Is the Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full? : Reflections on the Kodak Case

Last June, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the Kodak antitrust case. Much has already been written about the case, and this year's crop of law reviews and journals will undoubtedly add to the pile. Therefore, in lieu of a detailed analysis of the case that journals the Court's decision, this Comment makes three specific and interrelated points. First, the decision represents an important analytical advance in the Court's thinking about certain antitrust issues. Although the defendant was on the losing side of the decision, and the opinion contains language generally critical of certain theoretical economic arguments, this advance will likely be far more helpful than harmful to antitrust defendants. Second, despite the somewhat special factual circumstances involved in the case, there is a significant area of opportunity for an application of the theoretical argument at issue in the case potentially has more sweeping implication than those identified in the Court's opinion