Article
Supreme Court Abolishes Presumption Of Market Power In Antitrust Patent Tying Cases
For at least 50 years, the Supreme Court has presumed that a patent necessarily confers market power in antitrust cases in which the plaintiff alleges that the patentee has unlawfully “tied” a non-patented product (the “tied product”) to its patented product (the “tying product”). Based on this presumption, the tying of unpatented goods to patented goods was deemed illegal per se under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. The Supreme Court’s recent holding in Illinois Tool Works Inc. v.
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP
