Appellate

  • June 21, 2024

    In Ruling By Albright, Fed. Circ. Revives Apple Patent Review

    The Federal Circuit on Friday vacated a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling that Apple failed to prove the invalidity of several claims of an Omni MedSci Inc. heart rate monitor patent, in the first decision by the appeals court authored by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas.

  • June 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs DraftKings, FanDuel Alice Win Over GPS IP

    A New Jersey federal judge rightly dismissed Beteiro LLC's infringement suits against DraftKings, FanDuel and other gaming companies after finding its GPS patents can't meet patentability requirements, the Federal Circuit held Friday.

  • June 21, 2024

    5th Circ. Undoes Part Of TM Ruling In Appliance Stores' Fight

    The Fifth Circuit on Friday partly reversed a Texas federal court's conclusion that a San Antonio appliance company infringed two marks of rival business Appliance Liquidation Outlet LLC, finding that while the name of the store is a valid trademark, the shorthand "Appliance Liquidation" is not.

  • June 21, 2024

    9th Circ. Axes 2 Symetra Structured Deal Recipient Classes

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday scrapped two classes in a lawsuit accusing an insurance conglomerate of wrongfully inducing personal injury settlement recipients to give up their rights to periodic payments in exchange for a discounted immediate lump sum payment, saying individual issues will predominate over common issues.

  • June 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs Subsidy Duties For Canadian Wind Towers

    A Canadian wind tower manufacturer can't get a break on countervailing duties despite being upfront about errors in its sales data, with the Federal Circuit ruling Friday that the errors raise the possibility of additional mistakes.

  • June 21, 2024

    11th Circ. Backs Fla. Agency Win In Ex-Warden's FMLA Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused Friday to reinstate a former warden's lawsuit accusing the Florida Department of Corrections of transferring and demoting her because she was nearing 60 and took six months of leave, saying she failed to connect the dots to show the agency was motivated by bias.

  • June 21, 2024

    Union Tells 1st Circ. It's Fit To Bring Debt Cap Challenge

    A U.S. government workers' union challenging the constitutionality of the debt ceiling urged the First Circuit to ignore the Biden administration's argument that union members couldn't explain how it harms them, saying it's reasonable to expect their paychecks will be suspended when it is reimposed.

  • June 21, 2024

    DOJ Backs Antitrust Case Against Zillow, Realtors At 9th Circ.

    The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the Ninth Circuit to revive antitrust claims from a defunct brokerage platform against Zillow and the National Association of Realtors based on design changes Zillow made to comply with association rules.

  • June 21, 2024

    4th Circ. Revives TCPA Suit Over Fax Promoting Free Webinar

    A chiropractic office in Ohio on Friday succeeded in reviving its putative class action against a healthcare technology company accused of sending junk faxes, with the Fourth Circuit finding the communication counts as an unsolicited advertisement under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

  • June 21, 2024

    DC Better Match For Net Neutrality Suits, 6th Circ. Told

    A public interest group urged the Sixth Circuit to move lawsuits over the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit, saying the lottery that put the cases in Cincinnati was not enacted to keep litigation out of D.C.

  • June 21, 2024

    Uber, Lyft Can't Dodge Suit Via Arbitration, Calif. Tells Justices

    California has urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to revive bids from Uber and Lyft to arbitrate allegations they unlawfully misclassified drivers as independent contractors, saying it's "commonly understood" that private parties' arbitration agreements have no bearing on whether state officials can sue for state law violations.

  • June 21, 2024

    Off The Bench: ACC-FSU Rematch, Supreme Win For Fla. Tribe

    In this week's Off The Bench, the next round of venue tug-of-war begins between the Atlantic Coast Conference and Florida State University, the U.S. Supreme Court hands Florida and the Seminole Tribe a lucrative gaming win, and Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones defend the NFL's handling of its Sunday Ticket package.

  • June 21, 2024

    Ga. Panel Orders New Trial In $2M Case Over Car Accident

    The Georgia Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a judgment, vacated an attorney fee award and ordered a new trial in a case in which a jury awarded a man $2 million in damages after he was rear-ended while heading home from work in 2018.

  • June 21, 2024

    Billing Report Order Was 'Overly Broad' In Injury Suit, Panel Says

    A Georgia appeals court on Friday vacated a trial court order requiring a medical provider and its claims manager to produce a database report with financial and billing information during discovery in a car accident case, saying the order was overly broad and didn't do enough to protect the companies' confidential information.

  • June 21, 2024

    Mich. Appeals Panel Rescinds Coverage For Auto Policy Fraud

    A Michigan appeals court panel said a trial court was wrong for not rescinding auto insurance coverage held by a woman who made misstatements on her insurance application before she was injured in an accident. 

  • June 21, 2024

    Ayahuasca Church Is Not Tax-Exempt, DC Circ. Affirms

    An Iowa church that used a psychedelic drug in its rites was correctly denied tax-exempt status, the D.C. Circuit affirmed Friday, saying the church's main purpose is using a federally illegal drug for which it lacked approval for religious use.

  • June 21, 2024

    Ex-GM Workers Can't Prove Anti-White Bias

    A Michigan appeals court rejected efforts from two former General Motors workers to revive claims that they were fired because they are white, ruling that they fundamentally misunderstood the law and failed to rebut GM's argument that their persistent use of coarse language led to the firings.

  • June 21, 2024

    Wrong Address Dooms Removal Relief Bid, 11th Circ. Finds

    The Eleventh Circuit won't reverse the long-ago removal in absentia of a Honduran woman who missed her removal hearing, citing the Board of Immigration Appeals' finding that she'd provided an inaccurate address to receive notice of the hearing.

  • June 21, 2024

    Ex-Chicago Alderman Burke Can't Delay Sentencing

    Former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke can't postpone his Monday sentencing on charges of racketeering, extortion and bribery to await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the scope of federal bribery law, an Illinois federal judge ruled Friday, saying that decision will have "little or no impact" on Burke's fate.

  • June 21, 2024

    11th Circ. Rules Hotel Operator Liable For Wages As Employer

    A hotel operator exercised enough control over a front desk worker to be his employer and is therefore liable for minimum wage and overtime, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, also noting that a lower court erred in calculating the damages.

  • June 21, 2024

    Atty Convicted Of Pot Bribe Wins Bail At 1st Circ.

    A suspended Massachusetts attorney convicted last fall of attempting to bribe a police chief to help his client secure a cannabis license will remain free pending his appeal, the First Circuit ruled Friday, reversing a district judge's decision.

  • June 21, 2024

    Mich. Panel Says Default Judgment Covered Per No-Fault Law

    A Progressive unit must pay a $250,000 default judgment in a motor vehicle negligence case even though the insurer said its policyholder failed to cooperate, a Michigan appeals court ruled, finding a state Supreme Court decision predating Michigan's no-fault insurance reform was still applicable.

  • June 21, 2024

    5th Circ. Knocks Out National Block On ACA Preventive Care

    The Fifth Circuit on Friday struck down a national injunction against Affordable Care Act requirements forcing insurers to cover a range of preventive treatments, but kept a block in place that prevents its application to the individuals and businesses in Texas that sued.

  • June 21, 2024

    Pa. Justices Will Weigh If 'Skill Games' Are Slot Machines

    The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will take up a case and decide whether the "Pennsylvania Skill Games" that combine a chance-based game mode with a secondary memory game fall under the state's definition of "slot machines," potentially affecting many storefronts and bars where the game machines have proliferated.

  • June 21, 2024

    Ga. Appeals Seat Winner Aims To Nix Election Challenge

    The winner of a Georgia appeals court seat says his opponent does not have any proof to support her allegations of his residency discrepancies and her motion to reverse the election should be dismissed.

Expert Analysis

  • Strategies For Defense Attys To Subpoena A Nonparty Witness

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    Federal criminal defendants seeking to subpoena potentially exculpatory information from nonparty witnesses must satisfy a stringent standard and should consider several often overlooked arguments to assure courts they’re not engaging in a fishing expedition, says James Roberts at Schlam Stone.

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • ESG Challenges In Focus After Sierra Club Opposes SEC Rule

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    The Sierra Club's recent objection to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosures for investors presents an unusual — pro-disclosure — legal challenge and an opportunity to take a close look at the varying critiques of ESG regulations, say Colin Pohlman, and Jane Luxton and Paul Kisslinger at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Opinion

    High Court Should Settle Circuit Split On Risk Disclosures

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the Facebook case to resolve a growing circuit split concerning when risk disclosures can be misleading under federal securities laws, and its decision should align with the intent of Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says Richard Zelichov at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • High Court's Jan. 6 Rioter Case May Have Wide Ripple Effects

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, a case that will determine whether a law enacted after the Enron scandal can be used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, and could affect the government’s ability to charge those who impede a range of official proceedings, say Brook Dooley and Sara Fitzpatrick at Keker Van Nest.

  • 5th Circ. Clarifies What Is And Isn't A 'New Use' Of PFAS

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    The Fifth Circuit's March 21 decision in Inhance Technologies v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, preventing the EPA from regulating existing uses of PFAS under "significant new use" provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act, provides industry with much-needed clarity, say Joseph Schaeffer and Sloane Wildman at Babst Calland.

  • CORRECTED: Endoscope Patent Case Offers Guidance On Right To Repair

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    An Alabama federal court's decision in Karl Storz v. IMS reaffirmed that product owners have broad rights to repair or modify their property as they see fit, highlighting the parameters of the right to repair in the context of patent infringement, say Dustin Weeks and Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper. Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article and headline attributed the Karl Storz ruling to the wrong court. The error has been corrected.

  • Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law

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    A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.

  • How A Motion Before Justices May Help Trump Beyond Court

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    Even if Donald Trump loses his presidential immunity claim before the U.S. Supreme Court, the delay created by the motion may mean a trial can't be completed before the November election, says Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Opinion

    $175M Bond Refiled By Trump Is Still Substantively Flawed

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    The corrected $175 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump on Thursday to stave off enforcement of the New York attorney general's fraud judgment against him remains substantively and procedurally flawed, as well as inadequately secured, says Adam Pollock of Pollock Cohen.

  • Opinion

    Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea

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    A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.

  • NJ Ruling Offers Road Map To Fight Dishonored Check Claims

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    As ATM and mobile check deposits become more common, a New Jersey state appellate court’s recent ruling in Triffin v. Neptune shows that issuers can rely on copies of checks to defend against claims that checks were wrongfully dishonored after being electronically deposited, say attorneys at Sherman Atlas.

  • 4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best

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    As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.

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