Applying Basic Antitrust Principles to SEPs

There have been significant calls recently for findings that infringement suits and licensing conduct by patent assertion entities (PAEs) labeled “patent trolls” and by holders of standard essential patents (SEPs) generally are monopolization or attempts to monopolize that violate Sherman Act §2, 15 U.S.C. §2. This paper argues that the basic principles of keeping in mind history and context, and general antitrust principles, apply equally to SEPs and PAEs as to other economic phenomena