Exclusive: Lindsey Graham was 'concerned' by Avanci patent pool

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Exclusive: Lindsey Graham was 'concerned' by Avanci patent pool

Lindsey Graham, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee

In a letter revealed to MIP, the former judiciary committee chair said he was concerned that the business review letter for the Avanci 5G pool 'was unnecessary'

Senator Lindsey Graham expressed concerns over the Avanci 5G patent pool in a letter to the Department of Justice shortly after the platform was launched in July 2020, it emerged this week as part of a freedom of information request made by Managing IP last year.

According to a letter sent to now-former attorney general William Barr and then-antitrust head Makan Delrahim, the now-ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (and former committee chair) Graham said he was also concerned that the antitrust division’s actions “were unnecessary”.

“Given the issuance of a business review letter is entirely discretionary, I am concerned that the division’s actions here were unnecessary,” he said. “The division’s intervention may cause significant disruption in an already difficult time, negatively impacting the American economy, jobs, and innovation.”

Graham's letter was addressing the business review letter that the DoJ had published on July 28 2020 approving the Avanci 5G platform, a standard essential patent (SEP) licensing pool designed to bring together 5G patent owners and car makers. The pool was launched the day after, on July 29.

Related stories

The letter by Graham, sent a month later on August 17 and co-signed by fellow South Carolina senator Tim Scott, was issued in response to “substantial concerns from several large automotive suppliers and manufacturers in South Carolina”.

It cited a letter sent by the Alliance of Automotive Innovators on May 28, before the Avanci business review letter was issued, which said that DoJ support for the pool “would likely harm American competitiveness, innovation and job creation in the automotive sector”.

Graham's letter illustrates divisions between the top-ranking Republican in the judiciary committee, who has a big say on the development of intellectual property law in the Senate, and the former antitrust chief at the DoJ, Delrahim, on his IP and SEP policies as they affected the automotive industry. 

The matter of SEP licensing between 4G and 5G patent owners and car makers, and the Avanci 5G patent pool by extension, is a controversial one. There are several cases ongoing in the US and in Europe over end-point versus component-level licensing in the industry. 

In October 2020 Managing IP interviewed Delrahim (who stepped down in January), in which he said he was proud of the business review letters his department had issued, including those related to the Avanci 5G patent pool.

Drugs

more from across site and ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Sapna Palla, who joins the firm from A&O Shearman, said she was impressed by its work with major life sciences businesses
The court’s decision will have brands and their advisers ‘desperately reviewing’ portfolios and filing strategies, sources predict
Simona Lavagnini discusses the Greek classics, Rudyard Kipling's 'If', and how she dreams of beautiful words
Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin’s merger won’t be the last transatlantic tie-up if recent history is anything to go by
Betty Chen reveals litigation opportunities and provides an update on plans to double the firm's headcount in San Francisco
David Parrish expects AI to be among the major talking points for a newly formed committee aimed at protecting the interests of London-based IP practitioners, firms, and their clients
The court, which revealed that the parties had settled their dispute, also upheld findings of infringement
Wu Xiaoping of Wanhuida Intellectual Property says the methodology often applied in assessing inventiveness in pharmaceutical patent litigation cases is set to be used in re-examination and invalidation proceedings after the CNIPA makes an invalidation decision a quasi-precedent
Exclusive data and in-house analysis show that law firms should work smarter, not harder, to ensure their communication has greater impact on clients
The tie-up, which will create a firm with a combined revenue of around $2bn, will add around 10 US-based partners to Herbert Smith Freehills’s IP offering
Gift this article