Antitrust Issues in College Athletics: Should Needle Apply
Earlier this month Dechert LLP, representing an undisclosed number of companies (“stakeholders”), sent a letter to IMG College (“IMG”) and its licensing division, the Collegiate Licensing Company...
View ArticleFTC Proposal for Regulating IP Will Harm Consumers
We conclude that the FTC has not identified sufficient evidence to raise serious doubt about the current efficiencies of the IP marketplace. Indeed, the available empirical evidence suggests that these...
View ArticlePatent Misuse, Exploring the Basics
The term "patent misuse" refers to specific types of prohibited behavior engaged in by the owner of the patent rights. Patent misuse is an affirmative defense that recognizes that it is possible for a...
View ArticleBobbing for Antitrust Apples: E-book Price Fixing Challenge
So what did Apple and the other publishers do that put them on Uncle Sam’s Radar? Allegedly, they agreed among themselves to sell their e-books at the same price. This is also known as “Price Fixing”...
View ArticleSome Observations on the Market Reverberations of the Smart Phone Patent Wars
Commenting on the Yahoo! Inc. patent infringement lawsuit filed against Facebook in March of 2012, Mr. Cuban concludes his post by stating: “I hope Yahoo[!] is awarded $50 billion dollars. It is the...
View ArticleReverse Payment Home Run for Pharma Antitrust Enforcement
One of the most complex issues in antitrust and patent law today involves agreements by which brand-name drug companies pay generics to delay entering the market. In the past decade, with the Supreme...
View ArticleFTC Submits Amicus Brief Explaining that Drug Companies Use “No-Authorized...
In a “no-AG” agreement, the branded firm, as part of the patent litigation settlement, agrees that it will not launch its own generic alternative when the first generic begins to compete. Since the...
View ArticleFTC Says Brand Name Drug Redesign Violates Antitrust Law
Not only is the FTC arguing that product changes to patented drugs violate U.S. antitrust laws, but the FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) are going to look into whether patent enforcement activities...
View ArticleSupreme Court Agrees To Tackle Drug Patent Settlements
In the past several years, the Second, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits have upheld these settlements (known as “reverse payment” agreements since the money flows from the patentee to the alleged...
View ArticleGoogle Agrees to Change Its Business Practices to Resolve FTC Competition...
Under a settlement reached with the FTC, Google will meet its prior commitments to allow competitors access – on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms – to patents on critical standardized...
View ArticleDOJ Says IP Exchange Licensing Model is Pro-Innovation
IPXI is the first financial exchange that facilitates non-exclusive licensing and trading of intellectual property rights with market-based pricing and standardized terms. Earlier this week word came...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court’s Actavis Decision, Or Why Pay-for-Delay Litigation Just...
In this case, the Supreme Court considered an arrangement by which brand firm Solvay paid generics Watson (now Actavis) and Paddock roughly $30 to $40 million to delay entering the market with generic...
View ArticlePatent News and Notes
1. Reed Tech takes over USPTO Contract from Google. 2. Pharma Patent Settlements Saved $25.5 Billion for US Health System. 3. Coffee Analysis Smart Phone App for that Perfect Brew. 4.FDA Approves Brain...
View ArticleIn re Effexor XR Antitrust Litigation: FTC Amicus Argues for...
The Federal Trade Commission has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to accept an amicus brief that addresses the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in FTC...
View ArticleNielsen to Divest and License Assets and IP to Acquire Arbitron
According to the FTC’s complaint, the elimination of future competition between Nielsen and Arbitron would likely cause advertisers, ad agencies, and programmers to pay more for national syndicated...
View ArticleFTC Chairwoman Testifies in House on Antitrust, Patents
The testimony further discusses the Commission’s interest in the problem of “patent hold-up” that can arise during an industry standard-setting process. Patent hold-up occurs when the holder of a...
View ArticleFTC Files Amicus in 3rd Circuit Over Reverse Payments
The FTC brief explains that the no-authorized-generic (no-AG) commitment at issue raises the same antitrust concern that the Supreme Court identified in Actavis. A no-authorized-generic commitment...
View ArticleWhy Actavis Is Not Limited to Cash: Professors Brief in Lamictal
First, the Actavis decision is not limited to cash. The case itself involved not cash payments, but brand overpayments for generic services. In addition, the Supreme Court’s assertions on payments...
View ArticleA Short History Lesson on Patent Policy
Starting before World War II and continuing throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, short sighted and now discredited government antitrust policies, coupled with judicial hostility toward patent enforcement...
View ArticleThird Circuit Lamictal Ruling: ‘Payment’ Broader than Cash
On June 26, the Third Circuit held that payment includes more than just cash transfers. Judge Scirica, in a unanimous decision, wrote that Glaxo's promise to Teva not to introduce an authorized generic...
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