Quanta Brief Brobins

Brief of Minebea Co. Ltd. as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioners

• Goal of brief is to convince US Federal Court of Appeals to grant a writ of certiorari reguarding the FC decision.

• This appeal also needs to happen immediately to avoid "patent taxes" on manufacturing.

• Minebea sells a variety of industrial and electronic components and owns many patents.

• Court must apply doctrine of frist sale to all patents.

• First Sale Doctine-once a patentee has authorized the sale into commerce of any article which embodies the essential features, the patent is exhausted.

• Companies have long tried to avoid exhausting the patent through contract limitations.

• US v Univis- established that express disclaimers constitute "conditional licenses" which DO trigger the exaustion clause.

• FC ruling will have a very detrimental effect on the economy including the legalization of a "patent tax" on manufacturers. Complex inventions which use hundreds of patented items will be taxed on each one, rendering them extremely expensive.

• Legally, the FC decision to allow LGE to control the use or resale of the patented article after its first sale violates the first sale doctrine.

• Inconsistant with decision in Univis. The courts described in Univis that licensing schemes were to be condemned and this case represents essentially the same situation.

• Just because LGE made Intel report to customers that the product they were buying contained articles of a limited scope, it still constitutes a sale to another company.

• Conclusion: Appeal should be granted on legal terms and immediately for practical reasons related to the far reaching consequences of current FC decision.