Fortress Gets U.S. Backing in Apple Patent ‘Puppeteering’ Suit

The Trump administration will join Fortress Investment Group in court Thursday in an antitrust fight with Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. with billions of dollars in patent royalties at stake.

The U.S. Justice Department threw its weight behind the fund manager owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., which is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit by the two Silicon Valley heavyweights accusing Fortress of bombarding them with frivolous patent-infringement claims and aggressive payment demands.

The case tests Apple and Intel’s argument that Fortress is acting anti-competitively by stockpiling patents to target others with infringement litigation. Similar legal ...