What is a pay for delay settlement and how do they fit into the Patent landscape?

Pay-for-delay settlements operate in the pharmaceutical space in the following way: In settling a patent dispute between a patent holder (also known as the patent originator) and a generic producer, the patent originator agrees to transfer some form of value to the generic producer in exchange for which the generic producer agrees not to enter the market for a certain length of time.

Settlements such as these have become known as pay-for-delay settlements, or reverse payments, because the patent originator pays the entity accused of infringement to settle the dispute, the opposite of what normally happens in patent litigation settlements.

Read the full article here. Philippa Dewey in our trademaks department, brings you two case examples and looks to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US and the European Commission as they argue their rights.

This article was written for and published by Without Prejudice Magazine.