A Florida-based technology firm is suing to find out whether the Obama administration obstructed its long-running patent litigation against a U.S.-based competitor that does business in China.
The Oversight Project, a watchdog group, filed a lawsuit on behalf of ParkerVision Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against the National Archives and Records Administration.
The records case stems from a legal clash that began in 2011 over a patent dispute with California-based technology firm Qualcomm. ParkerVision asserts that Qualcomm incorporated technology ParkerVision patented.
The records lawsuit seeks to identify Obama administration officials who had access to computers that frequently visited the ParkerVision website from the White House, the Justice Department, and Air Force One.
“The White House only looked at our page about the patent litigation against Qualcomm. For whatever reason, the White House thought I was interesting,” ParkerVision CEO Jeff Parker told the Daily Signal.
Parker later found that the Justice Department made similar visits to the company’s website in March and April 2013, as did the law firm Covington & Burling, which previously employed then-Attorney General Eric Holder and has done lobbying work for Qualcomm.
“The White House, the Justice Department, and Covington Burling, my website was very popular,” Parker added. “Did something happen outside the courtroom in our case? I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything. But I’d just like to see the documents.”
According to ParkerVision, marketing software that tracks visitors to its website documented visits from the Obama White House to pages concerning ParkerVision’s patent litigation. Those visits occurred around the same period that Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs hosted a fundraiser at his home featuring President Barack Obama.