This month, we discuss In re DDAVP Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litigation,1 in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed the standing of a class of direct purchasers to bring Walker Process claims for antitrust liability. In an opinion written by Judge John M. Walker and joined by Judge Wilfred Feinberg and Judge Debra Ann Livingston, the court vacated a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing plaintiffs’ class action antitrust complaint for, inter alia, lack of standing.
In a case of first impression in any appellate court, the court held that direct purchasers have standing to bring a Walker Process claim—that is, an antitrust claim premised on defendant’s enforcement of a patent obtained by fraudulent means—for patents that are already unenforceable due to inequitable conduct. The court, however, declined to decide whether purchaser plaintiffs per se have standing to raise Walker Process claims, leaving for another day the extent of this expansion of standing doctrine.
Procedural History
