D. Mass. Patent Litigation Update: September 2026

This is part of a series of articles discussing recent orders of interest issued in patent cases by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

In Value Drug Company v. Alkermes, Inc. et al., No. 1:25-cv-12872-JEK, Judge Kobick granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s claim that Defendants violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by defrauding the USPTO to obtain the patent at issue and thereby delaying generic competition. Defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine immunized their patent-enforcement conduct from antitrust liability. Plaintiff invoked the Walker Process fraud exception, which removes that immunity where the antitrust defendant obtained the challenged patent through fraud on the USPTO. To invoke the exception, Plaintiff had to allege that Defendants made materially false representations with intent to mislead the USPTO, but for which the ’499 patent would not have issued.