The D.C. Circuit today required disclosure of some grand jury materials relating to the leak of Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. The court limited its order to information that the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby made public. In re Grand Jury Subpoena, Judith Miller, No. 04-3138 (D.C. Cir. June 29, 2007).
Blawgletter found the
Today the Federal Circuit affirmed a bench trial judgment that the obviousness doctrine didn’t invalidate patent claims relating to antidiabetic agents. Although the judgment predated KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007), the court held that it it applied correct principles in analyzing the obviousness question. Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.
The Seventh Circuit enforced a forum selection clause despite the plaintiff’s claim that the defendant fraudulently induced the contract containing it. The court never explained, in a way that Blawgletter at least could understand, why the fraudulent inducement charge didn’t knock out the forum selection clause.
We would guess that the plaintiff’s decision to "affirm"
The Seventh Circuit today tossed a $6.3 million verdict and judgment against Underwriters Laboratories for its incompetent testing of a successful European chimney-lining product for use in the United States. The court held that no reasonable set of jurors could find harm to the manufacturer from UL’s stringing it along until the American market soured
The U.S. Supreme Court today overruled Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons, Inc., 220 U.S. 373 (1911), holding that the rule of reason (and not the per se rule) shall henceforth apply to antitrust claims alleging minimum resale price maintenance — as where a manufacturer forces retailers to agree to
Remember the video in which a two year old (Pearl) cusses a deadbeat tenant (Will Ferrell) for not paying his rent? Pearl returns for a finale — in Good Cop, Baby Cop.
Blawgletter likes the original better, but this one has its moments, too.
Barry Barnett
Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed dismissal of a conspiracy charge against ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The conspiracy charge related to a substantive charge that DeLay and two of his aides criminally violated the Texas Election Code by accepting unlawful political contributions. The Court held that the conspiracy statute applied to felonies
The WSJ reports today that the Securities and Exchange Commission may have tabled the idea of letting a majority of public companies’ shareholders force arbitration of claims — effectively immunizing the companies and their insiders from class actions in court:
Mr. Cox also said at the widely anticipated hearing, involving testimony of all five SEC
The Federal Circuit today decried the difficulty of steering a true path between the Scylla and Charybdis of patent law — infringement and validity. In the case before it, the court focused on claim construction, an exercise that often determines which, if either, monster gets to eat you. A broad construction tends to make a
Blawgletter has noticed that The New York Times reporters inject opinion into their news articles. An article today, for example, interprets poll results as showing that young people support "liberal ideas" more than their elders — despite the fact that the poll reflects that most kids (unlike older folks) believe the war in Iraq
