Shares in Retractable Technologies (NYSE:RVP) lost nearly half their value last week after a federal appeals court overturned its $352 million anti-trust win over Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX).
A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Dec. 2 that RTI’s claim that BD violated a section of the Sherman Antitrust Act was “infirm as a matter of law.”
“First, patent infringement, which operates to increase competition, is not anticompetitive conduct. Second, false advertising is a slim, and here nonexistent, reed for a [Sherman Act] claim.
