(Boring) Presumption of Market Power in Patent Tying Schemes

Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc.

I have always found patent cases to be obscure, needlessly complicated and boring (this probably due to the fact that I know very little about patents at all). This case is no exception. In this case Court surveys its schizophrenic past regarding a presumption that carried over from patent law into antitrust law. The Court presumed, on and off since the late 1800’s, that the grant of a patent conferred market power automatically, and that to condition the sale of a patented product on the sale of another product unlawfully expanded the grant of a monopoly accompanying a patent. Both because Congress explicitly reversed that assumption in one aspect of the law, and because the bulk of scholarship has concluded that the underlying assumption regarding automatic market power is incorrect, the Court holds that market power must be demonstrated with evidence from here on out.

The Court also holds that because the petitioner appropriately relied on the previous rule, she should be entitled to amend the complaint and introduce the necessary evidence.