Law Center Search Results

The NAM filed an amicus brief in a pharmaceutical patent litigation settlement dispute to urge the appellate court to affirm a district court ruling allowing a patent litigation settlement agreement between a brand manufacturer and two generic pharmaceutical manufacturers. The plaintiffs alleged that the settlement agreement violated antitrust laws, although the agreement allowed the generic manufacturers to enter the market before the patent expired. This case is important to manufacturers across the economy that rely on flexibility in settling patent disputes to avoid expensive and unnecessary litigation. The NAM’s brief argued that courts must ensure that a challenge to a settlement agreement is actually plausible before allowing the case to proceed and that plaintiffs must allege enough facts to make an overall anticompetitive effect plausible. The appeals court, however, vacated the district court's decision and remanded the case for the district court to decide the issue of the application of the plausibility standard.