Title
So That’s What RAND Means? A Brief Report on the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in Microsoft v. Motorola
Author
Jorge Contreras
Date
4/30/2014
(Original Publish Date: 4/27/2013)
(Original Publish Date: 4/27/2013)
Abstract
On April 25, 2013, Judge James Robart in the Western District of Washington issued Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in Microsoft v. Motorola. The opinion outlines, for the first time, a court's framework for calculating "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" (RAND) royalty rates for patents essential to industry standards. While the court's analysis establishes a number of important principles for such calculations, particularly the importance of accounting for "royalty stacking," it also leaves open several important questions and its applicability to less widely-adopted standards may be limited.