On September 12, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Sherman Act claims by a supplier of wastewater treatment products against two of its competitors and a private standard-setting organization, NSF International, holding that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine protected defendants from Sherman Act liability.  Geomatrix, LLC v. NSF Int’l, No. 22-1947, 2023 WL 5925977 (6^th Cir. Sept. 12, 2023).

On July 26, 2021, Chief Judge Freda L. Wolfson of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed “sham litigation” monopolization counterclaims against a pharmaceutical patent holder, finding that the patent holder conducted a reasonable investigation before filing the underlying infringement suit and did not unreasonably delay the proceedings before determining that the counterclaim plaintiff’s generic substitute for the patent holder’s drug did not infringe its patent and voluntarily dismissing its infringement claims.  Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., et al. v. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., et al., No. CV 18-1994 (FLW), 2021 WL 3144897 (D.N.J. July 26, 2021).  Because the generic manufacturer could not establish that the patent holder’s infringement lawsuit was either objectively or subjectively baseless, the Court granted summary judgment for the patent holder.