Andy Warhol’s 100 Cans (1962).
Campbell Soup today won affirmance of a post-trial judgment in a case arising out of Campbell’s 1998 spin-off of its Vlasic Foods subsidiary. The plaintiff, the successor to Vlasic Foods, alleged that Campbell made a constructively fraudulent transfer and knowingly participated in a breach of fiduciary duty by loading Vlasic
The Federal Circuit today modified its test for jurisdiction to hear cases that seek declaratory judgments of patent invalidity or non-infringement. The court noted that the U.S. Supreme Court, in MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 127 S.Ct. 764 (2007), expressly rejected the Federal Circuit’s "reasonable-apprehension-of-imminent-suit" test in favor of an "under all the circumstances"
Today, the D.C. Circuit invalidated an exemption that the Securities and Exchange Commission granted by rule to securities brokers and dealers from the Investment Advisors Act. The IAA itself exempts broker-dealers only to the extent that they give advice "solely incidental to [their] business as a broker or dealer" and "receive[] no special compensation therefor."
British historian Lord Acton
(1834-1902).
In 1887, Lord Acton wrote:
All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
Barry Barnett
The Ninth Circuit yesterday addressed several questions arising under the Copyright Act of 1976, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Communications Decency Act, and state law. The dispute concerned use of "adult entertainment" images on websites. See the opinion for details. Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill LLC, No. 04-57143 & 04-57207 (9th Cir. Mar.
The Sixth Circuit today reversed a district court’s granting of post-answer, voluntary dismissals under Rule 41(a)(2) without prejudice. The defendants wanted the dismissals with prejudice plus attorneys’ fees. The court of appeals held that the district court erred in failing to explain why it declined to attach conditions to the dismissals. Bridgeport Music, Inc. v.
Today, the Second Circuit upheld a district court’s refusal to dismiss claims to recover more than $100 million that once belonged to two Yugoslavian banks operating in New York.
After civil unrest roiled former Yugoslavia, the U.S. government responded in 1992 by freezing the banks’ assets. A decade later, and with federal permission, the New
Take a deep breath. The Federal Circuit held today that a patent holder may disclaim any right to patent protection beyond a certain date without losing the right to seek an extension of the date on the ground that regulatory delays prevented marketing of the invention. In the case before it, Merck & Co. filed
Sit right back, and you’ll hear a tale . . . .
It started last October, when Blawgletter — as Your Editor of the Susman Godfrey L.L.P. newsletter, Barnett’s Notes on Commercial Litigation — challenged readers to cite any pre-September 1986 publication of the phrase "eat what you kill" in the sense of tying a
This morning, lawyers in Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd., No. 06-484 (U.S.) argued about the appropriate standard for pleading a securities fraud case under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Click here for the transcript.
Update — Blawgletter impressions:
