Daniel Powers
Subscribe to Daniel Powers's PostsDaniel (Dan) Powers focuses his practice on antitrust litigation, counseling and regulatory matters. He assists clients in a variety of industries, including health care, pharmaceuticals, mobile communications, aerospace and defense. Read Daniel Powers' full bio.
Third Circuit Blocks Hospital Merger in Key Victory for FTC on Geographic Market Definition
By Stephen Wu, Daniel Powers, Ashley Fischer and McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 28, 2016
Posted In FTC Developments, Healthcare Antitrust, Mergers & Acquisitions, Monopolization/Abuse of Dominance
On September 27, 2016, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed an important victory to the Federal Trade Commission and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a closely watched hospital merger case. The decision provides clear guidance on the appropriate tests for determining geographic markets in hospital merger cases, while also suggesting that...
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District Court Blocks FTC and PA AG Challenge to Hershey-Pinnacle Merger
By Daniel Powers on May 17, 2016
Posted In FTC Developments, Healthcare Antitrust, Mergers & Acquisitions
On May 9, 2016, the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied the motion by the Federal Trade Commission and Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the merger of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System. The decision ends a string of victories by the FTC...
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Has Antitrust Enforcement Been ‘Reinvigorated’ Under Obama?
By Daniel Powers and Gregory E. Heltzer on Oct 27, 2015
Posted In DOJ Developments, FTC Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions
In the 2008 presidential election campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to “reinvigorate” antitrust enforcement. Over the last few years, several observers have concluded that the Obama administration’s antitrust record is not substantially different from that of his predecessor. Conventional wisdom suggests that antitrust enforcement is non-partisan. Some key statistics bear out this conclusion, but a...
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Ninth Circuit is the First Appeals Court to Rule on RAND/SEP Licensing
By Daniel Powers and Michael O'Shaughnessy on Aug 4, 2015
Posted In IP Antitrust
Introduction In a decision written by Judge Marsha S. Berzon, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appels for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a first-of-its-kind district court judgment relating to royalty rates for standard-essential patents (SEP). As part of the standard setting process, many standards organizations require members who hold patents necessary to implement...
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Four FTC Commissioners Reject Wright’s Call for GUPPI Safe Harbor
By Daniel Powers on Jul 16, 2015
Posted In DOJ Developments, FTC Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions
Four members of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a statement on July 13, 2015, disputing claims by a fellow commissioner that the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines include a “safe harbor” that is available in unilateral effects merger investigations. Commissioner Joshua Wright’s comments about the potential safe harbor arose in the context of the Commission’s...
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Top Antitrust Enforcers Respond to Congressional Questioning
By Daniel Powers on May 26, 2015
Posted In Cartel Enforcement, Chinese Developments, DOJ Developments, FTC Developments, Healthcare Antitrust, Mergers & Acquisitions
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Assistant Attorney General William Baer testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law on May 15, 2015. The oversight hearing provided an opportunity for the heads of the U.S. antitrust enforcement agencies to survey their agencies’ priorities and recent...
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Ninth Circuit Affirms Divestiture of Consummated Physician Practice Acquisition
By Ashley Fischer, Daniel Powers and Michelle Lowery on Mar 2, 2015
Posted In FTC Developments, Healthcare Antitrust
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed an Idaho federal district court’s decision ordering the divestiture of a physician practice group that had been acquired by a competing health system. The case, which pitted the health system against private plaintiffs as well as the Federal Trade Commission and the state attorney general,...
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FTC Commissioner Brill Urges Congress to Act on Patent Trolls
By Daniel Powers on Dec 15, 2014
Posted In FTC Developments
In a speech at the American Antitrust Association (AAI) and Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) Conference on Innovation, Patents and PAEs on December 10, 2014, Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC) Julie Brill reported that the FTC hopes to complete its study of patent assertion entities (PAEs) by the end of 2015. She cautioned against complacency,...
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North Carolina Dental Board Urges Reversal of FTC’s “Radical” Stance on State Action Immunity
By Daniel Powers on Sep 5, 2014
Posted In FTC Developments
North Carolina’s State Board of Dental Examiners has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) “radical departure” from decades of established precedent that offers state actors immunity from antitrust scrutiny, arguing that the FTC’s approach contradicts the federalist principles that originally gave rise to the state action immunity doctrine. Earlier...
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FTC’s Reporting Rule for Pharmaceutical Patent Transfers Upheld
By Daniel Powers on Jun 4, 2014
Posted In FTC Developments, IP Antitrust
On May 30, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a dispute with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) regarding the Commission’s authority to require the pharmaceutical industry to report certain transfers of exclusive patent rights under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR)...
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