On October 13, the Federal Circuit ordered rehearing en banc in Princo Corp. et al. v. ITC, vacating the Court’s April 20, 2009 opinion.  In its order granting rehearing, the Federal Circuit directed the parties to file new briefs “addressing primarily those issues originally decided in Section II of the court’s April 20, 2009 opinion.”  Section II of the now-vacated April 20 opinion addressed Princo’s contention that Sony and Philips agreed to unlawfully refuse to license an allegedly non-essential patent which was part of a “patent pool” covering CD-R and CD-RW technology, such that competitors were barred from licensing this patent to create a competing product.  In its April order, the Federal Circuit had remanded this issue to the ITC for a determination of whether Sony and Philips had in fact entered into such an agreement. The order granting rehearing did not set a date for oral arguments.

Princo Corp. v. ITC, 2007-1386 (Fed. Cir. 2009)