Around the world, patents – and the associated rights a
patent confers upon its holder – are increasingly being
subjected to and defined by competition law policies and analysis.
The United States proves to be no exception to this trend, as
American litigants in particular have been successful in turning to
antitrust and unfair competition laws to attack and limit patent
rights. Thus, even though the US patent system lawfully bestows
limited term exclusionary rights upon a patent holder, antitrust
and unfair competition law is being wielded as an increasingly
effective weapon to diminish patent rights in the United
States.
This article examines the growing importance of antitrust
principles in shaping modern patent rights, with a particular focus
on key federal court decisions over the past year at the
intersection of patent and antitrust law. Three important
developments emerge: (1) federal appellate courts have expanded the
scope of antitrust liability to include
