Pinocchio made lie detection easy.
Steven Lubet’s "Dicta" column in the March 2007 issue of The American Lawyer highlights the conceit, common among judges, that watching someone’s face allows them to determine the witness’s truthfulness. He mentions that even professional lie detectors (including CIA agents and trial lawyers) fail in their craft at least
Why do companies fix prices? Because
they can get away with it? Hmmm.
Blawgletter notes, with concern, that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division hasn’t brought a single new price-fixing case in 2007. Worse, in all of 2006, the Division filed only one — against a magazine paper manufacturer — according to a review
Today, the Eighth Circuit refused to extend the time for removing a case beyond the statutory 30-day period. The remover, R.J. Reynolds, argued that it got the idea for removing from a decision that recognized a new jurisdictional basis for removal. The court didn’t buy the theory, holding that the intervening decision didn’t restart the
AquaTex accused Techniche Solutions of infringing a patent on "evaporative cooling garments." The Federal Circuit today upheld a summary judgment against AquaTex, concluding as a matter of law that AquaTex hadn’t raised a fact issue as to infringement under the doctrine of equivalents. AquaTex Industries, Inc. v. Techniche Solutions , No. 2006-1407
RJR promotes Doral.
The Sixth Circuit just concluded that R.J. Reynolds didn’t commit price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act by basing discounts to wholesalers on their sales of RJR’s "savings" (non-premium) brands. The discount program lowered prices on all RJR brands if wholesalers met targets for sales of the RJR savings brands versus non-RJR savings
Maximizing this = commercial bliss.
Companies that find themselves members of a class action often want to stay there. In commercial cases, they generally prefer the relative anonymity because, if they filed their own lawsuit, they would have to sue a supplier — usually one whose goods or services their business depends on. Unhappy relations
When 2 + 2 = 5.
The Second Circuit today held an auditor potentially liable for federal securities fraud if it doesn’t correct a false or misleading report on its audit. The court said:
The precise issue on appeal is whether an auditor may incur primary liability under § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 when the
Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832), reverend and aphorist, wrote that "[i]mitation is the sincerest of flattery." How true.
A February 24 commentary in The Wall Street Journal, by Robert E. Litan, says that "it is the innovators who matter most." Also true. But Mr. Litan goes on to prescribe an interesting couple of ways to
What, you may ask, do the Academy Awards have to do with business trial law? Only this: Blawgletter kicked behind by getting five out of six predictions right:
Will NEC’s high-tech desktop
doodad help revolutionize
e-discovery?
Gerry Kenney, the amiable General Counsel of NEC Corporation of America, recently clued Blawgletter into an ingenious way to manage e-discovery — before it starts. Even in advance of somebody filing a lawsuit.
The remedy doesn’t take e-discovery as its primary concern — or even, as
