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Corporate & Securities Law

Antitrust Review

Antitrust law and economics

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Last Entry: April 02, 2010 at 12:07:35

Antitrust News And Notes

Posted on April 02, 2010
Bloomberg (via Sf. Chron) reports that at least five states (CA, NY, FL, OR and WA) are involved in the review of the NBC-Comcast merger. The court dismissed the last two claims brought by Novell against Microsoft. The NY Times reports that John Doerr left [...

Reverse Payment Settlement Ban Struck From Health Care Bill

Posted on March 18, 2010
The BLT (The Legal Times’ blog) reports that a provision banning such settlement was struck from the House bill (it was not in the Senate version): The measure, which was backed by the Federal Trade Commission, would in most cases have barred so-called “pay for delay” settlements of patent cases brought by generic companies against brand-name [...

Hovenkamp on the FTC?s Case Against Intel

Posted on February 23, 2010
Herbert Hovenkamp has posted a paper on SSRN regarding the FTC’s case against Intel (via the Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog). From the abstract: One important concern that arises when the FTC reaches beyond the Sherman Act is that the remedy itself not be contrary to the consumer welfare goals of the antitrust laws...

Antitrust News & Notes

Posted on February 02, 2010
D.O.J. “is considering whether to investigate the BCS under the antitrust laws.” The Wall Street Journal reports that even though the FTC and DOJ may want to bring more antitrust cases they are hindered from doing so becuase case law is against them...

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Ticketmaster ? Live Nation Merger Approved With Conditions

Posted on January 26, 2010
DOJ approved the merger with some conditions. The Wall Street Journal reports: Under the concessions demanded by the DOJ, Ticketmaster’s Paciolan division, which sells tickets to college sporting events, is to be sold to a unit of Comcast. The merged company also is barred from retaliating against venue operators that want to use ticketing services from [...

Oral Argument in American Needle

Posted on January 13, 2010
You can read the transcript here. From Lyle Denniston’s report on the always excellent SCOTUSBlog: The Court heard 70 minutes of oral argument in American Needle v. NFL (08-661), a case that supposedly was to focus on a single, simple question: is the NFL, along with its 32 teams, a ?single entity? and therefore immune to the Sherman Antitrust [...

Drew Brees on Antitrust

Posted on January 08, 2010
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has used his bye-week to write an op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post about the potential affects of the American Needle case on free agency in the NFL. It is already available online. He writes: I could choose to sign a contract with the Saints because of a crucial player-led antitrust [...

Antitrust News & Notes

Posted on January 07, 2010
The 9th Circuit recently upheld the district court’s opinion in Allied Orthopedic Appliances Inc. et al. v. Tyco Health Care Group LP. The plaintiffs had alleged that “they overpaid for the sensors because Tyco used two kinds of marketing agreements to foreclose competition from generic sensor manufacturers … [and] that by introducing [...

FTC Files Section 5 Complaint Against Intel

Posted on December 16, 2009
In what certainly cannot be considered a surprise, the FTC filed suit against Intel this morning. The FTC press release states: According to the FTC complaint, Intel?s anticompetitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market...

Microsoft and EU Settle

Posted on December 16, 2009
The AP reports: The European Union has dropped long-standing antitrust charges against Microsoft Corp. after the company agreed to give users of the Windows operating system a choice of up to 12 other Web browsers. Under the terms of the deal with regulators announced Wednesday, Microsoft will avoid further EU fines if it provides a pop-up screen [...

Antitrust News & Notes

Posted on December 11, 2009
Some news and notes: The Antitrust Hotch Potch reports on a recent EC Article 9 decision involving the French gas market. Congratulations to Joe Bial who has been promoted to special counsel at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Earlier this week, Truth on the Market had a [...

EU Raids Pharmaceutical Firms ? Again

Posted on December 11, 2009
Once again the EU has performed some dawn “raids” on the offices of pharmaceutical firms. Bloomberg reports: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world’s biggest generic-drug maker, Denmark’s H. Lundbeck A/S and other pharmaceutical companies were raided Wednesday by the European Union as part of an antitrust investigation...

Sarkozy to protect French literature from readers and the evils of increased relevance

Posted on December 09, 2009
According to the NYT, Nicolas Sarkozy said that “[w]e won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is,” probably referring to the fact that about half of the 12 million books scanned by Google are not in English...

Antitrust News and Notes

Posted on December 05, 2009
A little behind the news but: A Spanish Socialist, Joaquín Almunia, will replace the Netherlands? Neelie Kroes to the the EU’s competition commissioner. Article 81 is now Article 101. D.O.J. has hired Rachel Brandenburger from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer...

Are IP and Essential Facilities ?fundamentally at odds??

Posted on December 02, 2009
Among the stock arguments in the debate whether IP rights can be essential facilities and if so whether and under what conditions mandatory RAND licenses can be pursued under Section 2 is the claim that a duty to license (e.g., API specifications) is fundamentally at odds with the grant of the IP right itself...

Datel sues Microsoft over XBOX lockout. Kodak for tethered appliances?

Posted on November 24, 2009
Here is an interesting complaint, in which Datel alleges that MSFT retroactively disabled Datel’s memory cards for the XBOX 360 to protect MSFT’s own aftermarket sales. The primary claims are monopolization of the aftermarket for XBOX accessories and tying, based on (i) total manufacturer control of the aftermarket and (ii) a > 50% share of [...

Google and Legal Search

Posted on November 19, 2009
Google now has a legal search engine. You first have to go to Google Scholar and then selected the “legal opinions and journals” option. I have only taken a quick look but a couple of quick thoughts: this is will be useful if you know the case name (or part of it)...

Slides for Talk about Antitrust and Standard Setting

Posted on November 17, 2009
Here are the slides for an upcoming talk on standard setting after Rambus, Broadcom (3rd. Cir.), Qualcomm (Fed. Cir.), and N-Data at the Advanced Patent Law Institute Conference in Palo Alto. Drop me a note if you are attending and would like me to address any other topics (offline, probably, the slot is only for [...

Obama Nominates Julie Brill and Edith Ramirez to the FTC

Posted on November 17, 2009
Reuters reports: U.S. President Barack Obama has chosen Julie Brill, North Carolina’s top consumer watchdog, and attorney Edith Ramirez to fill two vacant spots on the Federal Trade Commission, the White House said on Monday. … Brill became the senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice in [...

Slides from my Antitrust and IP Licensing talk in Chicago

Posted on November 16, 2009
Here are the slides from my talk at the PLI seminar Understanding the IP License 2009 in Chicago. This was a fun event with a great crowd. Thanks to everyone for making this such a rewarding trip! Share on Facebook

On the Move: A. Douglas Melamed

Posted on November 14, 2009
Congratulations to A. Douglas Melamed who is leaving Wilmer Hale to become the General Counsel of Intel. Share on Facebook

Intel and AMD settle for $1.25 billion dollars

Posted on November 12, 2009
Earlier today it was announced that Intel and AMD settled their long running antitrust dispute(s). Reuters reports: Intel Corp will pay rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc $1.25 billion to settle all outstanding legal disputes …. … AMD said it will withdraw all its regulatory complaints against Intel...

Antitrust News & Notes

Posted on November 06, 2009
A few notes from the last few weeks: The FTC is enjoying some good results regarding subpoenas. Congratulations to Tim Cornell who has joined Clifford Chance from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. The 5th circuit upheld the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit accusing Harrah’s Operating Co...

Chilling Competition

Posted on October 30, 2009
We are always happy to welcome a new antitrust blog to the blogosphere (even if we are a bit late in our welcome). Check out Chilling Competition which focuses on competition issues in Europe. Share on Facebook

House Judiciary Committee Votes To Repeal McCarran-Ferguson

Posted on October 21, 2009
The Washington Post reports: The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to strip federal antitrust protections shielding health insurers from investigations into price fixing and other business practices, the first step in a legislative bid to clamp down on the much-maligned industry...

A Quick Look at the Robinson Patman Act (Slides)

Posted on October 18, 2009
Here are some slides from a recent, high-level discussion of the Robinson-Patman Act, geared towards a technology firm audience. Share on Facebook

Could AAG Varney have been more forceful?

Posted on October 14, 2009
AAG Christine Varney appeared today before the Judiciary Committee to speak about the McCarran-Ferguson exemption to the antitrust laws. The exemption benefits the insurance industry and permits anticompetitive conduct short of boycott, coercion, or intimidation, such as price fixing and market allocations, within the “business of insurance” if it is regulated (however imperfectly) by state [...

On the Move: Donald C. Klawiter and Jennifer M. Driscoll-Chippendale

Posted on September 26, 2009
Congratulations to Donald C. Klawiter and Jennifer M. Driscoll-Chippendale who joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton from Mayer Brown.

On The Move: James O?Connell

Posted on September 26, 2009
Congratulations to James O’Connell who joined Covington & Burling from DOJ where he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of International, Policy, and Appellate matters in the Justice Department?s Antitrust Division. He is the third DOJ Antitrust official to join Covington this year along with Thomas Barnett and Deborah Garza.

First Merits Brief Filed in American Needle

Posted on September 25, 2009
Last week, American Needle filed its brief in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, the antitrust case that involves joint venture issues.