A Court’s Dangerous Antitrust Overreach

Silicon Valley brought us a startling new creation last week. It did not come from the research-and-development wing of a tech giant or defense contractor. Rather, it emerged from the San Jose, Calif., chambers of a federal district judge.

In a sweeping opinion, the judge concluded that a California chip maker, Qualcomm, violated U.S. antitrust law by unlawfully monopolizing the market for certain wireless telecommunications chips. She therefore agreed with an antitrust complaint filed by a divided and depleted Federal Trade...