In In re: Skelaxin (Metaxalone) Antitrust Litigation, Eastern District of Tennessee Court Judge Curtis L. Collier denied class certifications to two groups claiming Pfizer Inc.’s King Pharmaceuticals Inc. settled a patent dispute with a deal to keep muscle relaxant Skelaxin off the market in a pay-for-delay arrangement that kept the drug prices at brand-name levels. […]
Category Archives: Patent Litigation
Judge Announces He Will Reverse Pay-for-Delay Dismissal Judgment If Appellate Court Remands In Light of Recent Supreme Court Decision
October 31, 2013 – 3:53 pm
In In Re: AndroGel Antitrust Litigation (No. II), Northern District of Georgia Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. announced that, if the Eleventh Circuit remands the case, he would overturn the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ pay-for-delay claims given the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision. That case involved a Federal Trade Commission prosecution of the same settlement […]
Samsung Pledges to EU that It Will Use Circumspection in Seeking Injunctions for Infringement of Standard Essential Patents
October 31, 2013 – 3:50 pm
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has told the European Commission that it will limit attempts to enjoin infringers of its standard-essential patents for five years in exchange for the EC’s ending an antitrust investigation into the company’s assertion of its patents rights against Apple Inc. The Commission believes that Samsung sought to enjoin Apple, even though […]
Congress Examining Drug Companies’ Allegedly Improper Use of Citizen Petitions to Delay FDA Approval of Generic Drugs
October 31, 2013 – 3:49 pm
The FDA reported to Congress that pharmaceutical companies owning branded drugs may be filing 505(q) petitions for reconsideration (aka “citizen petitions”) to delay approval of generic versions of their drugs. The agency expressed concern that the need for it to respond to bogus petitions delays its ability to perform other necessary regulatory work. The process […]
Court Orders Tricleer Antitrust Suit to Proceed to Discovery
October 29, 2013 – 2:00 pm
In Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. et al. v. Apotex Inc. et al., New Jersey District Court Judge Noel L. Hillman denied Actelion Pharmaceutical Ltd.’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and to dismiss defendants’ counterclaims in Actelion’s lawsuit over its blood pressure medication Tricleer. Actelion sued several generic drug makers, claiming that antitrust laws don’t require […]
FTC Considering Investigating Patent Trolls
September 22, 2013 – 9:11 am
Patent trolls, which call themselves non-practicing entities (NPE), are companies that acquire patents with no intent to practice the patented technology. Instead, they seek out potential infringers and demand royalties. These entities argue that they perform an efficient service in ensuring that inventors receive a return on their inventive effort. That return, NPE’s contend, increases […]
ITC Sees No Consumer Harm in Banning Imports of Electronic Products
September 8, 2013 – 11:46 am
In In the Matter of Certain Electronic Digital Media Devices and Components Thereof, the U.S. International Trade Commission staff has found that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that banning imports of its smartphones and tablets that infringed Apple’s patents would harm consumers. Last October, Administrative Law Judge Thomas B. Pender ruled that […]
EU Fines Patented Drug Maker and Generics for Reverse Payment Settlement
September 8, 2013 – 11:43 am
The European Commission fined Lundbeck $125.6 million for paying its competitors, Merk KGaA, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Xellia Pharmaceuticals, in 2002 to delay entering the market with generic versions of Lundbeck’s antidepressant citalopram. Joaquin Almunia, EC vice president for competition policy, explained that the Commission could not accept “that a company pays off its competitors to […]
US Supreme Court Permits Antitrust Challenges to Reverse Payment Settlements
September 8, 2013 – 11:40 am
In FTC v. Actavis, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a settlement in a patent infringement case in which the patent holder pays money to the alleged infringer not to introduce its product into the market could violate the antitrust laws under the Rule of Reason. The Court rejected the scope-of-the-patent doctrine that had been adopted […]
Bayer Settles Cipro Pay-For-Delay Suit for $74 Million
July 31, 2013 – 1:41 pm
In In re: Cipro Cases I & II, Bayer Corp. has agreed to pay $74 million to settle a California consumer class action over its alleged pay-for-delay patent deals for the antibiotic Cipro. The deal dismisses Bayer from a long-running antitrust suit over the nearly $400 million Bayer paid out in 1997 to end the […]