Hugo Black

“ Lilly also contends that even if it is engaged in intrastate commerce in New Jersey and can by virtue of that fact be required to get a license to do business in that State, New Jersey cannot properly deny it access to the courts in this case because the suit is one arising out of the interstate aspects of its business. In this regard, Lilly relies upon such cases as International Textbook Co. v. Pigg, [14] holding that a State cannot condition the right of a foreign corporation to sue upon a contract for the interstate sale of goods. ”

“ For the record shows that Lilly here, no less than Northwestern there, engages in a 'domestic business-inducing,' as the Court said of Northwestern, 'one local merchant to buy a particular class of goods from another.' The fact that the business of 'inducing' intrastate sales, as engaged in by Lilly, is primarily a promotional and service business which does not include a systematic solicitation of orders goes only to the nature of the intrastate business Lilly is carrying on, not to the question of whether it is carrying on an intrastate business. ”

“ To this end, they have provided these hospitals, physicians and retailers with up-to-date knowledge of Lilly's products and with free advertising and promotional material designed to encourage the general public to make more intrastate purchases of Lilly's products. And they sometimes even directly participate in the intrastate sales themselves by transmitting orders from the hospitals, physicians and drugstores they service to the New Jersey wholesalers. ”