Qualcomm is the big winner as the FTC refuses to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in
Slaughter was not a member of the FTC when the lawsuit was originally filed in January 2017 during the waning days of the Obama administration. Now that the FTC has decided not to take the case to the Supreme Court, it can be considered a complete vindication for the chip maker whose style of doing business was criticized by the entire mobile industry. The company would always defend itself by noting that it used licensing fees and royalties to fund its R&D to help it create faster and improved components for its customers.
Qualcomm, of course, was pleased by the agency’s decision to drop the case. Don Rosenberg, general counsel of Qualcomm, stated, “Qualcomm got to where it is today by investing tens of billions of dollars in R&D and inventing technologies used by billions of people around the world. Now, more than ever, we must preserve the fundamental incentives to innovate and compete.”