US Supreme Court says patent settlement can "sometimes" be illegal

In a long awaited ruling in the USA, the US Supreme Court yesterday (June 17) ruled in the patent settlement litigation – or “pay-for-delay” case, in the case of Federal Trade Commission v Actavis Inc, voting by five to three that the FTC has the right to challenge such deals by brand-name drugmakers with generics companies, which are said to delay the advent of cheaper copy medicines coming to market, a situation long refuted by the originator companies, which claim that these accords actually speed the arrivals of generics.