Legality of licensee and sub-licensee selling to competing jobbers
69 F.T.C. 1225 · May 19, 1966 · Digest No. 48
source volume section (69 F.T.C. 1225)
Text is machine-OCR of the printed volume and may contain errors. Advisory opinions are the Commission's views on proposed conduct, not binding orders.
No. 48. Legality of licensee and sub-licensee selling to competing jobbers.
An exclusive licensee of a patented article has requested advice from the Federal Trade Commission concerning the legality of his sales and those of a manufacturing sub1icensee to competing jobbers.
The licensee proposed to sublicense a manufacturer to produce the article and sell it to its own jobbers. At the same time, the licensee, on his own account, wou1d sell the same article under a different name to his own jobbers. The sublicensee manufacturer would ship direct to customers of the licensee, some of which may be in competition with its own jobbers, and bil the licensee at an agreed price.
The Commission advised that in general, the Robinson-Patman Act "does not apply unless there is a discrimination attributable to the same seller in dealing with different purchasers. Consequently, it said, if the manufacturer, a separate business entity, has and exercises sale and independent control over the prices at which it sells and the licensee has and exercises sole and independent control over the prices at which he sells questions cannot well arise under Section 2 (a) of the RobinsonPatman Act. However, the Commission pointed out that on the basis of the facts available it is unable to say that the plan "would not violate any of the trade regulation laws. For example, we do not know what, if any, price agreements are contemplated between . (the licenseeJ and the manufacturer or the nature thereof or whether such agreements may hereafter come into being, (File No. 633 7059, released May 19, 1966. , ,