The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

Microsoft files antitrust suit against InterDigital in patent feud.  Microsoft is alleging that InterDigital has violated U.S. antitrust law by failing to keep its promise to fairly license technology considered essential to mobile phone communications.  Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against InterDigital  in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, expanding the long-standing fight over patent licensing between the two companies.  The lawsuit concerns patents considered to be critical to technologies that may be widely adopted in an industry.

Hollywood Studios Must Face Animators’ Anti-Poaching Lawsuit.  Several major Hollywood studios have failed to convince a federal judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit accusing them of illegally conspiring not to poach each other’s animators, to help drive down wages.  U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, denied motions to dismiss made by defendants Walt Disney Co and its Lucasfilm and Pixar units, Sony Corp, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc and 21st Century Fox Inc’s Blue Sky Studios.  Without ruling on the merits, Judge Koh said emails and other evidence suggested that the studios agreed not to solicit each other’s workers, shared information about pay practices, offered “misleading, pretextual” reasons to justify why wages were not higher, and took steps to keep their conspiracy a secret.

Monopolization lawsuit over antibiotic eye drops dismissed.  A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust class action accusing drugmaker Allergan Inc and two other companies of conspiring to monopolize the market for Zymar and Zymaxid antibacterial eye drops.  Judge Sue Robinson of the Delaware U.S. District Court ruled that pharmacy chain Hartig Drug Co Inc did not have standing to bring the lawsuit because it was not a direct purchaser of Zymar from Allergan.