http://www.law360.com/ Latest articles for organization: Vinson & Elkins Copyright 2009 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US http://www.law360.com/images/headings/logo.gif http://www.law360.com/ http://www.law360.com/articles/132849 Yahoo Inc. has settled a trademark lawsuit brought by cosmetics purveyor Mary Kay Inc. over Yahoo’s use of infringing pop-up links and advertisements that allegedly appeared in e-mails sent by Mary Kay beauty consultants. http://www.law360.com/articles/132849 http://www.law360.com/articles/132042 Private equity firm TPG Capital has purchased a majority stake in natural gas services company Valerus Compression Services LLP for $500 million. http://www.law360.com/articles/132042 http://www.law360.com/articles/131722 Investors accusing oil and gas firm Stone Energy Corp. of overstating its oil reserves and falsifying its financial reports have made a move for class certification. http://www.law360.com/articles/131722 http://www.law360.com/articles/130058 A subsidiary of Alcoa Inc. has said it will appeal a loss in a case over the correct disposal of potassium hydroxide and ask a federal appeals court to weigh in on the question of when exactly an industrial material becomes “spent.” http://www.law360.com/articles/130058 http://www.law360.com/articles/129250 Continental Airlines Inc. has lost a bid to regain retirement money it claims was wrongly paid out to several pilots still working for the airline who allegedly obtained sham divorces and then assigned their pensions to their ex-wives to game the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. http://www.law360.com/articles/129250 http://www.law360.com/articles/113733 Joint venture deals with investors such as private equity funds and foreign companies have helped keep energy development projects in the U.S. moving forward despite a dearth of available financing — and these types of partnership arrangements will remain frequent in the energy sector even as the economy continues to improve, lawyers say. http://www.law360.com/articles/113733 http://www.law360.com/articles/128575 Plains All American Pipeline LP has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $2 billion in common units and debt securities. http://www.law360.com/articles/128575 http://www.law360.com/articles/128174 Bankrupt Crusader Energy Group Inc. has announced it will sell certain oil and gas operations in the Texas Panhandle as part of its reorganization efforts. http://www.law360.com/articles/128174 http://www.law360.com/articles/127573 The court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC has upped the amount of allegedly fake profit he wants returned from Madoff-linked Cohmad Securities Corp. from $213 million to $245 million. http://www.law360.com/articles/127573 http://www.law360.com/articles/127419 A federal judge has rejected Dell Inc.'s counterclaims of noninfringement and invalidity in tossing its abandonment defense and refusing its request to dismiss a suit accusing the computer giant of infringing an Abstrax Inc. patent related to a method for assembling products with a computer. http://www.law360.com/articles/127419 http://www.law360.com/articles/127226 A Texas appeals court has upheld rulings tossing allegations brought by a one-time workers' compensation claimant against his former attorney and an ex-Vinson & Elkins LLP lawyer who represented a defendant insurer in the 1988 settlement of the underlying case. http://www.law360.com/articles/127226 http://www.law360.com/articles/126569 In anticipation of the strain of regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed a rule amending the act to raise the thresholds to exclude a large fraction of source populations. Perhaps with the best of intentions, the EPA is just trying to turn off the lights so we don’t see the mess, says Eric Groten of Vinson & Elkins LLP. http://www.law360.com/articles/126569 http://www.law360.com/articles/126615 Venezuela's state-owned crude oil supplier has asked a judge to dismiss the latest complaint from Trigeant Ltd., arguing that the Florida-based petroleum refiner still has not shown federal jurisdiction exists over allegations that the foreign entity drove the company out of the Florida market for paving asphalt. http://www.law360.com/articles/126615 http://www.law360.com/articles/113735 Financial institutions that operate pursuant to Islamic law were not unscathed by the recent economic meltdown, but lawyers say the crisis bolstered the appeal of Islamic finance, which bars investing in certain derivatives and structured products like those that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. http://www.law360.com/articles/113735 http://www.law360.com/articles/126362 Bankrupt supermarket chain Bi-Lo LLC is in talks with Delhaize Group to sell the majority of its assets to the Belgian food retail giant for $425 million in cash, according to a Monday bankruptcy court filing. http://www.law360.com/articles/126362 http://www.law360.com/articles/126254 Despite a scathing dissent finding that the other judges went too far in applying heightened pleading standards, a federal appeals court has upheld a dismissal of a suit brought by travel agents accusing major airlines including Delta Airlines Inc., United Airlines and American Airlines Inc. of fixing commission prices. http://www.law360.com/articles/126254 http://www.law360.com/articles/125049 A federal judge has kept the bulk of the claims alive in a trademark and contract fight between MetroPCS Wireless Inc. and Virgin Mobile USA LP over a MetroPCS service that reconfigures mobile phones to work on its wireless network. http://www.law360.com/articles/125049 http://www.law360.com/articles/125075 A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court's ruling that a Houston ordinance restricting commercial billboards does not violate the First Amendment. http://www.law360.com/articles/125075 http://www.law360.com/articles/124692 Microsoft Corp. and Internet security technology management and licensing company Prism Technologies LLC have struck a settlement deal in a lawsuit Prism filed against Microsoft and Research in Motion Ltd. over a patent related to controlling access to protected computer resources over the Internet. http://www.law360.com/articles/124692 http://www.law360.com/articles/124309 Investors in funds managed by Collins Capital Investments LLC have filed an amended class action against the firm, alleging it placed a “significant portion” of investor money with convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff. http://www.law360.com/articles/124309