A Victory for Dynamic Competition

The Ninth Circuit handed the Federal Trade Commission its head in its unanimous reversal of the FTC’s “antitrust adventurism” against wireless technology innovator Qualcomm. This ruling not only corrects the district court’s multiple errors that threatened to disrupt fundamental antitrust and intellectual property principles, it puts down a bright marker for property rights and the rule of law.

The appeals court decision in FTC v. Qualcomm strikes a victory for dynamic competition. This kind of competition comes from the exercise of one’s patent exclusivity.

This may sound counterintuitive because antitrust promotes competition judged by consumer welfare. The court quotes former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright: “Because innovation involves new products and business practices, courts[’] and economists’ initial understanding of these practices will skew initial likelihoods that innovation is anticompetitive and the proper subject of antitrust scrutiny.”