MidwestRSS

  • November 22, 2005

    Jury Favors Monsanto In Patent Dispute With Bayer

    A jury has ruled in favor of Monsanto Co. in the company’s patent dispute with rival Bayer CropScience over an insect-protection technology for corn.

  • November 22, 2005

    Robins Kaplan Hires Former Medtronic Legal Honcho

    Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi has hired Sue Halverson, a former counsel for medical device maker Medtronic, as of counsel in the firm’s intellectual property litigation and mass tort practices.

  • November 22, 2005

    Mylan Failed To Prove Identical Ingredients: Abbott Suit

    Generic drug maker Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. failed to show the active ingredients in its version of epilepsy drug Depakote are identical to Abbott Laboratories’ original version as required by U.S. Code, according to a federal patent infringement lawsuit filed by Abbott recently.

  • November 22, 2005

    Troubled GM Faces Class Action As Layoffs Loom

    General Motors Corp. has inflated its annual revenue by as much as $400 million since 2001, according to a new securities fraud class action lawsuit filed Monday, the same day the automaker announced 30,000 layoffs in its U.S. plants.

  • November 21, 2005

    Amazon's "One-Click" Feature Prevails At Federal Circuit

    A patent attorney's invention that was purchased by a holding company and asserted against Amazon has been rejected by the Federal Circuit as invalid.

  • November 21, 2005

    Delphi's Chapter 11 Hinders Securities Fraud Suits

    Shareholders in securities class action lawsuits against bankrupt auto parts manufacturer Delphi Corp. are seeking an exemption from bankruptcy laws to force the company to hand over documents considered vital to the plaintiffs.

  • November 17, 2005

    Tech Giants Sued Over Cable Box Patent

    Some of the biggest names in electronics, including DirecTV, Echostar, Mitsubishi, JVC, Pioneer, and Sony, have been slapped with a lawsuit by a tiny Illinois company that alleges the technology giants infringed its patent for digital set-top box satellite receivers.

  • November 11, 2005

    Judge Bans Andrx, Ranbaxy Generic Versions Of Biaxin

    A federal judge has granted Abbott Laboratories Inc.’s request for a preliminary injunction against Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. and Andrx Corp. over its antibiotic Biaxin XL.

  • November 10, 2005

    Winning Bid For Refco IP Puts Software Maker In A Jam

    Two contentious lawsuits over Trading Technologies’ heavily asserted patents for futures trading software face an uncertain outcome after bankrupt defendant Refco LLC was purchased at auction Wednesday by another defendant, Man Group PLC.

  • November 8, 2005

    Conseco Ex-Chief Loses Appeal Over $72M Debt

    A three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously upheld a lower court's ruling ordering Conseco Inc. founder Stephen Hilbert to pay $72 million to his former company.

  • November 7, 2005

    Dana, Mired In Legal Trouble, Fails To Restate Earnings

    Auto parts maker Dana Corporation said it would not restate its earnings for the past two years in its third-quarter report, an announcement that is likely to prompt several more class action lawsuits against the troubled company.

  • November 7, 2005

    Automakers Settle Dispute Over Letter Q Out Of Court

    A district court will no longer need to weigh in on who has the rights to the letter Q, as automakers Nissan and Audi have settled their trademark dispute over the letter out of court.

  • November 4, 2005

    Patent Suits Target Apple's iPods

    Apple Inc.’s iPod personal music players, including the popular new “nano” and “mini” versions, infringe the patented technology of a small Illinois patent holding company, according to a federal lawsuit.

  • November 4, 2005

    Supreme Court May Co-Opt Patent Reform

    The U.S. patent regime stands on the threshold of the most sweeping reforms in decades, intellectual property attorneys agree. But in a twist, the most dramatic changes will likely come not from Congress, but from the Supreme Court, where a buffet of patent lawsuits awaits consideration for appeal.

  • October 31, 2005

    Sonnenschein Names New Head Of IP Group

    Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP has named Carol Anne Been to be chair of the law firm’s national Intellectual Property & Technology Group.

  • October 31, 2005

    Supreme Court Denies Microsoft Appeal In $561M Case

    Microsoft was dealt a major blow by the U.S. Supreme Court Monday in its patent infringement defense against Eolas Technologies Inc. The high court declined to hear the computer giant’s appeal, pushing it closer to having to pay a $561 million judgment levied by a lower court.

  • October 31, 2005

    Refco IP Auction: Patent Attorneys Say "Not So Fast"

    Patent attorneys are crying foul as bankrupt commodities broker Refco Inc.’s intellectual property is readied for the auction block, claiming infringing technology is not part of an estate and therefore cannot be sold under bankruptcy law.

  • October 31, 2005

    SEC Loses Court Battle To Withhold Investigation Data

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suffered defeat in court Monday, when a federal judge ordered the agency to hand over to a research firm information on investigations it had sought to withhold.

  • October 31, 2005

    In Setback for Glaxo, U.K. Invalidates Paxil Patent

    The U.K. House of Lords has upheld a lower court’s decision to invalidate the patent for the key ingredient in GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil, one of the world’s most widely prescribed antidepressants.

  • October 28, 2005

    Acacia Targets Heavy Industry With New Patent

    Weeks after forcing schools to pen licensing deals for its streaming-media patents, patent holding company Acacia Research Corp. is now setting its sights on manufacturers and heavy industry with a newly acquired patent for resource scheduling technology.