EI Chairman Barry Harris testified in federal court on behalf of Inguran, LLC and XY LLC.

EI Chairman Barry Harris testified in federal court in Denver in February on behalf of Inguran, LLC and XY LLC on antitrust liability issues and damages.   Inguran and XY alleged patent infringement and contract breach against Trans Ova Genetics, LC, while Trans Ova asserted antitrust counterclaims against Inguran and XY.  Trans Ova alleged monopolization of two markets related to artificial insemination of dairy cattle: (1) the technology related to sorting bovine semen by sex and (2) the market for sorting bovine semen by sex (the sorting market).  Dr. Harris’ analysis found that the appropriate antitrust market included conventional or non-sorted straws, because farmers are sensitive to relative prices in deciding whether to use the sorted or non-sorted product.  His analysis also considered the large reduction in price, plus the large increase in both quantity supplied and the quality of the product over the past decade.   Sorted semen accounts for less than 10% of total straws used in artificial insemination by U.S. dairy farmers.  The jury found there was no unique antitrust market for either the technology or the sorting service associated with sex-sorted bovine semen and, thus, found for Inguran and XY on all antitrust claims.  EI economists Stephanie Mirrow and Michael Baumann worked closely with Dr. Harris on these analyses.  Inguran and XY were represented by Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.