Law, Strategy, and Risk in Commercial Disputes
The Antitrust Division in the U.S. Department of Justice told Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan that the AD would sue to stop BCBS from buying its main competitor in Lansing, Physicians Health Plan of Mid-Michigan. On Monday, BCBS called the merger off, according to the Antitrust Division.
Christine Varney, who heads the Antitrust…
The Second Circuit held today that plaintiffs who alleged a securities fraud claim against Omnicom Group lacked proof of "loss causation" — an often fatal flaw in such cases. The panel affirmed summary judgment for the defendants.
Plaintiffs pointed to an expert's opinion that a disclosure in June 2002 prompted Omnicom's stock price to drop. …
The Federal Circuit, 2-1, affirmed an order holding EchoStar in contempt for violating a permanent injunction. The injunction issued after TiVo won a patent infringement case against EchoStar. The majority agreed with the district court that EchoStar's post-judgment redesign efforts didn't go far enough. TiVo, Inc. v. EchoStar Corp., No. 09-1374 (Fed. Cir.…
The chair of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, John G. Heyburn (W.D. Ky.), gave an interview last month in The Third Branch: Newsletter of the Federal Courts. He talked about how the Panel promotes efficient litigation management. But most lawyers will want to know his thoughts on the "primary criteria" for choosing…
The Seventh Circuit today turned back Whirlpool's effort to stop the hand-over of documents it claimed fell within its attorney-client privilege. The panel noted that, in Mohawk Indus., Inc. v. Carpenter, 130 S. Ct. 599 (2009) (post here), the Court barred appeals from pretrial orders that breached a claim of privilege. The panel also…
Blawgletter long thought that you had to jump through a Copyright Office hoop before you could sue someone for using a copy of your “works” – cartoons you drew, paintings you painted, etchings you etched, and stuff you wrote. You had to get the CO to "register" your at-least-a-little-bit-original and in-a-tangible-medium output.
We knew that…
Donaldson was too tough on Wall Street, so he got the ax. Then you had Christopher Cox, because he wasn't going to do his job. That's why he got the job.
The five commissioners of the S.E.C. are securities lawyers. Securities lawyers never understand finance. They don't have the math background. If you can't do
…
Now we know.
The Ninth Circuit held today that domain names ending with .com or .net dwell at 487 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View, CA.
The case involved efforts to collect a judgment against a man, John Zuccarini, who owned some .com or .net domain names. The "situs" of the names mattered for constitutional…
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark today used his seat on a Federal Circuit panel as soapbox for speaking out against de novo review of Markman rulings.
In Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996), the Court snatched from juries the task of deciding what operative words in a patent mean. The Court held that…
Plaintiffs who sue under section 1 of the Sherman Act must allege a contract, combination, or conspiracy that restrains competition. Some kinds of conspiracies so patently harm competition that courts presume injury and call them "per se" violations. Agreements between competitors to fix prices, not to compete for specific customers or in particular areas, and to boycott…