Commercial Roundup – May 3, 2023
The last week brought losses for antitrust enforcers (“Apple’s concerns over app security” and “Laches and Trinko kill”), for a man who sued to get “co-inventor” status (“Adding option to patent”), for distributors invoking franchise-law protections (“State franchise statute didn’t apply”), for plaintiffs wishing to toll limitations under an 1841 statute (“Defendant’s ‘absence from state”), for some contract deadline enforcers (“Time ‘from’ or ‘after’”), and for some avoiders of collateral estoppel (“Ruling on question of issue preclusion”).
Have a terrific week–Commercial Roundup will see you again next Wednesday morning.
Commercial Roundup – April 5, 2023
This week’s Commercial Roundup follows three days of all antitrust, all the time at the ABA Antitrust Law Section’s annual Spring Meeting in our nation’s capital. More than 3,700 government enforcers, private lawyers, judges, economists, econometricians, academics, students, and others assembled to talk about the recent past and future of antitrust in the U.S. and around the world.
The Roundup includes but one post about the Spring Meeting—BIG meets ABA—but it will give you a good sense of the combat that flickered into view amid the nerdy bonhomie. You can find other posts on the Spring Meeting here, here, and here.
Now, let’s get to the Roundup!
Antitrust Enforcers Must Do More with Less
Like 3,700 or so other folks, I spent a few days last week at a world-class nerdfest—the Spring Meeting of the Antitrust Law Section. You can see my notes from a couple of the half-dozen sessions I attended here and here. You can also see the insights of Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and publisher of BIG on Substack, on his experience as a panelist here.
The four days in D.C. again reminded me of the strongly pro-defense orientation of Section members. Many of them spend their days pushing mergers through the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act process. Many others litigate civil and criminal lawsuits charging their clients with price-fixing, abuse of market power, and other violations of antitrust law.
No wonder they believe Robert Bork—the patron saint of trusting in the beneficence of behemoths—hung the antitrust moon.
Notes on “Trying a Section 2 Case: Best Practices”
Today the ABA Antitrust Law Section’s annual Spring Meeting comes to a close. This post reviews a panel discussion on the particular challenges of trying a monopolization or attempt to monopolize case under Sherman Act Section 2.
Continue Reading Notes on “Trying a Section 2 Case: Best Practices”
Notes on “All Bark, No Bite? Antitrust Under Biden.”
This week the ABA Antitrust Law Section’ holds its Spring Meeting. The program offers dozens of sessions, each of which features debate by a panel of experts from government, academia, or private firms on a topic of current interest.
This post reflects my notes from a talk about how well the administration of President Biden has done in making its high hopes for reviving antitrust enforcement, both in the two agencies that have enforcement as a primary mandate—the Antitrust Division in the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Competition in the Federal Trade Commission—and in other parts of the executive branch.
Continue Reading Notes on “All Bark, No Bite? Antitrust Under Biden.”
Commercial Roundup – March 29, 2023
Welcome to the spring break edition of Commercial Roundup. This week’s highlights include a fantastic round-robin interview of six women lawyers who’ve made their way to the top of antitrust-world and the end of a saga about a non-lawyer who helped mass-tort firms “sign up clients” for money.
This week you’ll find me at the Spring Meeting of the ABA’s Antitrust Law Section in Washington, DC. Send me an email (bbarnett@susmangodfrey.com) if you’ve also come to the this year’s antitrust nerd-fest and either see an especially recondite, funny, or otherwise notable presentation or would like to say hello.
Commercial Roundup–March 23, 2023
Welcome to this week’s Commercial Roundup.
Below you will find headlines and links to appellate decisions and other items of particular interest to business people and lawyers dealing with complex disputes.
If you haven’t already subscribed to The Contingency, I invite you to do it now. Just enter your email address in the box to the right, hit the return button, and click the “Yes, subscribe me to this list” rectangle in the confirmation email you’ll receive.
Now let’s get to the Roundup!
Barry
Commercial Roundup
Commercial Roundup
Welcome back to The Contingency!
Starting next Wednesday, we’ll resume a weekly schedule for posting a roundup of the biggest commercial-law rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the highest courts of Delaware, New York, and Texas.
By “commercial law”, we mean the stuff of disputes with or