A chandelier depends from the ceiling.
Do you know the difference between an "independent" patent claim and a "dependent" one? If you don’t but would like to, the Federal Circuit offered a primer on the subject today in Monsanto Co. v. Sygenta Seeds, Inc., No. 06-1472 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 4, 2007). The court concluded
One pill makes you larger.
Today the Second Circuit solved a possible conflict between different kinds of employee welfare benefit plans by carving out a sub-class.
Merck-Medco contracted to manage pharmaceutical benefits for the plans and their members. The plans alleged that Merck-Medco breached fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
The Fifth Circuit yesterday sent a securities case back to the district court for trial. The decision reversed a summary judgment for Terrebonne Parish on its statute of limitations defense. The court held that disappointing financial results didn’t give the securities purchasers "inquiry notice" of possible fraud. They didn’t get notice, the court concluded, until
The Doobie Brothers sang "Blackwater".
In 1651, the bookish Englishman Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan. In it, he ruminated on humans’ cession of their natural rights to a sovereign state in return for protection. The social contract ended the war of all against all and saved us from a life that he described, in a
The First Circuit held yesterday that a "reconstruction" of a copyrightable work doesn’t satisfy the "copy" requirement for copyright registration. The author in the case wrote down lyrics and music for an original song on a piece of paper in 1993. He forgot about it until eight years later, when he learned that somebody else
By day, J. Gregory Sidak teaches at the Georgetown University Law Center and consults for Criterion Economics, which he founded.
Recently, Dr. Sidak submitted to the Federal Communications Commission the last of several declarations opposing approval of the plan by radio satellite provider Sirius to buy its sole competitor, XM. He summarizes his conclusions in
Their Honors will hear argument on October 9 in Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., No. 06-43 (U.S.). The case concerns whether securities fraud liability reaches silent collaborators. "Questions Presented" here.
Blawgletter talked in August about the Solicitor General’s split-the-baby approach to the Stoneridge questions and the possible effect of Stoneridge on a Fifth
In Catch-22 (1955), Joseph Heller put this bit of dialogue in the mouths of B-25 bombardier Yossarian and squadron physician Doc Daneeka:
"Sure there’s a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy."
* * * *
"That’s some catch, that Catch-22," he [Yossarian] observed.
Time to wake up, little one.
The D.C. Circuit today issued its first opinion in more than a month. The judicial hiatus started on August 24, 2007. Blawgletter still has no idea what caused it.
Strangely, the parties argued the appeal during the decision drought. Did the court really have no backlog?
The case involved
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson devotes his space today to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — and particularly His Honor’s dislike of affirmative action.
A shocker for Blawgletter: The justice keeps his Yale law degree in the basement — with a "15 cents" sticker on the frame. Yikes!
Barry Barnett
