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High Court Patent Ruling a Victory for Big Business
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:58:46 -0500
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: High Court Patent Ruling a Victory for Big Business Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:47:41 -0800 From: Ridgely Evers <revers () evers org> To: David Farber <dave () farber net> Dave, Worth a read. This seems like a pretty significant (though subtle) shift. --Ridge http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1141207512775&rss=newswire High Court Patent Ruling a Victory for Big Business By Tony Mauro Legal Times 03-02-2006 Acting in a case at the intersection of patent and antitrust law, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a ruling that makes it harder for upstart companies and generic manufacturers to challenge patent holders' power in the marketplace. <snip> The decision Wednesday said that a patent on a product does not automatically mean that the patent holder has market power of the type that would trigger an antitrust "tying" violation. Tying occurs when a seller conditions its sale of one product on the purchase of another product. Without the presumption the ruling means competitors will have to actually prove that the patent holder has market power -- an uphill battle that critics say will put many patent-related tying arrangements beyond legal challenge. The ruling also has a spillover effect on copyright law. For example, movie theater owners warned the Court that if the presumption was removed, they could be forced to buy and show unwanted movies along with the titles they do want to show. <snip> The case before the Court was Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink. Illinois Tool Works defended tying its sale of unpatented ink to the sale of patented machinery that prints bar codes on packages. Independent Ink, which sells ink that works with the machines, challenged the tying arrangement as an antitrust violation. <snip> "Congress, the antitrust enforcement agencies, and most economists have all reached the conclusion that a patent does not confer market power upon the patentee," [Justice] Stevens wrote. "Today, we reach the same conclusion." ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- High Court Patent Ruling a Victory for Big Business Dave Farber (Mar 02)