A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

companies enter into arbitration over the dispute, which the Federal Circuit’s majority opinion called “wholly groundless.” InterDigital had filed a complaint with the ITC in 2011 claiming multiple companies, including LG, were infringing its patents on 3G wireless technology; the ITC agreed with LG’s argument that an expired patent licensing agreement between InterDigital and LG required the companies to use an arbitrator. The Federal Circuit ruled that since the licensing agreement between the companies had expired, LG no longer held a license for the 3G technology and therefore could not use the agreement to justify the ITC’s decision. The ITC and LG claimed the Federal Circuit did not have jurisdiction because it could only decide cases involving the ITC where there was a final determination. That was an “overly restrictive” description of the court’s jurisdiction, Judge Sharon Prost wrote in her majority opinion. Judge William Bryson joined the majority opinion. Judge Alan Lourie said in a dissenting opinion that while he agreed with the majority that LG’s argument for arbitration lacked merit, he did not feel the court had jurisdiction (http://1.usa.gov/195P4H6). An ITC spokeswoman declined comment, noting that the agency doesn’t discuss matters under litigation. An InterDigital spokesman also declined to comment. LG did not respond to a request for comment.