Appellate

  • March 06, 2025

    Diverse Judiciary Is Crucial, Justice Jackson Tells Attys

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told attorneys in Miami on Thursday at the American Bar Association's annual White Collar Crime Institute that her judicial philosophy is "still under development" and said diversity in the judiciary is necessary to help instill confidence in the judicial branch of government.

  • March 06, 2025

    Apple Tells DC Circ. Google Search Fixes Change Incentives

    Apple has told the D.C. Circuit that it did not know the U.S. Department of Justice would go as far as it did with its proposed fixes in the Google search antitrust case, and it moved to intervene as soon as it became clear the two companies have opposing interests under the government's proposal.

  • March 06, 2025

    Citi's Appeal Gamble Is A Loser For All, NY AG Says

    New York's attorney general has urged a Manhattan federal judge to deny Citibank's bid to appeal the judge's decision allowing the state's wire transfer fraud protection case against the bank to proceed, arguing that an immediate appeal would not benefit any party, even the bank.

  • March 06, 2025

    No Cancer Therapy Patent For AbbVie, Says Federal Circuit

    The Federal Circuit declined on Thursday to second-guess a Virginia federal judge who sided with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in refusing to issue a patent requested to cover a purportedly new way of administering a clinical stage cancer treatment to an AbbVie unit.

  • March 06, 2025

    Conn. Justices Could Limit Court Powers In Probate Appeals

    Connecticut's state court rules do not specify that a judge can grant summary judgment to a party in a probate appeal, so that power might not be available, a Connecticut Supreme Court justice said Thursday during oral argument about an issue that the high court has never considered.

  • March 06, 2025

    Minn. Couple Can't Claim $105K Deduction, High Court Affirms

    A Minnesota couple were properly assessed an outstanding income tax liability and disallowed a business loss deduction by the state tax court, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled. 

  • March 06, 2025

    The Antitrust Litigation Surrounding NAR's Industry Rules

    A year and a half after a Missouri federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors inflated fees for home sellers, the Eighth Circuit is evaluating a series of settlements in wake of the decision while the Justice Department pursues its own antitrust investigation with a court's blessing.

  • March 06, 2025

    Conn. Chief Justice Names New Appellate Court Leader

    Connecticut Appellate Court Judge Melanie L. Cradle has been appointed as the court's top judge following her predecessor's confirmation to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

  • March 06, 2025

    USW Strikers Found Eligible For Unemployment Pay

    Workers represented by the United Steelworkers who sought unemployment compensation during a work stoppage could receive the benefit under state law, a Pennsylvania appellate court concluded Thursday, finding claimants were eligible because a steel company took actions that changed the strike to a lockout.

  • March 06, 2025

    Contempt Of Atty's 'Own Making,' Judge Says In Allowing Trial

    A Dutch software company can't push back a copyright trial after one of its attorneys from Womble Bond Dickinson was held in contempt and was temporarily kicked off the case, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, finding the predicament "entirely of counsel's own making."

  • March 06, 2025

    NY Court Rejects Leon Black's Malicious Prosecution Suit

    A New York appeals court on Thursday rejected a malicious prosecution suit brought by former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black against Wigdor LLP, which represented a woman in a failed lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault.

  • March 06, 2025

    IRS Can't Defend Slashing Of Easement Value, 11th Circ. Told

    Conservation easement donors whose charitable tax deduction was reduced by millions of dollars by the U.S. Tax Court criticized the Internal Revenue Service's defense of the decision, telling the Eleventh Circuit the ruling ignored copious evidence of the property's value underlying the donation's worth.

  • March 06, 2025

    6th Circ. Says Nursing Home Worker's Actions Justified Firing

    The Sixth Circuit refused to revive a former nursing home social services director's suit claiming she was fired for raising concerns about resident care and her supervisor's inappropriate behavior, finding she couldn't overcome the company's explanation that her absenteeism and covert recordings of meetings cost her the job.

  • March 06, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Nixes Portion Of VA Rule Authorizing Inspections

    A Federal Circuit panel on Thursday axed part of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rule that allowed it to inspect computer hardware and software and even the physical locations that people use to remotely access its electronic benefit management systems.

  • March 06, 2025

    Worker Seeks To Revive NY Teamsters Retirement Plan Suit

    A union-represented worker is fighting a New York federal judge's conclusion that he failed to show how the caretakers of his Teamsters retirement plan mismanaged his savings, asking the Second Circuit to revive his proposed Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Intro Their Own Version Of The JUDGES Act

    Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee reintroduced a version of the JUDGES Act on Thursday that would not take effect until after the next president is elected, unlike a version from their Republican counterparts that would take effect this year.

  • March 05, 2025

    SpaceX Fails To Get 5th Circ. To Block NLRB Case

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday dismissed SpaceX's appellate court bid to stop a National Labor Relations Board administrative proceeding alleging it unlawfully fired employees who criticized company CEO Elon Musk, saying the circuit court lacked jurisdiction since a lower court didn't first deny SpaceX's injunctive relief request.

  • March 05, 2025

    DC Circ. Lets Trump Remove Watchdog Chief As Feds Appeal

    The D.C. Circuit on Wednesday issued a stay that allows President Donald Trump to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel while the government appeals a district court order that permanently reinstalled the federal employment watchdog.

  • March 05, 2025

    Fla. Chiropractor Bilked State Farm For $2.7M, 11th Circ. Told

    State Farm urged an Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday to find that it had shelled out $2.7 million to an unscrupulous Florida chiropractor who paid kickbacks for medically unnecessary claims, arguing that the provider should be held liable for fraud under a theory that he violated a state licensure exemption.

  • March 05, 2025

    Wash. Justices Won't Take Up Pemco's Fire Coverage Appeal

    The Washington Supreme Court won't review a lower court's ruling that Pemco Mutual Insurance Co. must cover a woman's claim for fire damage to her former home after she was assaulted and set ablaze there by her ex-husband.

  • March 05, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs PNC's PTAB Win Over Mobile Banking IP

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a win PNC Bank landed at an administrative patent board against a Texas bank that is suing PNC over mobile banking technology.

  • March 05, 2025

    Baylor Asks Texas Justices To Review $12M Virus Verdict Toss

    Baylor College of Medicine asked the Texas Supreme Court to rethink an appellate panel's COVID-19 coverage decision wiping a $12 million jury verdict in its favor, arguing the ruling was based on a 1995 edition of a legal treatise that incorrectly concluded intangible damage isn't covered.

  • March 05, 2025

    Celltrion Can't Undo Eye Med Biosimilar Injunction On Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's preliminary injunction barring South Korea-based Celltrion Inc. from launching a biosimilar version of Regeneron's blockbuster eye disease treatment Eylea, rejecting Celltrion's argument that it has shown a patent on the drug may be invalid.

  • March 05, 2025

    Justices Asked To Recuse Fitbit Judge Over Google Ties

    A Silicon Valley-based patent-holding company that lost its infringement case against Fitbit is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California federal judge and her husband's financial ties to Fitbit parent Google are so strong that "if these circumstances do not warrant recusal ... then nothing does."

  • March 05, 2025

    Teva Wants Pause Of Patent Delisting For High Court Appeal

    Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals is hoping the Federal Circuit will keep an injunction ordering it to remove its inhaler patents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book on hold while it appeals the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating 4th Circ.'s Antitrust Burden In Hybrid Relationships

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review the Fourth Circuit's Brewbaker decision, a holding that heightens the burden on antitrust prosecutors when the target companies have a hybrid horizontal-vertical relationship, but diverges from other circuits, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Dissecting The Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Debate

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Allergan v. MSN highlights the ongoing evolution of the obviousness-type double patenting doctrine, revealing increasing tension between expiration-based interpretations and procedural flexibility, says Jeremy Lowe at Leydig Voit.

  • Calif. Ruling May Shield Public Employers From Labor Claims

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    In Stone v. Alameda Health System, the California Supreme Court recently exempted a county hospital from state-mandated rest breaks and the Private Attorneys General Act, granting government employers a robust new bulwark against other labor statutes by undermining an established doctrine for determining if a law applies to public entities, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Contract Disputes Recap: Perils Of Perfunctory Interpretation

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    Attorneys at Seyfarth examine three recent decisions in which the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals and the Federal Circuit ruthlessly dismantled arguments that rely on superficial understandings of different contract terms.

  • 2nd Circ. AmTrust Decision Shows Audit Reports Still Matter

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    Though the Second Circuit eventually found on reconsidering a case over the high-profile accounting meltdown at AmTrust that audit reports are material to investors, its previous contrary holding highlights the seriousness of the ongoing crisis of confidence in the audit report, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz.

  • Series

    Flying Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Achieving my childhood dream of flying airplanes made me a better lawyer — and a better person — because it taught me I can conquer difficult goals when I leave my comfort zone, focus on the demands of the moment and commit to honing my skills, says Ivy Cadle at Baker Donelson.

  • 9th Circ.'s High Bar May Limit Keyword Confusion TM Claims

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    A recent Ninth Circuit ruling that a law firm did not infringe upon a competitor’s trademarks by paying Google to promote its website when users searched for the rival’s name signals that plaintiffs likely can no longer win infringement suits by claiming competitive keyword advertising confuses internet-savvy consumers, say attorneys at Mitchell Silberberg.

  • Post-Election Implications For The EPA's Methane Rules

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's recent denial of requests to halt implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's methane rule in two suits, and given the outcome of the election, a complete reversal of the methane rule is expected, but state-level policymaking and enforcement will continue, says John Watson at Spencer Fane.

  • Opinion

    Justices Should Squash Bid To Criminalize Contract Breaches

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    In Kousisis v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court should reject the sweeping legal theory that breaches of contract can satisfy the property element of the mail and wire fraud statutes, which, if validated, would criminalize an array of ordinary conduct and violate basic constitutional principles, say attorneys at The Norton Law Firm.

  • Racing Patents To The Fed. Circ.: Collateral Estoppel Lessons

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    As more and more parties find themselves in two different forums addressing the same issues and then competing in a race to the Federal Circuit, certain strategies can help despite unanswered questions on when Patent Trial and Appeal Board determinations trigger collateral estoppel, say attorneys at Akin.

  • Nvidia Supreme Court Case May Not Make Big Splash

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    The skeptical tenor of the justices' questioning at oral argument in Nvidia v. Ohman Fonder suggests that the case is unlikely to alter the motion to dismiss pleading standard in securities class actions, as some had feared, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Circus Arts Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Performing circus arts has strengthened my ability to be more thoughtful, confident and grounded, all of which has enhanced my legal practice and allowed me to serve clients in a more meaningful way, says Bailey McGowan at Stinson.

  • Purse-Case Scenarios: 'MetaBirkin' Appeal Tests TM Rights

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    A federal court's finding that "MetaBirkin" nonfungible tokens infringed on Hermes' iconic Birkin bag imagery is now on appeal in the Second Circuit, and the order will have a lasting effect on how courts balance trademark rights and the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

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    Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Prevents Disability Insurer Overreach

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    The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in McEachin v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance offers disability insurance claimants guidance on how they might challenge misapplications of policy limitations for mental illness when a medical condition accounts for their disability, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

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