This webinar will explore the significant ramifications of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Impression Products v. Lexmark. Exhaustion of patent rights is a very simple matter, the Court said, and the Federal Circuit has been wrong both to allow domestic post-sale restrictions under patent law and to allow U.S. patent owners to sue for infringement of products imported into the U.S. that the patentee first sold abroad. The opinion notes, “We conclude that a patentee’s decision to sell a product exhausts all of its patent rights in that item, regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale.”
Our panelists include the top IP lawyer at a multinational pharmaceutical company, a law firm attorney who was formerly the head of IP litigation at GE, and a licensing expert. They will discuss how companies will need to react to the newly-fortified power of exhaustion, including:
- Structuring licenses as a way around exhaustion;
- Antitrust concerns about enforcing post-sale restrictions through contracts after Lexmark;
- Structuring patent ownership, supply chain management, and inventory management to reduce exhaustion, and important tax implications.
Speakers:
- Paul Jahn, Morrison & Foerster LLP
- William Krovatin, Merck & Co., Inc.
- Richard Rainey, Covington & Burling LLP
