Opinion ID: 4076467
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Summary Judgment on PBX Upgrade Tying

Text: Claim The jury rejected TLI’s § 1 tying claim for the PBX market and found that there was no relevant antitrust aftermarket for PBX patches, but TLI nonetheless asks us to revive a separate § 1 tying claim. It appeals the District 58 The expert’s credibility is further undermined by the fact that at a subsequent Daubert hearing, the District Court determined that he was “‘[c]learly ... not competent’ to testify about an individual customer’s motivations.” (Third Step Br. at 62 (alteration and omission in original) (quoting J.A. 4071).) 113 Court’s grant of summary judgment against its claim that Avaya unlawfully tied PBX upgrades and maintenance. Before addressing the reasoning of the District Court, we note that, in light of our already-set-forth explanation of Kodak-style tying claims, we are skeptical of the tying claim regarding PBX upgrades, especially given the jury’s rejection of the tying claim related to PBX software patches. Upgrading a PBX system requires a customer to step back into the competitive primary PBX market, thereby at least partially ameliorating any lock-in concern and making it less likely that Avaya could dissociate the primary market from an aftermarket. We acknowledge that in the PBX upgrade market there may still be some reliance on past investments in an old Avaya system, but if the jury rejected the notion that PBX patches satisfied the Kodak theory – when patches are strictly aftermarket products – we doubt that it would have been more sympathetic to an argument that upgrades were unlawfully used as a tie. Antitrust theory aside, the District Court granted summary judgment for the simple reason that TLI had failed to present any substantial evidence that Avaya’s alleged threats to withhold upgrades had actually affected “a substantial amount of interstate commerce,” as required to make out a § 1 claim. (J.A. 165.) It characterized TLI’s proffered evidence as consisting of “little more than assertions,” which the “Court [found] insufficient.” (Id.) That evidence – which TLI presses upon us anew on appeal – again consists of expert reports arguing that Avaya used upgrades as part of a scheme to foreclose competition in the maintenance market. Avaya defends the District Court by 114 arguing that that “evidence” was merely unsupported assertions filtered through TLI’s experts. Reviewing the record ourselves, and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of TLI, we find ourselves in agreement with Avaya and the District Court. In opposing summary judgment, TLI presented no evidence to raise an issue of material fact about whether Avaya was able to harm TLI by using PBX upgrades to restrain competition in the maintenance market. We will therefore also affirm that aspect of the District Court’s summary judgment order. 59