Antitrust Group

DOJ Casts Deciding Ballot To Restore Competition In Voting Machine Market

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to restore competition in the voting machine market by requiring Election Systems & Software, the country’s largest seller of computerized voting machines, to undo much of its recent merger with Diebold.  DOJ will allow this merger of the nation’s two largest sellers of such machines to survive only if the combined company divests itself of the product lines it...

Aerotec Alleges Honeywell Blocks It From Leaving For Jet Plane Repairs

Aerotec International Inc. is alleging Honeywell International Inc. is using its market power to eliminate competition for jet airplane auxiliary power unit repairs in an antirust complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The dispute involves small gas turbine engines called auxiliary power units, or “APUs,” that provide power for auxiliary functions on jet airplanes including...

Federal Circuit Mulls Diving Into Patent Pool Case With Antitrust Analysis

Will a federal court of appeals send modern antitrust analysis diving into the deep end of a patent pool case to determine whether a jointly-developed standard should be considered patent misuse? On March 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sat en banc to consider how to apply the patent misuse doctrine to patent pooling arrangements for standardized technologies, including the significance of...

They Issue Second Requests For Horseracing Mergers, Don’t They?

The U.S. Department of Justice is pulling hard on the reins to slow down a proposed merger between Churchill Downs, the famous racetrack home to the Kentucky Derby, and Youbet.com, an online horseracing gambling website. The DOJ has issued the companies a “second request” under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act for additional information on the proposed merger. Second requests are rare, and dramatically increase the...

Who Pays For The “Delay” In “Pay For Delay” Drug Settlements?

Procrastination may be the thief not only of all time, but also of $3.5 billion from the pockets of health care consumers, according to the FTC. Citing a cost of billions of dollars to consumers, the FTC is challenging “pay-for-delay” reverse settlements in which pharmaceutical companies pay generic drug companies to not make a generic version of a drug. There are two fronts in this effort.  The FTC is...

DOT Tentatively Approves American Airlines and British Airways Joint Venture

The U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) has issued a show-cause order that tentatively approves the antitrust immunity application for the joint venture between members of the oneworld airline alliance, including American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia.  The tentative approval applies to transatlantic traffic, which American Airlines and British Airways dominate for routes between the U.S. and the...

The Great Google Books Settlement Debate

The fate of the massive digital library that Google hopes to create now lies in the hands of U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who heard nearly a full day of oral argument on Thursday from supporters and opponents of the proposed settlement agreement that would settle the class action brought on behalf of authors and publishers against Google Book Search. The parties in The Authors’ Guild, et al. v. Google Inc. are...

Broadcom Disparages Monopolization By Disparagement Claim As Just Words

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but disparagement will hardly ever monopolize your market, is the message of Broadcom Corporation’s motion to dismiss a "monopolization-by-disparagement" case brought by its competitor Emulex Corporation.

The case, Emulex Corp. et al. v. Broadcom Corp. et al., No. SACV 09-1310 JVS (ANx), centers on statements Broadcom allegedly made during a 2009 attempt at a hostile takeover...

Big Companies Experiencing The Joys And Heartaches Of The Antitrust Underdog

Can antitrust law protect big companies as well as small companies and consumers? An increasing number of large companies are discovering – as plaintiffs – that the answer is yes. Many practitioners ascribe to the following paradigm: Antitrust enforcement is an anathema to large companies.  They point to the fact that big companies, like Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon, have repeatedly fought private plaintiffs...

MP3 Player Plaintiffs Go For Third Bite At The Apple

Plaintiffs in The Apple iPod iTunes Anti-Trust Litigation – a putative class action accusing Apple of anti-competitive conduct in the portable MP3 player market – are hoping the third time’s the charm as they again seek to convince the court they have a viable claim. The plaintiffs have filed an amended complaint after the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California twice rejected claims that...