Senators Caution White House Over ITC’s Looming iPhone Ban

On August 5 an International Trade Commission import ban on older iPhones and iPads found to infringe one of Samsung’s standards-essential patents will go into effect — unless the White House overturns it. Will it? We’ll find out for certain come August 2, the deadline for the Obama Administration to weigh in on the matter.

But in the meantime, the chorus of voices urging the White House to take particular care with this decision is growing. A bipartisan group of senators has sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Michael Froman — the guy in charge of the presidential review of the ITC order — urging him to carefully consider the public interest as he weighs whether or not to veto the ITC’s order blocking the U.S. sale of AT&T iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. The letter, which takes no position on the merits of the case, cautions Froman to be wary of companies that use so-called standards-essential patents that are to be freely licensed at a “fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory rate” (FRAND) as anticompetitive weapons. And it urges him not to set a precedent that might encourage such behavior. Signing the letter, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights; Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID).