Welcome back to Commercial Roundup–the best source for the latest appellate decisions on issues that matter in commercial litigation. In this issue, you’ll find four Supreme Court rulings on overseas torts, patent enablement, the reach of the False Claims Act, and limits on the Securities Act of 1933 as well as opinions on a range of topics from all but two of the 13 federal Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Texas. Have a terrific weekend–and don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll get future issues without having to look for them.
- Jury could find that kit for turning truck sleeper cabs into day cabs infringes other kit maker’s trade dress.
- In context, “predecessors” plainly meant firm in any of its old forms, not old parties to oil and gas lease.
- Party’s false claim it owned patent didn’t rise to level of “fraud on the court”.
- Take-out lender could enforce first lender’s lien, but doing so meant limitations period for first lender applied.
- Contract to buy house from builder bound later buyer to arbitrate claims against builder for defects.
- Lawyer who stated that focus-group results had shown “the female African-American” as “the most favorable [juror] for this case” violated Batson by striking white potential jurors.
- Twitter didn’t aid or abet terrorist attacks in Turkey.
- Amgen antibody patent didn’t “enable” people to use invention it claimed.
- Power to sue for taxes didn’t include power to pay lawyers a contingent fee to challenge appraisals.
- Dispute that “would” affect who owned right to oil and gas payments allowed operator to avoid paying interest for delay in making them.
- JetBlue-American “pact” not to compete in Boston and New York “is just the sort of ‘unreasonable restraint on trade’ the Sherman Act was designed to prevent.”
- Main ground for deeming patent case “baseless” “wholly lacks merit”.
- Lack of detail on LLC members endangers trial outcome.
- Declaration that defendant sold more than $5 million of relevant product in state met test for removal of class-action case to federal court under Class Action Fairness Act.
- Narrow purpose of device feature kept device from counting as prior art.
- Party’s contacts with forum state may subject it to personal jurisdiction despite its surprise at the contacts’ results.
- Jury could not award unjust enrichment damages equal to plaintiff’s cost of developing trade secrets that retained their full value despite misappropriation.
- Selling copies of furniture designs infringed designer’s trade dress.
- Protective order barred experts from using “confidential” info that became public without their knowledge.
- EDWELL didn’t infringe EDWEL trademark.
- Bankruptcy Code allowed release of bankrupt opioids maker’s owners from claims they caused or benefited from vast harm to opioids takers and others.
- Failure to include more upbeat cash-flow figures from merger proxy statement didn’t cause owners of merger target to suffer any loss.
- Leaving a ringless voicemail message that contains an ad causes recipient concrete harm and confers Article III standing to sue.
- Insurer could not appeal from order that compelled appraisal of loss from hurricane damage to five buildings under either 28 U.S.C. 1292(a)(1) or Federal Arbitration Act.
- Worker who opposed arbitration as unconscionable failed to prove the cost would preclude him from arbitrating statutory claims against employer.
- False Claims Act reaches fraud by seller that subjectively believes a flexible standard like “usual and customary” disallows the amount it charges government entity for goods or services.
- Section 11 of Securities Act of 1933 applies only to securities that issue “under” a registration statement.
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