omitted). Indeed, the larger the alleged sur-
charge, the more motivated OEMs would be.
The fact that some of Qualcomm's patents are SEPs subject to a
FRAND commitment does not change the analysis. Even if Qualcomm
could be (mis-)characterized as having engaged in an "end-run around
[FRAND] constraints," that fact would "not alone present a harm to com-
petition in the monopolized market." Rambus, 522 F.3d at 466-67; see
supra Section I.A. In any event, the FRAND constraint is not even appli-
cable to Qualcomm's tens of thousands of Non-SEPs. See 6ER1172;
3ER629:9-3ER630:15.
2. The "All-in Price" Theory. The District Court also relied on an-
other theory of anticompetitive harm: that OEMs consider an "all-in"
price for modem chips together with patent royalties, with the conse-
quence that the amount of the Qualcomm royalty "affects demand for ri-
vals' chips." 6ER1351. The Court thought that higher Qualcomm patent
royalties caused lower demand and lower prices for rivals' chips, and
hence lower rivals' margins. 6ER1349; 6ER1351; 6ER1360.
This theory fails at the outset because it confuses harm to compet-
itors with harm to competition. Showing that rivals make less money is
not enough to demonstrate that the competitive process has been im-
paired. See Cascade Cabinet Co. v. W. Cabinet & Millwork, Inc., 710 F.2d
1366, 1373 (9th Cir. 1983) ("economic injury to a competitor does not
equal injury to competition").
In addition, antitrust theories "must make economic sense." United
States v. Syufy Enters., 903 F.2d 659, 663 (9th Cir. 1990). There is no
basis for the District Court's belief that Qualcomm's royalty rate would
reduce rivals' prices. The District Court tellingly did not rely on any ex-
pert testimony. It simply assumed that if OEMs paid more for one com-
ponent of the "all-in" price (the royalty), then they would pay less for the
other (the chip). But there is no natural cap or floor on what OEMs would
pay for the combination of chips and a set of patent rights. OEMs would
seek to drive chip prices down as low as they can, as they would for any
input cost, irrespective of the amount of Qualcomm's royalty. A higher
royalty would not give OEMs leverage to push chip prices down even
more. Conversely, lowering Qualcomm's royalty would not suddenly
make OEMs willing to pay, beneficently, any more to buy chips.
3. The "Price Squeeze" Theory. The FTC tries to plug the gap in the
District Court's theory by arguing that concurrently with charging higher
royalties, Qualcomm lowers its chip prices, effectively shifting some por-
tion of its chip prices into the royalty. AB3; AB14; AB35; AB43. According
to the FTC, this in turn forces competitors to lower their own chip prices,
thereby squeezing their margins. AB54-AB55.
That theory is no different from the "price squeeze" rejected by Pa-
cific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications, Inc., 555 U.S. 438
(2009). OB39; OB60-OB61 & n.10. In linkLine, the plaintiffs competed
with AT&T in the retail DSL market. Plaintiffs claimed that AT&T used
its monopoly power in another market (wholesale DSL transport) to in-
crease the plaintiffs' costs, while AT&T simultaneously lowered its retail
DSL prices; in essence, it shifted a portion of its retail DSL price to its
wholesale pricing, which it charged directly to competitors. The plaintiffs
claimed that this "squeezed" their margins and impaired their ability to
compete with AT&T, which was still earning monopoly profits through
wholesale DSL transport sales. See linkLine, 555 U.S. at 442-44.
The FTC makes the same substantive claim here: that Qualcomm
continues to earn monopoly profits from the supposed "surcharge" while
lowering its chip prices and not leaving its rivals enough room to under-
bid Qualcomm on chips and still make as large a margin as they other-
wise would. The Supreme Court rejected this theory in linkLine, finding
that as long as AT&T's retail prices remained above cost (and absent an
antitrust duty to deal with its competitors), the conduct was lawful.
See id. at 451-52, 457; see also John Doe 1 v. Abbott Labs., 571 F.3d 930,
935 (9th Cir. 2009) (following linkLine). The same is true here, where the
District Court did not find that Qualcomm prices its chips below cost. See
USA at 16 ("Similar to the facts of linkLine, here there is no antitrust
duty to price reasonably in the licensing market and no evidence of pred-
atory pricing in the chip market that created harm to competition.").
The FTC's attempts to distinguish linkLine and Doe fail. First, the
FTC argues that "[t]he only conduct that the linkLine and Doe plaintiffs
challenged was the defendants' setting prices for their own products and
services," whereas Qualcomm "used its chip monopoly power to coerce
chip customers to agree to pay a fee to Qualcomm when they buy from
chip competitors." AB66. But that is no distinction at all. It could just as
easily have been said in linkLine that by using its DSL transport monop-
oly to raise the costs of its rivals, AT&T "coerced" consumers to pay an
amount attributable to AT&T's monopoly power even when they pur-
chased from AT&T's retail rivals. And the alleged harm is still the same,
i.e., an alleged reduction in rivals' margins. Indeed, it would be perverse
for Qualcomm to be liable for imposing a supposed cost on rivals indi-
rectly when AT&T was not liable for imposing one directly. To the extent
the FTC is simply saying that linkLine is limited to cases that involve
only pricing actions, linkLine itself says otherwise: "for antitrust pur-
poses, there is no reason to distinguish between price and nonprice com-
ponents of a transaction." 555 U.S. at 450.
Second, the FTC argues that "[t]he plaintiffs in linkLine and Doe
contended that the antitrust laws require vertically integrated firms to
afford their unintegrated retail rivals 'a "fair" or "adequate" margin,'"
whereas Qualcomm "use[d] its monopoly to impose a financial penalty on
its customers' use of rivals' products." AB67. But as explained above,
there is no "penalty" here. Instead, as in linkLine, customers pay the
same amount, regardless of whether they buy from the defendant or from
its competitors. In linkLine, the charge was for use of AT&T's broadband
infrastructure; here it is for the use of Qualcomm's patents. Simply call-
ing that charge a "penalty" does not change the underlying economics of
the price squeeze. In Doe, this Court made clear that a plaintiff cannot
escape the logic of linkLine through the expedient of renaming a theory
that is "the functional equivalent of the price squeeze the Court found
unobjectionable in Linkline." 571 F.3d at 935.
Effects.
Even if the District Court had applied the correct legal standard in
determining that Qualcomm's royalty rates are unreasonable, and even
if those rates gave rise to a legally cognizable antitrust theory, the FTC
was still required to prove that Qualcomm caused "substantial anticom-
petitive effect[s]" in the real world. Ohio v. Am. Express Co., 138 S. Ct.
2274, 2284 (2018); see also Law&EconCenter&Profs at 8 ("Inferring an-
ticompetitive effect without probative evidence is tantamount to holding
such conduct per se illegal."). Here, the FTC's theory is predicated on a
theorized causal chain whereby the alleged surcharge imposed on OEMs
reduces the sales and/or margins obtained by competing chip suppliers;
those compressed margins cause chip suppliers to invest less in R&D;
and the diminished investment in R&D makes them unable to develop
products to compete with Qualcomm.
The FTC therefore had to show at least that any purported sur-
charge paid by OEMs resulted in reduced R&D by chipmakers, and that
reduced R&D substantially impacted competition. The FTC failed to do
so at every step: it did not prove any surcharge, let alone one large enough
to affect competition, see OB58-OB60; it did not prove that rivals faced
lower margins, see OB80-OB81; it did not prove that reduced margins
caused a lessening of R&D, see OB81-82; and it did not prove that dimin-
ished R&D drove rivals to lose business to Qualcomm, see OB82-OB83.
The multiple failure points in the mechanism demonstrate that the Dis-
trict Court embraced the theory alone, without holding the FTC to the
requisite proofs that coherently link to a viable, actual exclusion of com-
petition in the relevant markets.
That was legal error. It was not enough for the FTC to show that
Qualcomm's licensing practices "reasonably appear capable" of causing
anticompetitive effects. As explained in Qualcomm's Opening Brief,
OB70-OB73, courts following Microsoft, 253 F.3d at 79, ask whether con-
duct with anticompetitive effects "reasonably appears capable" of main-
taining a monopoly. Before reaching that analysis, however, a plaintiff
must first prove that the challenged conduct actually had anticompetitive
effects. Indeed, the D.C. Circuit itself, in Rambus Inc. v. FTC, confirmed
that "the antitrust plaintiff—including the Government as plaintiff—
bears the burden of proving the anticompetitive effect of the monopolist's
conduct." 522 F.3d at 463.
1. Reduction in Rivals' Chip Prices. A key to the District Court's
conclusion of competitive harm is its supposition that OEMs consider an
"all-in" price for rivals' modem chips, such that an increase in Qual-
comm's royalties will inexorably lead to a decrease in rivals' chip prices.
OB77-OB80. Here it was unproven, and makes no economic sense.
The FTC devotes pages of its brief to testimony showing that OEMs
pay attention to patent licensing costs, AB56-AB58, but that is neither
surprising nor meaningful—in the absence of evidence that patent licens-
ing costs actually affect the prices that OEMs pay to Qualcomm's rivals.
All the FTC's evidence shows was that royalties are just one part of the
"total cost" that OEMs bear. AB56. None of that evidence shows that a
higher royalty actually led to a lower chip price or to lower chip margins,
as opposed to a higher "total cost." Indeed, the FTC itself argues that
total costs for OEMs go up. AB56. But because higher royalties raise the
cost of making a phone using any chip, an increase in cost would not prove
harm to competition in the relevant chip markets. Neither the FTC nor
the District Court identified any evidence showing that OEMs would be
willing to pay more for rivals' chips if Qualcomm's royalties were lower.
To the contrary, the evidence shows that OEMs bargain vigorously to get
the best prices they can, see 1FER42:18-1FER43:25; 1FER124:10-
1FER126:25; 1FER145:19-1FER147:9, and they would do so regardless
of the amount of royalties due to Qualcomm.
The cited testimony of Mr. Gonell and the statements in Qual-
comm's internal documents, AB56-AB58, have nothing to do with
changes in rivals' chip prices resulting from Qualcomm's royalties. They
recognize that some OEMs view buying chips from Qualcomm's competi-
tors as a way to evade paying royalties on their phones, see 1SER0078:21-
1SER0080:16, because, for example, it is easier for the OEM to hide sales
it is contractually obligated to report to Qualcomm when the phones do
not have a Qualcomm chip, see 1FER131:10-1FER132:3, 3SER0550-
3SER0551. This evidence suggests, if anything, that Qualcomm's royal-
ties should encourage OEMs to purchase chips from rivals, which runs
counter to the FTC's exclusion theory. Qualcomm's practice of not selling
chips to unlicensed OEMs helps rivals win business from those unli-
censed OEMs, as Qualcomm literally cedes the field of competition at
those OEMs, giving its rivals an unimpeded opportunity. 1FER131:10-
1FER132:3.
Likewise, the brief squib of testimony of Wistron's Brian Chong,
AB56 (citing 2SER0347), does not show a link between Qualcomm's roy-
alties and the price OEMs would pay for competitors' chips. This testi-
mony shows only that when Wistron considered Qualcomm and Medi-
aTek chips on an equal footing, with the same royalty applicable regard-
less of chip choice, Wistron chose Qualcomm. There is no reason Wistron
would have been willing to pay MediaTek a higher price if Qualcomm
charged less in royalties.6 Another OEM representative thus testified
that "performance, pricing, [and] schedules" drove chip purchasing deci-
sions, not Qualcomm's royalties. 1FER88.
The FTC presents an alternative basis for arguing how Qualcomm
depresses rivals' prices. It argues that Qualcomm's royalties allow Qual-
comm to lower the price of its chips, which then prevents chip competitors
from "underbidding" Qualcomm. AB54. But this theory fails at the outset,
6 Mr. Chong also obviously misunderstood Qualcomm's upfront license
fee, asserting that it was "recouped" over time by buying Qualcomm mo-
dem chips; that is plainly incorrect from the face of the agreement. Com-
pare 2SER0347 with 2FER210-2FER211. The amounts due under the li-
cense are not recouped, and do not otherwise change, based on an OEM's
chip selection; they therefore do not provide an incentive to buy chips
from Qualcomm.
because it is irreconcilable with the District Court's factual finding that
Qualcomm "charge[s] monopoly prices on modem chips." 6ER1364; see
also 6ER1194-6ER1195 (CDMA chips); 6ER1206 ("premium LTE"
chips).7
Moreover, the evidence showed that responsibility for chip pricing
rests with an entirely separate business unit from licensing, with no vis-
ibility into the terms of customers' license agreements. 3ER793:2-
3ER794:4; 2ER426:18-2ER427:3. More fundamentally, the evidence
shows that prices for modem chips are set for each cellphone model
through a bidding process. See 3ER791:23-3ER792:23; 1FER41:23-
1FER43:25. The FTC itself presented evidence that Qualcomm lowers its
price in bids where it faces competition. 1SER0119:10-1SER0120:8;
1SER0125:14-1SER0126:9.
Nevertheless, the FTC now hypothesizes, without any support in
the District Court's findings or in record evidence, that had Qualcomm's
7 The FTC cites to the District Court's reference to "underbidding,"
AB23; AB54 (citing 6ER1351), to suggest its theory is consistent with
that of the District Court. It is not. The District Court never made any
finding that Qualcomm reduced the price of its chips. Rather, it believed
that Qualcomm prevented "underbidding" because "the surcharge . . .
raises the market price of rivals' chips." 6ER1351 (emphases added).
royalties been lower, Qualcomm would have charged more for its chips,
such that rivals could more easily underbid Qualcomm's prices. AB23;
AB54. That is wrong. The record evidence shows that in the real world,
Qualcomm would not keep its prices high while its rivals win business;
Qualcomm would respond by reducing its own prices if it could still make
a profitable sale. 1FER117:18-1FER119:15; 3ER791:23-3ER792:23;
1FER41:23-1FER43:25. A lower royalty would not shield rival chipmak-
ers from competition; with or without a surcharge, Qualcomm would
lower its price as needed to meet the competition. This is garden-variety
price competition that the law encourages.
2. Reduction in Rivals' Margins. Next, the District Court assumed
(again without proof) that the economic burden of Qualcomm's purported
surcharge fell squarely on rivals. 6ER1351. The FTC concedes that the
textbook cited by the District Court as the sole support for this proposi-
tion says no such thing; to the contrary, it states that "how buyers and
sellers ultimately share [] economic burdens [] depends on the 'elasticities
of supply and demand.'" AB43 n.7. The FTC offered no proof of these elas-
ticities and the District Court did not address the question; there is no
proof that Qualcomm's royalties had any effect on competitors' margins,
as opposed to affecting the margins of the OEM, of its customers, its sup-
pliers, or some combination thereof. See also OB28; OB78-OB79.
The FTC next argues that the District Court "was not required to
quantify the extent to which rivals pass on the alleged surcharge to
OEMs." AB59. But Qualcomm's rivals pay no royalty to Qualcomm, and
have nothing to "pass on" to OEMs. OB28. It was the FTC's burden to
show that a purported surcharge collected from OEMs diminished rival
chip suppliers' margins, their R&D spending, and ultimately, their abil-
ity to offer competitive products; the FTC cannot make that showing by
pretending that the supposed surcharge was imposed on chip suppliers
in the first place.8
Similarly unavailing is the FTC's argument that it was not required
to prove that chip suppliers bore the burden of allegedly excessive royal-
ties, because "Qualcomm is liable for its anticompetitive exclusion . . . re-
gardless of how the harms of that exclusion are distributed between com-
petitors . . . and consumers." AB59. This presupposes the ultimate issue,
8 The FTC's reliance on United States v. Dentsply International, 399
F.3d 181 (3d Cir. 2005), is unavailing. AB60. Qualcomm never argued
that the FTC had to quantify the exact effects on competitors. Rather,
Qualcomm pointed out that much more is needed than six layers of gen-
eral hypothesizing.
i.e., whether the alleged surcharge had the effect of excluding rival chip-
makers. However, under the FTC's theory, if the royalties are borne not
by rivals, but rather by OEMs or their customers, then there would be no
"anticompetitive exclusion" to begin with—rivals' margins would be un-
affected and their R&D efforts would not suffer.9 By arguing that it does
not matter who bore the burdens of the allegedly excessive royalties, the
FTC essentially concedes it did not even attempt to prove that rivals' mar-
gins were affected—the very crux of any "raising rivals' costs" theory.10
3. Reduction in R&D. Finally, the FTC had to prove that the (com-
pletely unproven) diminution in rivals' margins stunted their R&D ef-
forts and made them less competitive. Here too, the testimony referred
to by the FTC, that rival chipmakers are "'very sensitive' to the sales and
9 To the extent the FTC is arguing that it can prove anticompetitive
effects even if the harm was borne entirely by OEMs or consumers, it is
wrong. "Reducing consumers' choices or increasing prices to consumers
does not sufficiently allege an injury to competition." Brantley v. NBC
Universal, Inc., 675 F.3d 1192, 1202 (9th Cir. 2012).
10 The FTC's claim is further undermined by its concession that even
the collection of reasonable royalties (to which Qualcomm is indisputably
entitled) would provide Qualcomm a competitive advantage, AB39 n.4,
coupled with its failure to prove that the purported surcharge would sub-
stantially enhance that advantage. The FTC offered no evidence, and the
District Court made no finding, that the supposed "surcharge" had any
effect beyond that of a reasonable royalty.
revenues they anticipate R&D investments will yield," AB61-AB62,
hardly proves the point. At most, it stands for the unremarkable propo-
sition that firms will not invest in R&D if they do not expect a return on
their investment. But this is theory alone; it says nothing about how sup-
posedly diminished margins resulting from Qualcomm's licenses affected
R&D spending in the real world, generally or at any specific chipmaker.
Indeed, the record contains no evidence from any chipmaker suggesting
that Qualcomm's royalties factored into its R&D decisions, or were an
impediment to R&D plans. To the contrary, direct evidence rebuts any
conclusion that Qualcomm's rivals were incapable of investing in R&D if
it made sense to do so. For example, there is no question that Intel had
sufficient resources to devote to R&D, but for years its technical results
were insufficient to meet the technical and supply requirements of Apple.
7ER1575; 1FER79:24-1FER84:23. Likewise, an ST-Ericsson executive
testified that his firm failed as a chip supplier due to execution problems,
and that additional capital would not have helped it to become more com-
petitive. OB83; 3ER651. This affirmative evidence demonstrates a clean
causal break in the FTC's already flawed logic that competition was
harmed.
Practices.
Qualcomm has sound justifications for the business practices at is-
sue. See OB44-OB45; OB48-OB51. Given that Qualcomm started as a li-
censing business, Qualcomm always needed to prevent a situation where
chip sales to OEMs could be said to exhaust some of its patents, relieving
the OEM from its obligation to pay royalties to Qualcomm. To that end,
Qualcomm never provided exhaustive licenses to other chipmakers, al-
ways focusing its efforts on licensing OEM customers. In the same vein,
Qualcomm always sold modem chips only to OEMs that have taken a
license, ensuring contractual protection against claims by purchasers
that buying the chips relieved them of the need to pay royalties for their
use of Qualcomm's patents. OB11-OB13. Having the contractual protec-
tion of a license in place before selling chips legitimately protects Qual-
comm from claims that the chip sale "exhausted" Qualcomm's patents
and relieved OEMs of the need to pay for those rights. 1FER152:20-
1FER156:3; 4ER857-4ER858; Impression Prods., Inc. v. Lexmark Int'l,
Inc., 137 S. Ct. 1523, 1531 (2017); In re Qualcomm Litig., 2018 WL
6062352, at *5-6 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2018).
Selling only to licensed OEMs also ensures that Qualcomm does not
help OEMs that infringe its patents, at the competitive expense of OEMs
who have agreed to take a license. 1FER131:10-1FER132:10; 3SER0550;
1FER63:5-1FER68:19; 1FER90.
Qualcomm has conducted all of its modem chip sales with these
safeguards, since the very beginning of its chip business, at a time when
it could not have had market power, and in chip markets in which the
FTC never even alleged any market power. OB13-OB17. During the more
than 25 years that Qualcomm has followed this practice, the cellular in-
dustry has grown faster and more dynamically than perhaps any other
industry in history. OB9; 3ER680:21-3ER681:6.
The District Court acknowledged these justifications, 6ER1330
(sale of chips only to licensed OEMs); 6ER1305 (licensing only OEMs).
The Court did not doubt, for example, that Qualcomm was seeking to
preserve its patent licensing program from being undermined by exhaus-
tion. The District Court nonetheless dismissed them as "pretextual,"
6ER1298-6ER1300, based on the assumption that avoiding patent ex-
haustion is improper, see, e.g., 6ER1210. In fact, Qualcomm has the right
to earn a return on its investment in developing patented technologies by
licensing at the OEM level and not making exhaustive sales of modem
chips. See Impression Prods., 137 S. Ct. at 1531; Michel at 25-26. And
Qualcomm has a valid interest in protecting its investments in innova-
tion and R&D and its OEM licensing program. Image Tech. Servs., Inc.
v. Eastman Kodak Co., 125 F.3d 1195, 1218 (9th Cir. 1997).
As such, the District Court's conclusion was legal error. See Bose
Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 501 (1984) (errors
of law include "a finding of fact that is predicated on a misunderstanding
of the governing rule of law"); Kirola v. City & Cnty. of S.F., 860 F.3d
1164, 1179 n.7 (9th Cir. 2017) (explaining that "where, as here, the cred-
ibility finding was based on a legal interpretations, we review that legal
interpretation de novo").
III. QUALCOMM'S DISCOUNTING AGREEMENTS WERE NOT
UNLAWFUL "EXCLUSIVE DEALING" ARRANGEMENTS.
The District Court erred in its sweeping condemnation of discounts
that Qualcomm has provided—or merely offered—to its modem chip cus-
tomers. Antitrust law favors discounts because they reflect price compe-
tition and lower prices to consumers. Accordingly, above-cost discounts
are generally considered per se legal. See OB108; see, e.g., Weyerhaeuser
Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co., 549 U.S. 312, 319 (2007);
Brooke Grp. Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 509 U.S. 209,
223 (1993). The same is true of discounts conditioned on the customer's
meeting certain volume or share thresholds ("conditional discounts"). An
efficient competitor can always win the business by offering a matching
or better discount, superior products, or both. See Allied Orthopedic Ap-
pliances Inc. v. Tyco Health Care Grp. LP, 592 F.3d 991, 997-98 (9th Cir.
2010); ZF Meritor, LLC v. Eaton Corp., 696 F.3d 254, 275 (3d Cir. 2012);
Concord Boat Corp. v. Brunswick Corp., 207 F.3d 1039, 1060-61 (8th Cir.
Apple Agreements Must Be Reversed.
The FTC does not seriously defend the District Court's ruling that
a series of actual and proposed agreements with OEMs besides Apple are
prohibited exclusive dealing arrangements. OB114-OB115. Nor could it:
the District Court made no finding that the agreements either resulted
in below-cost pricing or (even collectively) foreclosed a substantial share
of the market. But the FTC argues the District Court merely contextual-
ized the Apple agreements. AB98-AB99. It never explains what that
means, or how it satisfies the governing legal standard. The District
Court ordered specific injunctive relief addressing these agreements.
6ER1395-6ER1396. And without any analysis of the extent of foreclosure,
the discounts offered to other OEMs cannot provide "context" to the
equally erroneous conclusions concerning the Apple agreements.
Discounts.
Below, the FTC presented evidence concerning only a single Qual-
comm agreement with Apple—the First Amended Transition Agreement
(FATA)—claiming that it foreclosed Intel from supplying chips to Apple
for five iPad models. OB110-OB111. Here, the FTC also defends the Dis-
trict Court's ruling as to an earlier Apple agreement—the Transition
Agreement (TA)—even though at trial it presented no evidence even sug-
gesting that agreement had any foreclosure effect.
The TA and FATA provided discounts to Apple. They were not "ex-
clusive dealing" agreements, because rather than require exclusivity,
they permitted Apple to change its chip supplier at any time. 3ER745:13-
19. There is no basis for the FTC's contrary claim that the agreements
"precluded Apple from working with any of Qualcomm's rivals." AB88.
Apple worked closely with alternative chip suppliers throughout their
terms, and switched to Intel chips in 2016. See 3ER671:5-9; 1FER109:24-
Absent any requirement of exclusivity, it is dispositive that the TA
and FATA resulted in above-cost pricing for Qualcomm. OB108-OB109.
The FTC nonetheless argues that the Apple agreements are unlawful be-
cause of the so-called "clawback" provision, under which Apple received
up-front discounts and committed to return a portion of them if it
changed its chip supplier. AB89-AB90. But this Court has held that the
below-cost pricing rule applies to discounts that are "conditional." Condi-
tional discounts, without "something more," are not exclusive dealing ar-
rangements unless they "prevent the buyer from purchasing a given good
from any other vendor." Allied Orthopedic, 592 F.3d at 996-97 (emphasis
added); see also W. Parcel Express v. United Parcel Serv. of Am. Inc., 190
F.3d 974, 975-76 (9th Cir. 1999).11 Other circuits hold that above-cost
conditional discounts are per se legal. Meritor, 696 F.3d at 274 n.11 (col-
lecting cases).
11Allied Orthopedic made clear that an above-cost conditional dis-
count, "without more," is not an exclusive deal, resolving the question left
open in Cascade Health Solutions v. PeaceHealth, 515 F.3d 883, 916 n.27
(9th Cir. 2008), and Masimo Corp. v. Tyco Health Care Group, L.P., 350
F. App'x. 95 (9th Cir. 2009). The FTC's reliance on a concurring opinion
in the unpublished ruling in Masimo, 350 F. App'x. at 99 (Bea, J., con-
curring in part and concurring in the judgment), AB90, is therefore mis-
placed.
The decisions cited by the FTC are inapposite. AB89. Each involved
restraints that went beyond discounts to induce exclusivity. See McWane,
Inc. v. FTC, 783 F.3d 814, 820-21 (11th Cir. 2015) (cut-off from purchas-
ing products for up to three months); Meritor, 696 F.3d at 265-66 (con-
tractual limitations on display of competitors' products); Masimo Corp. v.
Tyco Health Care Grp. L.P., 2006 WL 1236666, at *4-6 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 22,
2006) (discounts on products with fixed demand if the buyer committed
to purchasing other products), aff'd, 350 F. App'x 95 (9th Cir. 2009); see
Areeda & Hovenkamp, Antitrust Law ¶ 1807b2 (4th ed. Supp. 2019) (not-
ing that conditional discounts should "not be subjected to the laws of ex-
clusive dealing," unless below cost).
Nothing about the Apple agreements justifies departing from the
rule of per se legality. The agreements' structure reflects a valid business
purpose. Apple insisted on receiving large, upfront payments.
1FER100:20-1FER102:22; 1FER48:3-1FER49:13. For its part, Qual-
comm invested heavily in designing chips that would work with Apple's
products. 1FER56:15-1FER58:10. Qualcomm needed assurance that Ap-
ple would in fact purchase a volume of chips that would justify the up-
front payments, and would return some portion if those volumes did not
materialize. 3ER777:7-15. Hence, the need for a "clawback."
Importantly, the Apple agreements, even with the clawbacks, never
resulted in below-cost pricing. It is undisputed that a competitor that was
equally efficient to Qualcomm could profitably win Apple's business, even
if it had to compensate Apple for any clawed-back amounts or unearned
discounts. The proof is in the pudding: Apple in fact switched to Intel as
a supplier and the FTC's own expert estimated that Apple forfeited $640
million. 1SER0131:25-1SER0132:21; 2FER192.12
C. The Apple Agreements Did Not Foreclose a
Substantial Share of the Relevant Market.
Even if a discounting agreement provides below-cost pricing and
therefore functions as an exclusive dealing agreement, it remains lawful
so long as it does not foreclose a "substantial share" of competition.
12 In a footnote, the FTC claims that the District Court's comment that
"Qualcomm sacrificed profits for exclusivity" satisfies the price-cost test.
AB93 n.25. But the price-cost test requires something the District Court
did not find: pricing below cost, not just lower profits. See Cascade Health,
515 F.3d at 903. Intel seemingly concedes that a showing of below-cost
pricing is required, but its claims that Qualcomm engaged in below-cost
pricing have no record support. Intel at 36-38. The testimony Intel cites,
1SER0135-1SER0140, says no such thing, and the District Court made
no such finding.
Tampa Elec. Co. v. Nashville Coal Co., 365 U.S. 320, 327 (1961). That is
because exclusive dealing arrangements are often pro-competitive. See
Allied Orthopedic, 592 F.3d at 996.
The general rule is that "substantial" foreclosure involves preclud-
ing competition in 40% to 50% of the market. OB110. This Court has not
adopted the D.C. Circuit's dictum that a lesser market share could be
appropriate in cases involving monopolists. AB95 (citing Microsoft, 253
F.3d at 70). But the precise standard makes no difference here, because
the Apple agreements did not affect competition in anything approaching
a substantial share of the relevant market.
At trial, the FTC offered no evidence that the TA foreclosed compe-
tition—at all.13 With respect to the FATA, the FTC's expert testified that
in the relevant time period—before Apple began using Intel chips in
2016—Qualcomm's competitors "had a shot" at providing chips only for
five iPad models, and no iPhones. 1SER0195:8-1SER197:2; 2FER193-
13 Here, the FTC cites in a footnote its own closing argument rather
than trial evidence, AB98 n.29, which obviously is no substitute. United
States v. Tootick, 952 F.2d 1078, 1083-86 (9th Cir. 1991).
2FER194 (contestable iPad sales were only units).14 That is so
because the only plausible competitor—Intel—did not yet have a chip
that could support voice calls over LTE. 1FER84:14-16. The iPads at is-
sue made up just 5% of Apple's own demand for modem chips, and there-
fore only a sliver of the "premium LTE" chip market accepted by the Dis-
trict Court. OB110-OB111. That is well below any plausible threshold of
substantial foreclosure.
In this Court, the FTC cites two documents, belatedly arguing that
Qualcomm recognized that Apple as a company—as opposed to the con-
testable portion of its demand—accounted for "between 40% and 60%" of
premium-LTE chip demand between 2014 and 2016. AB94 & n.26. The
FTC never cited these documents at trial, for good reason. First, the law
is clear: the relevant measure of foreclosure here is not Apple's share of
the market, but rather the portion of the relevant market that competi-
tors had the ability to serve but did not serve as a result of the Apple
14 The FTC never explains its passing statement in a footnote that its
expert did not conduct a formal "foreclosure analysis." AB95 n.27. There
is no such requirement, and the label makes no difference. The FTC's
expert unambiguously testified as to which Apple products were "contest-
able"—i.e., could viably be won by a Qualcomm competitor. 1SER0195:8-
1SER0196:22.
agreements. See Areeda & Hovenkamp, supra, ¶ 570b1 (foreclosure anal-
ysis looks at "selling opportunities reasonably open to rivals, namely, all
the product and geographic sales they may readily compete for") (empha-
ses added). Five iPad models is well below substantial foreclosure. Sec-
ond, the documents principally reflect projections, and importantly, noth-
ing indicates those correspond to the "premium LTE" market defined by
the District Court. For example, the documents describe a market of 373
million "premium" units in 2015, AB94 n.26, while the premium-LTE
market identified by the FTC included vastly more: nearly 650 million.
1SER0126:10-1SER0127:2; 2FER191.
Like the District Court, the FTC provides no legal support for the
suggestion that Apple's status as a customer justifies applying a vastly
less rigorous standard, nor cites a single case condemning an agreement
that forecloses, at most, a fraction of the demand of a single customer,
however "important." AB96.
IV. THE DISTRICT COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW IN
IMPOSING ITS INJUNCTION.
Independent of its liability determination, the District Court erred
in entering an injunction for three reasons: (1) it deemed it irrelevant
whether Qualcomm would have market power prospectively; (2) it failed
to account for the fact that the injunction would harm the public interest
by damaging national security; and (3) it did not tailor the injunction to
avoid regulating wholly foreign commerce and overriding the judgments
of foreign regulators.
Erroneously Deemed It Irrelevant Whether
Qualcomm Would Continue To Have Market Power.
The District Court imposed a prospective injunction because Qual-
comm's conduct was likely to continue, without regard to whether that
conduct would constitute an antitrust violation. AB100-AB101. That was
legal error. OB115-OB119. It is settled that injunctions exist to "prevent
future violations" of law. United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 345 U.S. 629,
633 (1953). The identical conduct may violate the antitrust laws under
one set of conditions and be innocuous—or even pro-competitive—under
another. They accordingly may issue under Section 13(b) "only if" a past
violation is "ongoing or likely to recur." OB116 (citation omitted).
A "violation" requires more than conduct; evidence of ongoing or
likely-to-recur monopoly power in a relevant market is also required.
OB116-OB117. Here, the injunction prohibits conduct that, absent mo-
nopoly power, will not harm competition; the injunction therefore not
only lacks a statutory basis but also serves no purpose and interferes with
the ordinary operation of market forces.
Because the evidence showed that Qualcomm would not continue
to have market power in the relevant markets—CDMA and "premium
LTE"—the District Court's error requires reversal. OB117-OB119. The
FTC's expert recognized that Qualcomm's market share in both the
CDMA and "premium LTE" markets has been rapidly declining since
2014. 3ER677:8-3ER679:12. In CDMA, the FTC's expert estimated that
MediaTek captured 37.1% of the market by 2016, about one year after its
entry. 1SER0150:12-1SER0151:8; 2FER190. In "premium LTE," the evi-
dence showed that by 2017, Qualcomm's share had already dipped below
50%. 2ER493:6-18; 6ER1442-6ER1443. By 2018, MediaTek, Intel, Sam-
sung, and Huawei had all entered both markets. 2ER489:6-2ER490:7;
2ER491:20-2ER492:8; 3ER683:11-21. Qualcomm's declining shares re-
flect an increasingly competitive market, and the FTC presented no evi-
dence suggesting that Qualcomm's precipitous decline in market share
had ceased by March 2018 or would reverse itself thereafter. This is es-
pecially meaningful here because the FTC's theory cannot stand on some
attenuated measure of market power; the premise of the theory is that
OEMs must have Qualcomm's chips, i.e., that Qualcomm enjoys an abso-
lute or close to absolute monopoly. By the time of trial, however, viable
alternatives were available in all markets; indeed, the three largest
OEMs—Apple, Samsung, and Huawei—were purchasing only a small mi-
nority of their aggregate demand from Qualcomm. 3ER789:1-3ER791:12.
The FTC erroneously suggests that the District Court concluded
that Qualcomm will continue to have market power. AB102. If the Dis-
trict Court intended to make such a finding, it would have done so explic-
itly; instead, it held that there is "no legal requirement that a plaintiff
show future market power." 6ER1387. The District Court's non-specific
statement that Qualcomm's competitors are "hobbled," 6ER1369, does
not overcome the actual evidence that Qualcomm will lack market power
in the future. OB117-OB119.
The District Court also erred in extending the injunction to 5G tech-
nology—an error that directly gives rise to serious national security con-
cerns. See infra Section IV.B. The FTC limited its case to two narrow chip
markets, rather than all modem chips. The FTC's choice here matters,
because it naturally circumscribes any injunctive relief. Remedies must
be narrowly tailored to redress the harm, and here, it does not follow that
any harm will occur in a nascent, undefined 5G chip market. And absent
detailed findings, a district court's discretion to impose "fencing-in" rem-
edies does not extend to fields with no defined market at all. See OB116-
OB117. Here, the FTC's own expert disclaimed any ability to reliably an-
alyze whether Qualcomm will have market power with respect to 5G
chips. 3ER681:7-3ER683:6. For good reason. At the time of trial, there
were no 5G chips—only announcements from Qualcomm's major compet-
itors indicating strong potential competition. 4ER844:15-19; 3ER783:5-
21; 3ER784:5-23; 2ER436:24-2ER437:4. Qualcomm's aspirational projec-
tions about its technical prowess in the field generally, 6ER1387-
6ER1388, are not sufficient to find that it will in fact have monopoly
Without Regard to Its Effect on the Public Interest.
The FTC defends the District Court's failure to consider whether its
injunction would disserve the public interest. AB105; 6ER1383. Regard-
less of whether a preliminary or permanent injunction is at issue, this
Court's precedents hold that under Section 13(b)'s second proviso an in-
junction is appropriate only when "the usual equitable standards" are
satisfied. See OB121-OB123; FTC v. H.N. Singer, Inc., 668 F.2d 1107,
1111 (9th Cir. 1982) (second proviso applies to preliminary and perma-
nent injunctions). The FTC's reliance on United States v. E.I. du Pont de
Nemours & Co. is misplaced because that decision requires that injunc-
tions be tailored to minimize injury to the "interest of the general public."
366 U.S. 316, 327-28 (1961) (citation omitted).
The FTC offers no basis to doubt the conclusions of the Depart-
ments of Defense and Energy that the injunction threatens national se-
curity. See AB106-AB108. The FTC's argument that those express, ex-
pert determinations are irrelevant because in every case "competition
furthers the public interest," AB107-AB108, reduces to the claim that
every liability finding automatically requires imposing an injunction.
That rule cannot be reconciled with Winter v. Natural Resources Defense
Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 23-25 (2008), and eBay v. MercExchange, L.L.C.,
547 U.S. 388, 391 (2006).
There also is no merit to the FTC's argument that the United States
is barred from presenting these serious national security concerns be-
cause Qualcomm waived this argument. Precisely because this question
relates to the interests of the public generally—not Qualcomm individu-
ally—this Court should not lightly find waiver. Qualcomm's pretrial sub-
missions, which the District Court deemed to be sufficient, 1FER95:2-8,
expressly address harm to national security. 7ER1706-7ER1707,
7ER1711-7ER1713. The District Court rejected a request by the United
States to hold a separate remedial proceeding in which the issue could
have been further elaborated. 6ER1392-6ER1393. Having been denied
the opportunity to litigate the issue, Qualcomm cannot now be said to
have waived it. See Reno Air Racing Ass'n v. McCord, 452 F.3d 1126, 1138
n.13 (9th Cir. 2006).
Injunction.
The District Court extended its remedy to wholly foreign commerce,
enjoining conduct affecting licenses of non-U.S. patents that govern the
manufacture, use, and sale of devices only abroad (e.g., Qualcomm's Chi-
nese Patent License Agreements, see OB127-OB128). That was error. The
Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA) limits the reach of
the Sherman Act to conduct having "a direct, substantial, and reasonably
foreseeable effect" on domestic commerce. 15 U.S.C. §§ 6(a)(1), 45(a)(2).
Conduct concerning licenses that affect only the manufacture and sale of
products outside the U.S. does not meet this requirement; any effect on
U.S. commerce would be indirect at most. See United States v. LSL Bio-
technologies, 379 F.3d 672, 674, 680-82 (9th Cir. 2004) (allegations of re-
duced innovation and increased prices in U.S. did not constitute "direct"
effects).
The FTC acknowledges that it may seek foreign remedies only "to
the extent necessary 'to effectively redress harm . . . to U.S. commerce.'"
AB111 n.39 (citation omitted). But it nonetheless maintains that the
FTAIA is irrelevant to the District Court's determination of an appropri-
ate remedy. AB111. That is incorrect. The FTAIA prevents the "risk of
interference with a foreign nation's ability independently to regulate its
own commercial affairs" by limiting the application of U.S. "remedies."
F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A., 542 U.S. 155, 165-68
(2004). An alleged antitrust violation accordingly must be "analyzed for
its separate domestic and foreign components," In re Rubber Chems. An-
titrust Litig., 504 F. Supp. 2d 777, 784 (N.D. Cal. 2007), and only that
component with a "direct" (as well as "substantial" and "reasonably fore-
seeable") effect on U.S. commerce is subject to U.S. antitrust law, In re
Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) Antitrust Litig., No. 07-md-01819
CW, 2010 WL 5477313, at *4, *7 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 31, 2010); see OB129-
OB130. Contra AB111.15
The FTC does not dispute that foreign regulators have imposed
remedies that differ from the District Court's injunction. See AB112
(China and Taiwan).16 But it errs in asserting that this case implicates
no comity concerns because foreign regulators have not affirmatively for-
bidden Qualcomm from licensing its chip rivals. AB112. Comity compels
deference to the foreign jurisdiction's determination how to protect com-
petition even if not in direct opposition to U.S. injunctions. See Mujica v.
AirScan Inc., 771 F.3d 580, 602 (9th Cir. 2014) (rejecting "true conflict"
requirement).17
15 That some markets affect U.S. commerce in a way that makes global
injunctions appropriate, see AB109-AB111, does not mean that injunc-
tions are appropriate insofar as they address wholly foreign commerce.
16 This Court can take judicial notice of foreign regulatory proceedings.
See Singh v. Ashcroft, 393 F.3d 903, 905 (9th Cir. 2004). That course is
particularly appropriate with respect to the revocations of the Taiwanese
and Japanese regulatory determinations—on which the District Court
had relied—that Qualcomm violated their respective nations' antitrust
laws. See OB128-OB129; 1FER6-1FER7; 1FER3.
17 Qualcomm did not waive its comity objection. Contra AB112. It pre-
sented evidence about CPLAs, including that the Chinese government
rejected requiring Qualcomm to exhaustively license its Chinese SEPs to
chip suppliers. 1FER169-1FER170; 2ER431:7-2ER434:17; 1FER12:25-
1FER13:22.
This Court's Order granting a stay, the amicus brief of the United
States, and the FTC's inability to defend central aspects of the ruling be-
low make plain that the District Court's decision cannot stand. The deci-
sion upends the longstanding business practices of the nation's leading
innovator in the most dynamic industry of our time, which is thriving.
One would expect so disruptive an intervention to be based on established
antitrust principles and due respect for national security concerns. The
ruling below is anything but. Instead, as the Department of Justice has
made clear, the District Court adopted novel legal rules that conflict with
settled precedent and that will impede, not promote, competition and in-
novation. The judgment should be reversed.
December 13, 2019 Respectfully submitted,
Gary A. Bornstein /s/ Thomas C. Goldstein
Antony L. Ryan Thomas C. Goldstein
Yonatan Even Kevin K. Russell
M. Brent Byars Eric F. Citron
CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP GOLDSTEIN & RUSSELL, P.C.
825 Eighth Avenue 7475 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 850
New York, NY 10019-7475 Bethesda, MD 20814
This brief contains 13,029 words, excluding the items exempted by
Fed. R. App. P. 32(f). The brief's type size and typeface comply with Fed.
R. App. P. 32(a)(5) and (6).
I certify that this brief is accompanied by a motion to file a longer
brief pursuant to Cir. R. 32-2(a).
December 13, 2019 /s/Thomas C. Goldstein
Thomas C. Goldstein
I hereby certify that I electronically filed the foregoing with
the Clerk of the Court for the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit by using the appellate CM/ECF system on De-
cember 16, 2019. All participants in the case are registered
CM/ECF users, and service will be accomplished by the appellate
CM/ECF system.
/s/Thomas C. Goldstein
Royalty Payment
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