Princo Corp. v. International Trade Commission

This case presents important questions concerning the scope of the doctrine of patent misuse. The critical question is whether the existence of an antitrust violation — in the form of an agreement to suppress an alternative technology designed to protect a patented technology from competition — constitutes misuse of the protected patents. The majority holds that it does not. This seems directly contrary to the Supreme Court’s view of pat-, ent misuse in its recent Illinois Tool Works decision, where the Court concluded that “[i]t would be absurd to assume that Congress intended to provide…