District of Massachusetts Judge Rya W. Zobel refused to dismiss Decas’s antitrust counter-clam against Ocean Spray. Ocean Spray asserted a patent infringement claim against Decas relating to a popular product after discussions about Ocean Spray purchasing Decas broke down. Decas argues that Ocean Spray filed the claim knowing that it was bogus in order to discourage other […]
Category Archives: Patent Litigation
Refusal to Sell Drug Needed to Obtain Approval for Generic Version to Move Forward
May 31, 2011 – 4:01 pm
Eastern District of Pennsylvania Timothy J. Savage denied Celgene’s motion to dismiss antitrust claims filed by Lannet Co. The complaint alleges that Celgene violated the antitrust laws by refusing to sell Thalomid pills so that it could conduct a bioequivalence study that is needed to obtain approval to sell a genetic version of the drug. The […]
En Banc Federal Circuit Narrows Patent Misuse Defense
May 31, 2011 – 3:38 pm
Update May 2011: The U.S. Supreme Court has denied certiorari. In a divided opinion, the en banc Federal Circuit has overturned a panel opinion that hadpermitted Princo to assert a patent misuse defense to a patent infringement action filed by Philips. Princo alleged that Philips had agreed with Sony not to license the relevant patent […]
Drug Patent Sham Litigation Case Dismissed
May 12, 2011 – 10:32 am
The Federal Circuit has upheld a decision dismissing Mylan’s sham litigation claims against AstraZeneca. Mylan claimed that AstraZeneca conspired with others to file patent infringement claims against any generic drug manufacturer seeking to introduce a generic version of Prilosec. The court held, however, that because AstraZeneca won some of the infringement cases and had survived […]
SanDisk’s Walker Process Claim Moves Forward
May 9, 2011 – 4:06 pm
Northern District of California Judge Jeremy Fogel denied SanDisk Corp.’s motion to dismiss an antitrust class action involving Ritz Camera & Image LLC’s Walker Process claim. Ritz, who allegedly paid monopoly prices for SanDisk flash memory since 2006, alleged SanDisk enforced fraudulently procured patents. SanDisk contended that only direct competitors, not customers, could bring such claims. […]
Plavix Purchasers’ Class Action Dismissed
April 15, 2011 – 1:11 pm
Southern District of Ohio Judge Michael Watson dismissed several class actions brought by purchasers of Plavix, holding that the classes failed to allege antitrust injury because a valid patent restricted the sale of generic Plavix. The plaintiffs alleged that they had to pay more for the name brand drug because Sanofi-Aventis SA and Bristol-Meyers Squibb […]
EU Requests Patent Settlement Information Between Pharmaceutical Companies and Generic Drug Manufacturers
January 31, 2011 – 1:12 pm
Antitrust regulators requested drug patent settlement information for 2010 from drug manufacturers to determine if the agreements have delayed generic drug entry into the market. The request for information is the second monitoring session activated by the EC. The first monitoring exercise determined that “pay for delay” settlement agreements decreased significantly once the EC began […]
Patent Exclusion Suit Dismissed on Standing Grounds
January 22, 2011 – 7:06 pm
Southern District of New York Judge Denise Cote dismissed antitrust claims filed by Siti against a nonprofit patent-holding company and telecommunications giants Verizon Communications Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Ericsson Inc. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants set up the holding company to o prevent small companies from selling or licensing their patents at fair market value. […]
Attack on MPEG Patent Pool Dismissed
December 14, 2010 – 1:39 pm
Update December 2010: The court again dismissed the complaint, holding that Nero’s amended complaint still failed to allege sufficient facts to back up its allegations. Nero asserted that it would appeal the decision. Central District of CA Judge Mariana Pfaelzer dismissed Nero AG’s monopolization case against the MPEG video compression technology patent for failing to […]