Disney Warns of InterDigital’s Global Streaming Patent ‘Hold-Up’

Walt Disney Co. pushed back on US Justice Department arguments in the entertainment giant’s antitrust suit against InterDigital Inc., telling a federal judge InterDigital is conducting a “hold-up” of video streamers around the world.

The department’s Antitrust Division, in its October statement of interest, misread how competition law applies to standard-essential video-compression patents, Disney Enterprises Inc. wrote in a response filed Nov. 21 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. DOJ had written that patent ownership on its own doesn’t create market power that violates antitrust laws.

But that misstated the heart of the case, Disney ...