Appellate

  • December 04, 2024

    7th Circ. Asks If Feds Went Too Far In $25M Kickback Case

    The Seventh Circuit questioned where it should draw the line between "perfectly legal" and improper marketing conduct Wednesday as it considered vacating a medical equipment pharmacy owner's conviction for running an alleged $25 million kickback scheme with a patient-leads broker.

  • December 04, 2024

    Gorsuch Exits Utah NEPA Suit Amid Flak Over Billionaire Ties

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from a case involving a controversial railway project Wednesday afternoon, the high court's clerk said, following calls for him to step away from the National Environmental Policy Act dispute in light of his connections to a Colorado billionaire.

  • December 04, 2024

    5th Circ. Probes $8M Payout For Allegedly Undelivered Services

    An investment company on Wednesday found itself before the Fifth Circuit having to justify paying $7.7 million for allegedly undelivered services from an affiliate, as it appeals a $2.6 million bill it got hit with for prematurely ending a contract.

  • December 04, 2024

    Panel Affirms CNA's Reading Of 'Control' In Abuse Exclusion

    A CNA unit providing commercial insurance to a massage spa owed no defense to its owner and manager against claims the owner sexually assaulted three women, a California state appeals court ruled, in a case of first impression over the meaning of "care, custody or control" in an abuse exclusion.

  • December 04, 2024

    9th Circ. Open To Reviving Wash. Profs' Email Privacy Suit

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday expressed support for two University of Washington professors who allege their constitutional rights were violated by a state ethics board probe of their emails, with one judge saying he was troubled by the state's contention the professors' claims were merely speculative.

  • December 04, 2024

    Developer, Michigan Differ On State, Federal Securities Tests

    A Michigan Supreme Court justice on Wednesday pressed the state's securities administrator and a developer over how Michigan businesses and residents could be affected if the high court were to decide that a state law test rather than a federal one should be used to determine if a promissory note is a security.

  • December 04, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Sends UC System LED Patent Claims Back To PTAB

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday found that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has to partially rethink its finding that claims in a filament LED light bulb patent owned by the University of California system were too obvious to warrant patent protection.

  • December 04, 2024

    Uber Didn't Have To Collect Tax Pre-Wayfair, Court Told

    Uber was not required before the Wayfair decision to collect and remit millions in sales taxes on behalf of drivers and customers who use its app, an attorney for the ride-hailing company told a Georgia appellate panel Wednesday, urging the panel to overturn a trial court.

  • December 04, 2024

    Feds Say 5th Circ. Ruling Can't Save Iowa's Immigration Law

    The Biden administration told the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday that a recent Fifth Circuit decision barring federal border agents from removing Texas' wire barriers has no relevance to its challenge to Iowa's law criminalizing the presence of previously deported noncitizens.

  • December 04, 2024

    Homeless Vets Tell 9th Circ. To Deny Parking Access To UCLA

    A class of homeless, disabled military veterans fought the Regents of the University of California's appeal of its rejected stay motion, arguing in the Ninth Circuit that the lower court made the right decision because the veterans urgently need supportive housing on a Los Angeles campus.

  • December 04, 2024

    Farmers Insurance Off Hook In Homeowner's Fire Loss Appeal

    A California homeowner who alleged that an agent underinsured her scorched $3 million Malibu home cannot blame Farmers Insurance, a state appeals court affirmed, finding in a published opinion that the agent acted independently when obtaining a policy via a fire insurance pool for her client.

  • December 04, 2024

    Mass. Justices Probe Extent Of State Immunity In 2 Cases

    The Massachusetts high court on Wednesday mulled how far immunity extends for public employees and state agencies, with one justice questioning why the state is proposing that children in foster care should face the same legal standard as prison inmates.

  • December 04, 2024

    Mich. Justices Pan Due Process Claim In Tax Appeal Dispute

    Two Michigan Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Wednesday toward a packaging company's arguments that its due process rights were violated when an assessor's notice of a tax exemption denial didn't provide all the information the business needed to appeal.

  • December 04, 2024

    Block's Tax Refund Should Be Voided, Atlanta Tells Ga. Court

    A Georgia trial court erred when it found that Block, the financial services and mobile payments company, was due a $330,000 occupation tax refund from the city of Atlanta, a lawyer for the city told an appellate panel Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Mich. Justices Mull If Pizza Driver Deal Bars Franchise Claim

    A woman suing Jet's Pizza told the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday that she should be able to continue suing the pizza franchise after settling with the delivery driver who rear-ended her, pushing the justices to cast aside what she described as an antiquated rule that extinguished her claims.

  • December 04, 2024

    Trump Asks Ga. Appeals Court To End Election Prosecution

    President-elect Donald Trump moved Wednesday to scuttle the last pending criminal charges against him, telling the Georgia Court of Appeals it's time to end the election interference case against him as he prepares to return to the White House next year.

  • December 04, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Judge Condemns 'Nonsense' Law In Antibody Fight

    U.S. Circuit Judge Todd Hughes called the Federal Circuit's case law on interpreting preambles in patent claims "nonsense" on Wednesday, expressing frustration as a panel tried to work through whether Xencor Inc.'s antibody patent application was too broad.

  • December 04, 2024

    DeSantis Says Ousted Fla. Atty's Election Loss Dooms Case

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a state attorney he suspended made competing pitches to the Eleventh Circuit this week over whether the ousted prosecutor's First Amendment lawsuit is now moot since he lost his bid for reelection last month.

  • December 04, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs NY Judge In Freeing Meta From Patent Suit

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday wouldn't revive a software company's suit claiming Meta Platforms Inc. infringed patents on digital data storage and organization, agreeing with a decision that the evidence couldn't back a finding that the Meta features at issue covered all parts of the patent claims.

  • December 04, 2024

    Del. Justices Skeptical $2.4B SPAC Deal Misled Investors

    Delaware Supreme Court justices pressed a stockholder attorney on Wednesday to explain how the blank-check company that took electric vehicle venture Canoo Holdings Ltd. public in a $2.4 billion deal breached its duties by failing to reveal information it purportedly had yet to receive.

  • December 04, 2024

    Texas High Court Suggests Atty Discipline Case Is Too Old

    The Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared sympathetic to a lawyer's claim that suspending her now for misconduct that occurred in Illinois in 2017 is barred by a four-year limitations statute and unfair.

  • December 04, 2024

    No 6th Circ. Rehearing For Ohio City In Cop's Age Bias Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has declined a Cincinnati suburb's request for it to reconsider its precedential panel decision reviving a former police officer's discrimination suit claiming he was given low-level tasks and overly scrutinized because he was in his 50s.

  • December 04, 2024

    Justices Seem To Back Ban On Transgender Youth Care

    The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday seemed poised to greenlight a Tennessee ban on minors receiving gender-affirming care, despite arguments from the court's liberal block that finding the law constitutional would fly in the face of the court's equal-protection precedents.

  • December 04, 2024

    NC Panel Reverses Prior Ruling Reviving Atty Meddling Claim

    A split North Carolina appellate panel has walked back its ruling reviving a suit against a real estate attorney accused of helping meddle in a property ownership dispute, declaring after a second look that the claim against him doesn't actually exist under state law.

  • December 04, 2024

    Jan. 6 Rioter Unlikely To Succeed On Appeal, Judge Says

    A District of Columbia federal judge ordered a convicted rioter from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol to serve the remainder of his more than four-year prison term while he appeals, saying his legal arguments are substantial but unlikely to result in a reduced sentence.

Expert Analysis

  • Patent Marking Steps After Fed. Circ. Opens Lanham Act Door

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    Following the Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Crocs v. Effervescent, which seemingly revives private actors’ ability to bring false patent marking claims under the Lanham Act, marketing and legal teams should be careful to avoid advertisement language that implies nonexistent patent rights, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.

  • Litigation Strategies In View Of New Double Patenting Rulings

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    Recent Federal Circuit decisions, including in Allergan v. MSN, raise several issues that patent owners should understand and consider addressing proactively regarding obviousness-type double patenting, at least in their prosecution strategies, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • High Court 'Violent Crimes' Case Tangled Up In Hypotheticals

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    In Delligatti v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on whether attempted murder constitutes a crime of violence, and because the court’s interpretive approach thus far has relied on hairsplitting legal hypotheticals with absurd results, Congress should repeal the underlying statute, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

  • Tracking The Slow Movement Of AI Copyright Cases

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    The tech community may be expecting a prompt resolution on whether products generated by artificial intelligence are a fair use of copyrighted works, but legal history shows that a response to this question — at the heart of over 30 pending cases — will take years, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • How Property Insurance Coverage Shrank After The Pandemic

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    Insurers litigating property claims are leveraging rulings that provided relief in the COVID-19 context to reverse the former majority rule on physical loss or damage in all contexts, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Considering Chevron's End Through A State Tax Lens

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    States took the lead in encouraging Chevron's demise, turning away from Chevron-type deference in state tax administration ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, a trend likely to accelerate as courts take a more active role in interpreting tax laws, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Curious Case Of FTC's Amicus Brief In Teva Fed. Circ. Appeal

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    Attorneys at BCLP explore the Federal Trade Commission's backing of Amneal's Orange Book-delisting efforts on Teva ahead of a key Federal Circuit hearing in a case between the two pharmaceutical companies, and wonder if the FTC amicus brief indicates a future trend, especially in the next administration.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • When 'Patented' Goes Beyond Inventorship In False Ad Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's recent false advertising holding in Crocs v. Effervescent is significant because it offers a nuanced yet realistic understanding of what false claims about a product's status as "patented" can mean, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • 2nd Circ. Hostile Workplace Ruling Widens Arbitration Pitfalls

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision, affirming the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act applies to a worker whose workplace hostility claims arose before the law’s 2022 enactment, widens the scope of the law — and the risks of unenforceable arbitration agreements for employers, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • 2nd Circ. Maxwell Ruling Adds To Confusion Over NPA Reach

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision upholding Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction made an analytical leap in applying plea agreement precedent to a nonprosecution agreement, compounding a circuit split and providing lessons for defense counsel, say attorneys at Kropf Moseley.

  • The Fed. Circ. In October: Aetna And License-Term Review

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision that Aetna's credit card licensing agreement with AlexSam did not give the insurer immunity from patent infringement claims serves to warn licensees to read their contracts carefully, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Recent Developments In Insurance Coverage For FCA Claims

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    As the U.S. Department of Justice continues its vigorous False Claims Act enforcement, companies looking to their insurers to help defray the costs of an investigation or settlement should note recent decisions on which types of policies cover FCA claims, which policy periods apply and which portions of FCA-related losses are covered, say attorneys at Covington.

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