Price Erosion and Lost Sales Establish Irreparable Harm Sufficient for Preliminary Injunction

The court granted plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction to preclude defendants' sales of accused test strips and found that plaintiffs had established irreparable harm. "Defendants intend to sell their [accused strips] at one-half the price of Plaintiffs’ strips, and Defendants have projected $173.5 million in U.S. sales in the first full year. . . . Defendants’ pricing structure would also cause price erosion because Plaintiffs would likely need to cut the prices of their strips in order to compete, making it extremely difficult to raise prices back to the earlier level if and when [the accused strips] are removed from the market. . . . Plaintiffs’ argument is particularly compelling in this case because, given that the FDA has only approved [the accused strips] for use in Plaintiffs’ [meter], the parties are faced with a zero-sum game in which every sale made by Defendants is likely a sale lost by Plaintiffs."

LifeScan Scotland, Ltd. v. Shasta Technologies, LLC, et. al., 5-11-cv-04494 (CAND March 19, 2013, Order) (Davila, J.).