Last month, we wrote a post on the patent “aggregation” suit Intel had filed against various entities affiliated with the investment firm Fortress. The post was timely; the next day, Judge Chen granted Fortress’s motion to...more
There have been several developments since we last wrote about Intel and Apple’s suit against Fortress and several of its so-called “patent assertion entities” (collectively, “Fortress”) based on the allegedly anticompetitive...more
Intel and Apple’s challenge to Fortress’s allegedly anticompetitive practice of patent “aggregation,” which we discussed previously on this blog, suffered another setback earlier this month. The Northern District of...more
For years, antitrust commentators have warned of threats to innovation and competition posed by “thickets” of patents—the “dense web[s] of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in...more
We have previously discussed antitrust implications of pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to maximize patent protection for their drugs. Consumers and generic drug makers, for instance, have alleged antitrust violations based...more
10/19/2017
/ Allergan Inc ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Mylan Pharmaceuticals ,
Native American Issues ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
Tribal Governments ,
USPTO
It has been over three years since the Supreme Court’s Actavis decision. Since then, numerous putative class actions alleging harm to competition as a result of “reverse-payment” settlements have flooded the courts. The...more
11/10/2016
/ Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) ,
Actavis Inc. ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
AstraZeneca ,
Class Action ,
Exclusivity ,
Generic Drugs ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Nexium ,
Patents ,
Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements ,
Summary Judgment ,
Teva Pharmaceuticals
Portions of a reverse payment suit against Endo Pharmaceuticals and others were recently dismissed by Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California. The case was brought by plaintiffs who allege that a...more
7/24/2015
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Assignments ,
Endo Pharmaceuticals ,
Generic Drugs ,
Indirect Purchasers ,
Patents ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Standing ,
The Clayton Act ,
Wholesale
As reported previously, the first post-Actavis jury verdict in a “reverse payment” antitrust case handed a win to the defendants. Now, plaintiffs in In re: Nexium (Esomeprazole) Antitrust Litigation have moved for a new...more
1/9/2015
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
AstraZeneca ,
Generic Drugs ,
Nexium ,
Patents ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
RanBaxy ,
Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements ,
Teva Pharmaceuticals
The Federal Trade Commission staff recently issued a report detailing the number of “potential pay-for-delay settlements” that took place in fiscal year 2013. The FTC is a staunch opponent of so-called “pay-for-delay”—also...more