In Cascades Computer Innovation LLC v. RPX Corp, Northern District of California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed with leave to amend an antitrust case by Cascades Computer Innovation alleging that several Android device makers had conspired to refuse to deal with it.
Cascades alleged that the companies agreed that none of them would engage in negotiations to license its patents even though those patents are infringed by the defendants’ Android devices. The plaintiff claims that the defendants entered this agreement because Cascades is a nonpracticing entity, a company that holds patents without manufacture products or conducting research and development.
The court held that the complaint alleged insufficient specifics about how the defendants conspired and failed to show how the defendants’ conduct harmed competition or resulted in antitrust injury to the plaintiff. “Due to Cascades’ vague allegations of a group boycott,” Judge Rogers wrote, the plaintiff “has not alleged sufficient facts to show that the injury Cascades has suffered flows from the defendants’ unlawful conduct.”