Federal Trade Commission

Arlington, VA. February 1, 2024 - The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in response to the petition for rulemaking to protect consumers’ right to repair products they have purchased.

Arlington, VA. April 21, 2023 - The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission in response to their published notice on Non-Compete Clause Rulemaking, 88 FR 3482, on January 19, 2023. The proposed rule would effectively ban the use of non-competes, with few exceptions.

On June 11, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a Final Order of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), finding that 1-800 Contact’s “typical trademark settlement agreements” did not unreasonably restrain trade in violation the Section 5 of the FTC Act given the lack of direct evidence of an anticompetitive effect and the strong procompetitive justification of protecting 1-800 Contract’s trademarks. The Court of Appeals also found that it did not have sufficient experience with the type of conduct at issue to permit the abbreviated antitrust analysis favored by the Commission, applying a full-blown rule of reason analysis instead. The Court remanded the case to the Commission with instructions to dismiss it.

AIPLA understands antitrust enforcers sometimes refer to “innovation” as “dynamic competition.” We commend modern U.S. antitrust law for recognizing that “competition” and “innovation” are generally synonymous, and that innovation-based competition is equally as important as themore traditional static “price competition”.

AIPLA encourages the FTC to be sensitive to the special role of patents and other forms of intellectual property in fostering innovation that is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, thereby enhancing competition in the U.S. and globally.

While AIPLA in general supports economically efficient licensing of patents and intellectual property assets in general, and has cautioned against overbroad reactions to new market entrants and licensing models, we have expressed appropriate concerns about indiscriminate demand letters sent in bad faith.

The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) respectfully submits this letter in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s second Federal Register notice (“the Second Notice”), dated May 13, 2014, regarding proposed information requests to so-called “patent assertion entities” (PAEs) and other entities asserting patents in the wireless communications sector. 79 Fed. Reg. 28715.

AIPLA Comments to FTC on Section 6(b) PAE Report

AIPLA Comments to FTC/DOJ on the FTC/DOJ December 10, 2012, "Patent Assertion Entity Activities Workshop,"

AIPLA Comments on the Decision and Proposed Consent Order in the Google Proceeding

AIPLA Comments on the Decision and Proposed Consent Order In re Robert Bosch GmbH, FTC File No.121-0081

AIPLA Comments on Standards-Setting Issues In Connection with Patent Standards Workshop

AIPLA Comments on Section 5 Workshop

AIPLA Response to the Decision and Proposed Consent Order in the N-Data proceeding