Patent Market Power Presumption Up for Grabs at S.Ct. Oral Argument

According to Tony Mauro writing for the Legal Times on November 29, 2005, U.S. Supreme Court Justices responding to oral arguments in Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink seemed to be moving away from earlier decisions that a patent creates a presumption of market power within a nationwide market for the product itself in antitrust disputes. However, his summary of the Justice's comments may not convince everyone:

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said the presumption puts the “heavy
lifting” in litigation on the patent holder. And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
noting that the presumption was a creation of the Supreme Court in the first
place, asked, “Why isn’t it the Court’s role to fix it up?”

Justice Stephen Breyer also expressed concern that without the presumption, “everything gets mixed up in the war of experts.”