Friday, July 12, 2019

Ninth Circuit grant's Qualcomm motion to expedite appeal of FTC's antitrust victory

On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted Qualcomm's motion to expedite its appeal of the FTC v. Qualcomm antitrust ruling (this post continues below the document):

19-07-10 Order Granting Qua... by on Scribd

These are the two key paragraphs:

"The opening brief and excerpts of record are due August 9, 2019; the answering brief is due October 4, 2019; and the optional reply brief is due October 25, 2019."

"This case shall be placed on the first calendar available upon completion of briefing."

That's a tight schedule for such a complex case, but the FTC's litigation team has been very efficient and will probably be able to craft a great response to Qualcomm's opening brief in the eight weeks they will have.

This schedule slightly increases Qualcomm's chances of obtaining a partial stay of enforcement while the appellate proceedings are ongoing. The length of such a stay is part of the consideration. However, even with this schedule it may still be spring or so before the Ninth Circuit actually hands down a decision, given the scope and scale of this case.

By the way, Samsung filed a motion to intervene, but only with respect to the sealing of its highly confidential effective royalty rates under its 2018 deal with Qualcomm.

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