Public Policy Evaluation of RAND Decisions in Apple v. Motorola, Motorola v. Microsoft, in Re Innovatio, and Ericsson v. D-Link

The recent decisions in the Apple v. Motorola, Motorola v. Microsoft, In Re Innovatio, and Ericsson v. D-Link cases have offered much-needed guidance on U.S. courts' interpretation of what constitutes F/RAND licensing terms in the standard-setting context. In this paper, we have discussed the implications of these rulings from the perspective of economics and public policy. The courts have generally relied on modified versions of the criteria used in determining “reasonable royalty” patent infringement damages. Whereas some of these proposed modifications are sensible in our view, others are inconsistent with generally accepted economic principles and are likely to have an adverse effect on incentives to innovate