1) Free: USDOJ Antitrust Division investigates Automotive Licensing Negotiation Group members in pushback against EU, German perversion of law

Targets of the investigation: BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz AG, Volkswagen Group, thyssenkrupp.

A Civil Investigative Demand is a preliminary step that does not always, but often leads to a governmental antitrust lawsuit in U.S. federal court.

The European Commission's DG COMP and the German Bundeskartellamt turned antitrust law on its head with an obviously overbroad market definition. Now there is serious pushback -- and the news broke within an hour or two of our previous article, which commented on USPTO Director John A. Squires's recent speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (in an international trade context) and specifically said that his vow to counter SEP devaluation didn't bode well for licensing negotiation groups.

The patent departments of the companies in question are now losing control over their pet project (which Volkswagen is rumored to be more committed to than the others). Automakers have previously thrown cartel partners under the bus (such as Daimler (now named Mercedes) a few years ago when it blew the whistle). Who will really want to tell their CEO that there is no risk from a U.S. antitrust investigation?

The risk to the ALNG is that after a year or two of investigations, a lawsuit could be brought, and it would take 2-3 years in district court plus 1-2 years for an appeal. All of that would make it impossible for the ALNG to be operational when the first 6G license deals are negotiated. It takes only one major jurisdiction for such a purchasing cartel to be in trouble. That jurisdiction is now apparently none other than the cradle of antitrust law.

2) Mostly premium: USPTO Director Squires looks at PTAB IPR petitions through national security as well as economic policy (domestic manufacturing) lens

We have three updates from this month of March 2026 on Director Squires’s policy-making and rule-making. One of them has foreign trade implications for those pushing for Licensing Negotiation Groups in the EU or desiring to turn the UK into a standard-essential patent (SEP) rate-setting forum that imposes terms even across borders. Another makes U.S. manufacturing and a petitioner’s small business status relevant factors. And a new precedential decision denies an IPR over an issue involving potential influence by a foreign government. The key term there is RPI, the reverse of IPR.

3) Linkedin: Interesting week on SEP litigation front

Three cases go to trial in Munich, and there's more.