Earlier this year, Houston Harbaugh wrote on the then-pending Pennsylvania Supreme Court case of Mortimer v. McCool, which presented the question of whether the Court would adopt the “enterprise” or “single entity” theory of...more
On Wednesday, the Federal Circuit held that infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(g) does not require a single entity to perform, direct, or control all of the steps of a patented process for infringement liability to arise from...more
When a business entity that is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is closely related to another business entity, FERC takes the position that under some circumstances it may treat the two different...more
A recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is important for competitors involved in joint ventures because it states what mode of antitrust analysis—the per se rule or the rule of reason—applies to the...more
Read the latest news on antitrust, competition, and economic regulation in this summer edition of our quarterly ACER newsletter. ...more
On 20 July 2018, the new Chinese antitrust authority – the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) – published two decisions sanctioning two ship tallying companies in Shenzhen for market partitioning and price...more
Since 2013, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has faced a series of purported class actions consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Alabama. In a recent decision focused upon the appropriate standard of review, the...more
A court’s decision regarding the proper standard of review in a Sherman Act Section 1 case—whether to analyze the defendant’s conduct as a per se antitrust violation or under the “rule of reason”—is highly significant. The...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: There are currently pending at least four class actions claiming that provisions contained in franchise agreements prohibiting the hiring of employees of other intrabrand franchisees without the consent of...more
Corporate entities under common control are generally treated as a single employer for purposes of applying the core rules that govern employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements. For that reason, a...more
Given the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) aggressive antitrust enforcement program attacking provider mergers in hospital, physician, and other markets, it’s become extremely important for those considering a merger to...more
The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday voted 2 to 1 to reverse a district court’s grant of summary judgment under which a defendant hospital network had been found to be a single entity incapable of conspiring with itself in an...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently upheld the decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) that a multi-campus hospital straddling two geographic areas should be...more
The new and expansive standard for joint-employer status adopted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week has significant implications that extend beyond employer liability for collective bargaining obligations...more