Federal Circuit joins list of appellate courts finding reverse payment patent settlements valid

Abstract

In the latest decision in a series of antitrust cases challenging reverse payment settlements between brand-name and generic pharmaceutical companies, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concurred with the Second and Eleventh Circuits, holding that reverse payment settlements do not violate antitrust laws so long as the underlying patent was not procured through fraud, the related patent infringement suit was not a sham, and the anti-competitive effects of the settlement agreements are not outside the exclusionary zone of the patent.