In TruePosition Inc. v. LM Ericsson Telephone Co. et al., Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Robert F. Kelly refused to dismiss TruePosition Inc.’s antitrust suit against Qualcomm Inc., LM Ericsson Telephone Co., and Alcatel-Lucent SA. TruePosition accused the defendants of conspiring to use their influence within two standard setting organizations (SSOs), the European Telecommunication Standards […]
Category Archives: Patent Litigation
Federal Circuit to Decide Whether Patent Fraud Antitrust Claims Can Be Asserted Independently of Infringement Claims and Amended Complaint Upheld in Related Flash Memory Monopolization Challenge
November 9, 2012 – 9:19 am
In Ritz Camera & Image LLC v. SanDisk Corp., the Federal Circuit will decide whether a firm that is not at risk of being sued for patent infringement can prosecute an antitrust claim based on fraudulently obtained patent. Defendant SanDisk Corp. argued that an affirmative decision would “open the floodgates” to litigation. The putative class […]
FTC Closes Investigation Into Several Drug Patent Deals
November 6, 2012 – 2:05 pm
The Federal Trade Commission has ended its investigation of settlements involving Bayer’s Yasmin birth control drug between Bayer Schering Pharma AG and Barr Laboratories Inc. The investigation stemmed from an agreement between Barr, which was acquired by Teva for $9 billion in 2008, in which Barr was granted the right to market a generic version […]
AndroGel Drug Patent Litigation Not a Sham
October 31, 2012 – 3:48 pm
In In Re: AndroGel Antitrust Litigation (No. II), Northern District of Georgia judge Thomas W. Thrash granted defendants summary judgment on antitrust claims alleging that Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed sham patent infringement litigation to delay the entry of generic Androgel. The court had previously dismissed a claim challenging a reverse payment agreement between Solvay and […]
Hospital Lacks Standing To Seek Damages in a Challenge to a Tying Arrangment Because It Purchased the Bundle Indirectly
October 22, 2012 – 10:24 am
In Lakeland Regional Medical Center Inc. v. Astellas Pharma US Inc. et al., Middle District of Florida Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington held that a Florida hospital lacked standing to sue for damages, allegedly totally $867 million, in an antitrust class action accusing Astellas Pharma of using a patented testing process to restrain competition in […]
FTC Proposes Closer Scrutiny of Drug Patent Licensing
September 11, 2012 – 10:36 am
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a rule requiring drug companies to report transactions in which a drug company licenses another to exclusively market and sell a drug while retaining the right to manufacture it. Historically, the sale of a patent was a reportable transaction under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Pre-merger Notification Act, which requires the reporting […]
Breach of SSO Commitment Enforceable By Competitors, but Not as Antitrust Violation
September 11, 2012 – 10:35 am
In Apple Inc. v. Motorola Mobility Inc., Western District of Wisconsin Judge Barbara B. Crabb granted summary judgment against Apple on antitrust claims, but allowed its contract claims to stand, in a case alleging that Motorola Mobility refused to license its standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. Although Motorola’s commitments to standard-setting organizations […]
Third Circuit and EU: Pay-for-Delay Generic Drug Settlement Can Violate Antitrust Law
August 7, 2012 – 4:20 pm
Update: The Third Circuit has refused to stay its ruling pending Supreme Court review. The defendant sought the stay in hopes of restraining the FTC and private plaintiffs from using the ruling to justify attacks on other drug patent settlements. In In re: K-Dur Antitrust Litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit […]
Second Circuit Affirms that Blackberry’s Backing out of Joint Production Deal Not Anticompetitive
July 2, 2012 – 4:45 pm
In Eatoni Ergonomics Inc. v. Research in Motion Corp. et al, the Second Circuit affirmed the trial court’s decision that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) did not violate the antitrust laws when it backed out of a joint product development deal with Eastoni Ergonomics. In 2004, Eatoni accused RIM’s BlackBerry devices of infringing […]
FTC Calls for Ban on Injunctions to Enforce Standard-Essential Patents
July 2, 2012 – 4:32 pm
In two matters pending before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Matter of Certain Wireless Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, Computers and Components Thereof and In re: Certain Gaming and Entertainment Consoles, Related Software and Components Thereof, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a group of major technology companies have joined forces seeking […]