Patterson Belknap represents clients in antitrust litigation and counseling matters, including those related to pricing, marketing, distribution, franchising, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic alliances. The firm has particular experience in antitrust litigation involving product distribution and pricing, financial benchmarks, safety codes and other standard-setting activities, and IP/antitrust issues such as alleged misuse of patents.

Industry Leadership

• Our Antitrust team is led by William F. Cavanaugh, Jr., former Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States for Civil Enforcement in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Mr. Cavanaugh directly supervised the Division’s work on a number of high-profile matters, including the Google Book Search settlement agreement and the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger. 
• We regularly defend large corporations and professional associations in a number of major antitrust cases, including two argued in the United States Supreme Court.
• We represent clients before the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and various other federal and state administrative agencies, and are active in civil antitrust litigation in federal and state courts.
• Bloomberg Law named Patterson Belknap among a list of law firms representing the top ten companies with the highest market capitalization facing antitrust litigation in the technology, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors.

Select Client Successes

• Successfully secured a significant victory for a Fortune 500 publishing company with the full dismissal of a multi-district antitrust litigation in the Southern District of New York. The multi-district litigation consolidated a number of putative class action lawsuits alleging that our client, along with other textbook publishers and retailers, violated various federal and state antitrust laws through its implementation of Inclusive Access, a program authorized by federal regulation whereby students may be automatically billed for and automatically receive digital course materials selected by their professor.
• Represented a major pharmaceutical company in a criminal investigation by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice into the alleged anti-competitive behavior in the generic drug market. 
• Successfully secured the dismissal of a putative class action against our client, a major international financial institution, alleging an antitrust conspiracy to manipulate the U.S. Dollar London Interbank Offered Rate administered by the Intercontinental Exchange. The court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss, which argued, among other things, that plaintiffs’ complaint failed to plausibly allege a conspiracy to restrain trade under the Sherman Act.
• Serving as lead trial counsel for two states heading a 38-state lawsuit against a major multinational technology company, alleging that the company has unlawfully restrained competition in order to protect monopolies in markets for general search services and search related advertising.
• Representing major pharmaceutical manufacturers in ongoing FTC investigations.
• Represented a major pharmaceutical company and its subsidiary against antitrust claims brought by a competitor, as well as putative class actions brought by direct and indirect purchasers, relating to a blockbuster biologic drug and biosimilar competition.
• Represented contact lens manufacturer in the defense of an antitrust lawsuit brought by a discount retailer alleging anticompetitive pricing. Also defending our client in follow-on consumer class action suits that have arisen over the alleged price-fixing of contact lenses.
• Representing one of the nation’s largest commercial banks as a defendant in a long-running series of litigations alleging violations of the antitrust laws by Visa, Mastercard, and a number of banks in the issuance of credit and debit cards. Many of the cases, including national class actions of merchants, have been settled.
• Represented a major financial institution in federal antitrust class action litigation challenging ATM access fees.
• Successfully secured summary judgment on behalf of the largest producer of quality chocolate in North America as lead trial counsel in a multidistrict antitrust litigation in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs alleged that our client conspired with other major chocolate manufacturers to fix the price of chocolate. The district court concluded that the record evidence led to the conclusion that “plaintiffs have adduced no evidence tending to exclude the possibility that defendants acted independently.” The Third Circuit affirmed the decision.
• Successfully secured the dismissal of a multi-million dollar federal antitrust lawsuit against our client, a major pharmaceutical manufacturer. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed all antitrust claims against our client on the grounds that the plaintiff did not have the antitrust injury that is necessary for antitrust standing under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
• Defended one of the major financial guaranty insurance companies in a series of antitrust claims brought by municipal bond issuers. In two separate groups of cases, the municipalities alleged wide-ranging conspiracies among insurers and others in both the sale of bond insurance and in the sale of municipal bond derivatives.
• Advised a publisher in defense of a government investigation into licensing practices in the delivery of financial data.