Competition

Opinion

How RBG Tamed Robinson-Patman Price Discrimination

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg authored only one significant antitrust decision in her decades on the court, but she made it count by bringing rationality to the confused, arcane area of price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act, honoring both the text and policy, says Scott Abeles at Carlton Fields.

DOJ Support Of SEP Injunctions Should Stabilize Licensing

The U.S. Department of Justice's recent letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which explicitly supports standard-essential patent owners in their pursuit of injunctive relief and favors a diminished role for antitrust enforcement in intellectual property disputes, bodes well for rebalancing the licensing market, say attorneys at Mintz.

A Road Map For Drafting Persuasive Discovery Motions

Best practices that can help litigators write convincing discovery motions include thinking about the audience, addressing a few key questions, and leaving out boilerplate from supporting briefs, says Tom Connally at Hogan Lovells.

Opinion

9th Circ. Antitrust Ruling Threatens NFL, Free Enterprise

The U.S. Supreme Court should reverse a recent Ninth Circuit decision — holding that the NFL-DirecTV Sunday Ticket joint venture violates antitrust laws — because it jeopardizes a business model driving innovation in this country, says former Sen. Orrin Hatch.

How Congress Can Depoliticize The Supreme Court

Congress has multiple means to take the politics out of federal judicial nominations and restore the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court — three of which can be implemented without a constitutional amendment, says Franklin Amanat at DiCello Levitt.

And Now A Word From The Panel: Justifying An MDL

Recent oral arguments before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in the Ahern Rentals trade secret case demonstrate that justifying centralization of related actions into an MDL hinges on showing similarities between the actions — and especially on whether they will lead to common discovery, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.

Opinion

The Case For A Nonpolitical Federal Judiciary

For the last 20 years, at the insistence of both parties, U.S. Supreme Court nominations have been fierce ideological battles — which is bad for the country and bad for the public's perception of the legitimacy of the court, say Judge Eric Moyé, Judge Craig Smith and Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer.

Trump's Drug Pricing Order Is More Bark Than Bite

President Donald Trump's new executive order addressing pricing for drugs covered by Medicare Parts B and D glosses over enormous difficulties in restructuring Medicare operations and is unlikely to lead to any imminent changes, say attorneys at Debevoise.

Anthem-Cigna Merger Ruling Highlights Post-Deal Issues

The Delaware Chancery Court's recent decision to halt the Anthem-Cigna merger on antitrust grounds is most notable for not holding Cigna liable for breaching its obligation to support the transaction, and underscores the vulnerability of merger-of-equals transactions to post-signing issues, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

The Keys To A Better Privilege Logging Paradigm

Current privilege logging practices to identify what information is being withheld from discovery often lead to costly disputes, so practitioners should adopt a system based on trust and good faith, similar to the presumptions embedded in the business judgment rule for corporate directors and officers, say Kevin Brady at Volkswagen and Charles Ragan and Ted Hiser at Redgrave.

UK Top Court Ruling May Be Problematic For Global SEP Suits

There are several reasons to question the wisdom of the U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling that English judges have the power to set extraterritorial licensing royalty rates for standard-essential patents, including that it encourages forum shopping, says Thomas Cotter at the University of Minnesota Law School.

White House Due Process Memo Could Reform Enforcement

A little-noticed memo recently issued by the Trump administration in response to the pandemic, directing federal agencies to provide greater due process to individuals and companies under regulatory investigation, represents a long-overdue sea change in the way justice is carried out in enforcement proceedings, say Joan Meyer and Norman Bloch at Thompson Hine.

Law Firm Hiring Considerations In A COVID-19 Economy

Financially robust law firms are entering the recruiting market aggressively knowing that dislocations like the COVID-19 crisis present rare competitive opportunities, and firms that remain on the sidelines when it comes to strategic hiring will be especially vulnerable to having their best talent poached, says Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey.

How Pharma Cos. Can Evaluate Alliance Agreements' Validity

Alliance agreements can help pharmaceutical companies collaborate and resolve patent infringement disputes, especially during these uncertain pandemic times, but may draw questions concerning legitimacy if not properly vetted, say Louis Berneman at Texelerate, and Alan White and Anne Catherine Faye at Analysis Group.

Cannabis Mergers Skewed Hart-Scott-Rodino Report Data

Data in the recently released 2019 Hart-Scott-Rodino report is plagued by nine of 31 significant merger investigations having involved cannabis industry mergers for which credible antitrust concerns were lacking, making meaningful comparison with enforcement efforts in previous years difficult, says Jack Sidorov at Lowenstein Sandler.