Vonage Holdings Corp. today announced an $80 million deal that includes a $35 million settlement of a patent dispute with Sprint Communications LP. A Kansas jury awarded Sprint $69.5 million after finding Vonage infringed six Sprint patents.
The balance of the $80 million represents a $40 million payment "for a fully paid future license" to
Blawgletter appreciates that judges must use logic to decide cases, including cases that would stir any human’s emotions. But we expect even objective magistrates to show compassion for those whose arguments they reject.
Consider a recent ruling against a mother and father who lost their son to suicide less than a week before his wedding
The NYT reports today that the Supreme Court of Washington struck down a state law against political lying. Four of nine justices concluded that the electorate alone may judge the truth or falsity of candidates’ statements about each other. A fifth justice concurred on the ground that political speech crosses the line only when the
The WSJ editors put the issue in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., No. 06-43 (U.S.) as whether to allow "investors to sue a company simply because it did business with someone else who broke the law". Note the "simply because it did business" with a lawbreaker — specifically, a perpetrator of securities fraud.
Kang and Kodos hitchhiking.
Do you like to make people laugh? Do you enjoy early Woody Allen movies, especially Sleeper? Have you often heard people praising your wit? And do you like everything about practicing law except for the clients, the judges, and your colleagues, particularly that partner who never fails
Thirty-two former partners at a big law firm will split $27.5 million on account of the firm’s age discrimination against them, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced today.
We mention the case not to vex friends at an excellent firm but because the news item quotes Judge Posner’s treatment of an interlocutory decision. In
President Bush said today:
This government does not torture people.
Blawgletter would risk a charge of snarkiness if we said something like:
The Second Circuit today barred a copyright co-owner from going back in time to kill another co-owner’s infringement claims. The case involved two songs — "L.O.V.E." and "Don’t Trade in My Love" — versions of which hip-hop soul singer Mary J. Blige recorded on a triple platinum album, No More Drama. Sharice Davis sued
The NYT reports today on the influx of doctors since Texas enacted a law that makes medical malpractice lawsuits uneconomic.
No word on the law’s effect on the frequency of malpractice. Dare we hope that only really terrific physicians respond to the virtual absence of malpractice liability?
Barry Barnett
The NYT reports today that government lawyers okayed the CIA’s harshest interrogation methods shortly after Alberto Gonzales took over as America’s chief defender of the rule of law.
Imagine Blawgletter’s surprise.
We admit to enjoying the part about an exchange between James B. Comey and David S. Addington over a "torture" memo by John Yoo.