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Charlene Jones, Aidan Synnott, Nov 25, 2009
In October 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the first appeals court to decide that direct purchasers have standing to assert Walker Process claims. In so holding, the court did three interesting things: (1) it retained jurisdiction based on a minor aspect of plaintiffs claims, despite defendants arguments that the case belonged in the Federal Circuit because it concerned issues that arose under patent law; (2) it was very cautious in its expansion of antitrust standing for purchasers, limiting it to suits based on patents already held unenforceable due to inequitable conduct; and (3) it held that plaintiffs antitrust claim was adequately pled, which is arguably inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Twombly and Iqbal.
