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Top News
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February 22, 2012
Microsoft Hits Motorola, Google With EU Antitrust Action
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday lodged a competition complaint with the European Commission against Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and its soon-to-be parent Google Inc., alleging Motorola is trying to block sales of Microsoft products that allow wireless viewing of video via the Internet.
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February 22, 2012
SEC Accuses Puda Coal Execs Of Looting Co.
U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday accused two Puda Coal Inc. executives of looting their company and swindling investors by telling them they were investing in a Chinese coal business when they were actually investing in an empty shell company.
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February 22, 2012
T-Mobile Wants FCC To Block Verizon's $4B Spectrum Buys
T-Mobile USA Inc. told the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday that Verizon Wireless' efforts to snatch up wireless spectrum licenses from Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and others for about $3.9 billion would harm competition and consumers.
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February 22, 2012
Power Co. Triumphs In High Court Ruling On Navigable Waters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled PPL Montana LLC doesn't have to pay some $49 million to Montana for operating hydroelectric plants on its riverbeds, unanimously rejecting a state court's ruling that rivers with waterfalls and other "interruptions" were navigable.
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February 22, 2012
2nd Massey Boss Charged In Fatal Mine Explosion
Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
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February 21, 2012
Picard's $59B Racketeering Claims Against UniCredit Axed
A New York federal judge on Tuesday tossed racketeering claims against UniCredit SpA and an affiliate in a $59 billion suit lodged by Bernard L. Madoff's bankruptcy trustee, ruling that they had been insufficiently pled.
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February 21, 2012
MGA's $1B Bratz Antitrust Suit Against Mattel Jettisoned
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed MGA Entertainment Inc.'s $1 billion antitrust lawsuit claiming Mattel Inc. tried to sabotage its Bratz doll line, ruling that MGA's claims had already been litigated during the companies’ ongoing intellectual property war.
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February 21, 2012
$1.7B Humira IP Verdict Won't Get Supreme Court Review
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a Federal Circuit ruling that negated a $1.67 billion patent verdict against Abbott Laboratories, refusing to consider a Johnson & Johnson unit's argument that the written description requirement used by the appeals court is too unpredictable.
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February 21, 2012
High Court To Hear Challenge To Race Use In UT Admissions
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear an appeal from an unsuccessful white applicant to University of Texas at Austin who challenged the school's policy of taking race into account during the undergraduate admissions process.
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February 21, 2012
Teva To Pay $270M In Propofol Hepatitis Suits
Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. will spend roughly $270 million on suits claiming the way it packaged its anesthetic Propofol caused a hepatitis C outbreak, Teva told securities regulators Friday, revealing it had settled most of the cases in the Nevada-based litigation.
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February 21, 2012
Feds Give Up On Massive Gabon FCPA Case
The federal government on Tuesday dropped its vast Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case accusing more than 20 military equipment industry executives of bribing Gabonese officials to win business, ending years of unsuccessful prosecution and dealing a major setback to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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February 17, 2012
Harbinger Investors Sue Fund, Falcone Over LightSquared Loss
An investor launched a putative class action against Philip Falcone and his hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners LLC on Friday, claiming they misled investors by sinking $3 billion into wireless network startup LightSquared Inc., whose conditional operating license was yanked by federal regulators Tuesday.
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February 17, 2012
J&J Unit Recalls Infants' Tylenol Over Dosing Device
A Johnson & Johnson unit recalled more than half a million bottles of Infants' Tylenol on Friday after receiving reports that part of the product's dosing device could fall into the bottle.
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February 17, 2012
MOEX Hammers Out $90M Deal Over Deepwater Spill
A MOEX USA Corp. unit that owned a stake in the offshore well involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has reached a $90 million settlement with the U.S. government and five Gulf states, agreeing to pay the largest civil penalty ever collected under the Clean Water Act, officials announced Friday.
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February 17, 2012
WaMu Ch. 11 Plan Confirmed After Deal With Dissenters
A Delaware bankruptcy judge gave final approval Friday to Washington Mutual Inc.'s Chapter 11 plan, capping off the bank holding company's 3 1/2-year bankruptcy stint a day after it cut a crucial deal with dissenting investors.
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February 17, 2012
Ex-Goldman Coder's Acquittal Threatens Wall Street's IP
The Second Circuit’s Thursday reversal of a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. programmer’s conviction on charges he stole the firm's trading system code may hamper Wall Street’s ability to protect lucrative trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act, attorneys said.
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February 17, 2012
Feds Arrest Vocal Critic In Insider Trading Probe
An Oregon investment analyst who publicly criticized the government's crackdown on insider trading was arrested in his home Thursday on charges that he bought private information from employees of various tech companies and sold it to his hedge fund clients.
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February 16, 2012
Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds Win Verdict In First Federal Engle Trial
Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. on Thursday won a verdict from a Florida federal jury that found smoking was not the medical cause of injury for a Florida man whose widow claimed he had died of smoking-related lung cancer.
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February 16, 2012
No Missing MF Global Funds In JPMorgan Account: Trustee
MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s Chapter 11 trustee said Thursday that an investigation of transactions in MF Global Finance USA Inc.'s $25 million account at JPMorgan Chase Bank NA showed it did not contain any of the $1.6 billion in missing customer funds.
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February 16, 2012
Resort Founder Sues Cushman, Credit Suisse For $2B
The bankrupt Yellowstone Mountain Club LLC's former owner on Tuesday filed a $2 billion suit accusing Cushman & Wakefield Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG of overvaluing the property and extending a $375 million predatory loan in a racketeering scheme to take over the Montana resort.
Expert Analysis
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No More Redevelopment Agencies In Calif.
The most immediate consequence of the California Supreme Court’s ruling on redevelopment agencies is that each of the more than 400 RDAs will cease to exist as of Feb. 1, 2012, as will their special powers to receive property taxes, subsidize economic development projects, assemble land for redevelopment, address environmental liabilities and adopt land use regulations, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
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Volcker Rule In Flux
The Volcker Rule has already elicited substantial comment and concern from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, certain Democratic members of the House of Representatives, and industry groups like the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which has called for an extended comment period. Delayed implementation of the rule certainly seems possible, says Benjamin Coulter of Burr & Forman LLP.
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Case Study: GPX International Tire V. US
Barring intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court or Congress, the Federal Circuit's landmark decision in GPX International Tire Corp. v. U.S. will halt or overturn scores of countervailing duty proceedings involving China, profoundly impacting the administration of trade remedies in the U.S., say Jill Caiazzo and Brenda Jacobs of Sidley Austin LLP.
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Top 10 Trademark Events Of 2011
As we enter 2012, we wanted to look back on the top 10 trademark events of 2011 — some decisions that drew considerable news coverage but were not all that influential, some impressive judgments, a massive shakedown of trademark owners and one high-stakes litigation that is likely to be one of the biggest decisions of 2012, say Scott Johnston and Gregory Golla of Merchant & Gould.
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Enhancing Economic Espionage And Trade Secret Sentences
The U.S. Senate will soon consider the enhancement of sentences in economic espionage and trade secret cases. While leaving the merits of the proposed amendments to policymakers, we seek to provide a fuller understanding of the sentencing process in both types of cases, including a discussion of the unique challenges presented and a review of some of the sentences imposed, say Mark Krotoski and Richard Scott of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Assessing The Recess Appointment Of CFPB Director
President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will test whether a three-day gap between pro forma sessions constitutes a "recess" that allows the president to exercise his recess appointments power, say Reginald Brown, Russell Bruemmer and Eric Mogilnicki of WilmerHale LLP.
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Patchak V. Salazar — An Important Fee-To-Trust Opinion
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review Patchak v. Salazar, in which the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the negative effects of a proposed casino gave the plaintiff standing to assert limitations on the authority of the Secretary of Interior under the Indian Reorganization Act. If the D.C. Circuit's decision is left intact, attacks on land trust acquisitions could multiply, says Brian Pierson of Godfrey & Kahn SC.
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Top 10 Securities Enforcement Developments Of 2011
While the year may be remembered more for the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision, other noteworthy developments at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2011 included a focus on alleged negligent and fraudulent conduct, and getting the cooperation and whistleblower initiatives off the ground, says James Meyers, a partner with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and former assistant chief litigation counsel at the SEC Division of Enforcement.
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For Now, Durban Platform Is Just A Stepping Stone
While the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as the "Durban platform," takes significant strides toward developing a global agreement on climate change — and led to the extension of the Kyoto Protocol — it will have no impact unless a legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is ultimately reached, say attorneys with Vinson & Elkins LLP.
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Overhauling The Federal Jurisdictional Statutes
In an important development for litigants and litigators, President Obama recently signed into law the Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011, which becomes effective Jan. 6, 2012. The act significantly amends the federal jurisdictional statutes, including the provisions governing diversity jurisdiction, venue and removal, say Laurence Shiekman, Stephen Harvey and Matthew Janssen of Pepper Hamilton LLP.