TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

The FTC Found Philips Not Violating the January Ruling

Our TIPS reported in April 2001 that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) found on January 11, 2001, that the package license of Philips, Sony, and Taiyo Yuden’s patents constituted misuse of dominant power and concerted actions in violation of Fair Trade Law (FTL), and ruled that Phillips, Sony, and Taiyo Yuden should cease the unlawful conduct and be fined.

However, in March and April, the relevant industry and organizations petitioned again to FTC that the package licensing of Phillips still violated FTL. The FTC ruled on May 21 that Phillips, Sony, and Taiyo Yuden have been separately proceeding license negotiations of their CD-R patents after the ruling in January; therefore, no concrete evidence showed these companies violated the January ruling.