US: Fifth Circuit scraps $340M EDTX antitrust verdict

An appellate court has shot down the idea that patent infringement can give rise to antitrust liability, and with it a $340 million jury verdict.

Friday’s ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hands a big win to Becton Dickinson in its 15-year legal dispute with Retractable Technologies over safety syringes. Safety syringes are designed to prevent the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS via accidental needle prick.

Retractable Technologies won a $5 million patent infringement verdict against Becton Dickinson in 2010. It subsequently persuaded an Eastern District of Texas jury that the infringement was part of an attempted monopolization campaign that also included false advertising and a predatory scheme to taint the market for certain syringes. The jury awarded $113.5 million, which then-Chief Judge Leonard Davis trebled.

But Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones concluded for a unanimous panel that while patent infringement may be a form of unfair competition, it cannot be labeled anti-competitive.

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