Justice Department Exits Joint Patent Policy with PTO (1)

The Department of Justice has withdrawn from a joint policy with the Patent and Trademark Office on standard-essential patents.

The 2013 agreement, in which the two agencies said it should be difficult for patent owners to block sales or imports of products based on their use of patents in industry standards, no longer reflects the department’s policy on anticompetitive behavior, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a Dec. 7 speech in Palo Alto, Calif.

Delrahim, the department’s antitrust chief, said his division will work with the PTO to replace the policy.

The 2013 guidelines were issued at the ...