United States Federal Circuit

In plaintiff's antitrust suit on behalf of itself and a class of direct purchasers of NAND flash memory, alleging that defendant had fraudulently procured two patents central to its flash memory business by failing to disclose known prior art and making affirmative misrepresentations to the PTO, district court's denial of defendant's motion to dismiss is affirmed where because direct purchasers are generally permitted to bring antitrust actions, and because the Walker Process decision did not preclude purchasers from bringing this particular type of antitrust claim, plaintiff's status as a direct purchaser gives it standing to pursue its Walker Process claim even if it could not have sought a declaratory judgment of patent invalidity or unenforceability.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/20/2012
• Published 11/20/2012

Judges

• Bryson

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel