Steve Susman–my friend and mentor and my firm’s founding partner–died yesterday. A great many people who knew or knew of Steve have sent condolences, which I appreciate very much. I am very sad but also very grateful.
For those of you who hadn’t heard or want to know more, below is a statement that the
Beating a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment doesn’t count as success on merits.
Sports shoe making design patent wasn’t obvious.
Light up shoe design patent was obvious.
Congress gave chief of CFSB too much independence.
Fiduciary shield doctrine crumples.
Tacking .com to end of generic word or phrase may create protectable copyright.
Contempt action for violation of bankruptcy discharge order belonged in court despite arbitration clause. ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isys
DACA survives. supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf
Lawyer who won judgment on Argentine bonds had lien on proceeds of settlement he didn’t participate in and could sue Argentina under commercial activity exception to FSIA. ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isys
Arbitration clause required
This week’s Commercial Appeals Roundup actually covers a fortnight of appeals court rulings, from May 18 to June 5. Eyeballing the total number (24) makes me think the courts’ output has slowed only a little as a result of COVID-19.
Subject-matter-wise, the courts:
Appeals courts kept churning out rulings in the commercial sphere last week, but even more than usual dealt with IP issues—10 of 12 by my count, with one oil and gas and one class action rounding out the dozen.
The Supreme Court Itself spoke up, ruling in a trademark death-match that the end of previous
Decisions by appeals court have started to slow as the judges work through backlogs and adjust to remote oral arguments, remote conferences, and home offices with yappy dogs and bitey cats. The Week of May 4 produced 7 opinions that rated tweets on @contingencyblog, most of them dealing with intellectual property. Your Commercial Appeals
Here are the Commercial Appeals Roundups for the weeks of April 20-24, 2020 and April 27-May 1, 2020. The Roundups describe a key aspect of precedential appellate rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the highest appeals courts in Delaware, New York, and Texas and provide links directly to
Here’s the Commercial Roundup: Appeals for the week of April 13-17, 2020. As you’ll see, it went heavy on intellectual property and procedure, the latter including rulings on arbitration awards and class (de)certification.
Have a great week. We’ll see you again next Monday.
Be well.