Update June 2011: The court denied the plaintiff’s motion to reconsider its decision. Southern District of NY Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Plaintiff, Charles Simon, lacked standing to sue electric power supplier KeySpan and Morgan Stanley for allegedly manipulating the price of power sold to Simon’s utility, Con Edison. KeySpan paid $12 million to settle [...]
Category Archives: US Federal Courts
Asparagus Seed Patent Challenge Needs to Allege Knowing Fraud to Support Antitrust Claims
June 1, 2011 – 10:23 am
District of New Jersey Judge Freda L. Wolfson dismissed antitrust claims filed by Jersey Asparagus Farms Inc. against Rutgers University concerning patents for asparagus seeds. The plaintiff alleged that the patents were invalid on the ground that Rutgers failed to disclose prior art to the PTO. Recognizing that fraudulently obtaining a patent may violate the antitrust [...]
Welder Conspiracy Case to Move Forward
June 1, 2011 – 10:09 am
District of Washington Judge Lonny Suko refused to dismiss a conspiracy claim brought by ARC against AMH. ARC alleges that AMH made false statements about ARC, emailing more than dozen of its customers and falsely telling reporting that ARC had gone out of business. The email also asked the customers to loan AMH one of ARC’s welders, and a few months later, AMH announced at [...]
DOJ Sues to Block On-line Tax Preparation Software Merger
June 1, 2011 – 9:58 am
The Antitrust Division has sued to block H&R Block’s acquisition of TaxACT, an on-line software provider. H&R and TaxACT are the number 2 and 3 providers of on-line tax prep software behind Intuit’s TurboTax. The Division explained that it uncovered H&R Block documents indicating that the purpose of the merger was to eliminate a competitor [...]
Monoplization Case Against Pfizer to Go Forward
June 1, 2011 – 9:31 am
Judge Faith Hochberg, District of New Jersey, denied Pfizer’s motion to dismiss claims alleging that it unlawfully sought to monopolize the market for gabapentin products. Pharmacies purchasing the drugs argued that Pfizer violated the antitrust laws by, inter alia, manipulating the patent approval process and filing sham law suits. The court rejected Pfizer’s defenses that [...]
DOJ Sues to Block POS Card Reader Merger
June 1, 2011 – 9:16 am
The Antitrust Division has sued to block of merger of VeriFone and Hypercom, manufacturers of point of sale credit and debit card reader. The two U.S. companies currently compete with French-based Ingenico in what is essentially a three competitor market. The Division alleges that the 3-2 merger would raise prices for retailers purchasing POS card [...]
DOJ Sues to Undo Sale of Chicken Processing Plant
June 1, 2011 – 9:02 am
The Antitrust Division sued George’s Inc. seeking to undo its $3 million purchase of a chicken processing plant in the Shenandoah Valley from Tyson Foods. The transaction fell below the reporting thresholds and thus was consummated with antitrust agency review. The Division alleges that the plant sale will leave George’s with 43% of the chicken market and only one competitor [...]
Antitrust Claims by Student Athletes Against EA Sports Game Maker Dismissed
June 1, 2011 – 8:01 am
California District Court Judge Claudia Wilken dismissed claims that the video game company EA sports joined in a conspiracy with the NCAA and The Collegiate Licensing Co. to deny student athletes royalties on the use of the players names and images in video games. The plaintiffs had argued that EA Sports interaction with the NCAA in [...]
Sham Patent Infringement Claim Against Ocean Spray to Move Forward
May 31, 2011 – 4:37 pm
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 [...]
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 [...]