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Top News
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September 12, 2012
Santander Owes BNY Mellon $308M In Bond Row, Judge Says
A New York magistrate judge recommended Wednesday that Santander Holdings USA Inc. pay Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. NA more than $308 million over Santander's 2009 takeover of Sovereign Bancorp Inc., which should have raised interest rates on bonds BNY Mellon held.
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September 12, 2012
House Renews FISA Amendments For 5 More Years
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a five-year reauthorization of the controversial amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments that lets federal agencies intercept international communications without individual warrants.
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September 12, 2012
Row Over Merkin's Madoff Feeder Funds Partly Revived
A New York federal judge on Monday altered part of a decision that vindicated three J. Ezra Merkin-owned hedge funds from allegations they had negligently funneled billions of investor dollars to perpetuate Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme, finding certain claims aren't preempted by the state's Martin Act.
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September 12, 2012
Hyatt Can't Use AIA To Kill Last-Minute Patent Suit: Judge
A Texas federal judge said Wednesday that the America Invents Act couldn't be used to kill a multidefendant patent case filed on the eve of the law's effective date, overruling Hyatt Hotels Corp.'s protest that the complaint was just a placeholder used to avoid the new statute.
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September 12, 2012
MF Global Trustees Deny Layoffs Stepped On WARN Act
Trustees for MF Global Holdings Ltd. and its broker-dealer argued in New York bankruptcy court Wednesday that the companies' mass layoffs did not run afoul of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and that two putative class actions alleging so should be dismissed.
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September 12, 2012
Fairfax Fails In Bid To Recover In 'Bear Raid' Suit
A New Jersey judge on Wednesday tossed Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.'s suit accusing Exis Capital Management Inc. and Morgan Keegan & Co. of participating in a disinformation campaign that cost it billions, finding the harm claimed by Fairfax is not recoverable under state law.
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September 12, 2012
HHS Secretary Broke Law With Obama Endorsement: OSC
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced Wednesday that it has found Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan speech by federal employees, when she endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election during a Feb. 25 speech.
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September 12, 2012
NCR Loses $15M Bid For Appleton Share Of Superfund Cleanup
A federal judge on Tuesday shot down NCR Corp.’s attempt to force Appleton Papers Inc. to immediately cough up more than $15 million to help clean up a Wisconsin Superfund site, saying it’s unclear how much Appleton actually owes.
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September 12, 2012
Judge Reverses Dismissal Of 1,700 Cases In Asbestos MDL
A Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing sweeping multidistrict asbestos litigation against dozens of defendants including ConocoPhillips Inc. granted a motion Wednesday to reverse his dismissal in August of nearly 1,700 cases brought by sailors over alleged lung scarring, ruling that the cases weren’t properly vetted.
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September 12, 2012
Willkie Farr Real Estate Expert Heads To Bryan Cave
A Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP real estate attorney with a subspecialty in advising private equity funds and banks has joined Bryan Cave LLP as a partner in its New York office, his new firm said Wednesday.
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September 12, 2012
Auto-Lighting Price-Fixing Charges Survive Dismissal Bid
A California federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss criminal charges that Eagle Eyes Traffic Industrial Co. Ltd. and E-Lite Automotive Inc. conspired to fix prices for automobile lights, rejecting the argument that the indictment was deficient and failed to point out any significant anti-competitive effects.
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September 12, 2012
Hunton & Williams Adds CFPB Atty To DC Office
Hunton & Williams LLP has lured a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement attorney who helped build the new agency's procedures over to the bankruptcy and creditors' rights practice in its Washington office, the firm said Monday.
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September 12, 2012
Peregrine Trustee Holds Off On Plan To Return $123M In Funds
Peregrine Financial Inc.'s bankruptcy trustee agreed to take more time Wednesday to consult with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on how to test the validity of the firm's financial records before a judge decides whether to approve his plan to return $123 million to the collapsed firm's customers.
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September 12, 2012
Bryan Cave Upsets $11M Malpractice Award On Appeal
A former Bryan Cave LLP lawyer could not have saved New York businessman Herbert Feinberg's claims against an accountant after Feinberg came to believe he was shafted in an apparel company acquisition, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday, overturning a $10.6 million malpractice judgment.
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September 12, 2012
ITC To Reconsider LED Patent Validity In Osram-LG War
The U.S. International Trade Commission will take a second look at a judge's determination that LG Electronics Inc. sold televisions and other products that infringed a light-emitting diode patent held by Siemens AG unit Osram GmbH, according to a preview of Thursday's Federal Register.
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September 12, 2012
Ex-Madoff Controller To Plead Guilty, Prosecutors Say
The former controller of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC will plead guilty in New York federal court Thursday to charges he falsified records as part of the infamous multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said Tuesday.
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September 12, 2012
US Wants $1B Fine Against AU Optronics For LCD Price-Fixing
Prosecutors asked a California federal judge Tuesday to fine AU Optronics Corp. $1 billion and send two of its executives to prison for 10 years following their convictions in a sprawling price-fixing investigation into the liquid crystal display panel industry.
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September 11, 2012
Deloitte's Counterclaims Stand In Actrade Securities Case
A New York federal judge on Tuesday denied a move by the trustee of bankrupt Actrade Financial Technologies Ltd. to toss certain counterclaims by Deloitte & Touche LLP in a securities action, finding there are questions that remain about alleged settlement agreements in the case.
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September 11, 2012
Title II Doesn't Cover Employment Bias Claims: 10th Circ.
The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive an office worker's disability discrimination suit against the University of Oklahoma, holding for the first time that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bars discrimination in public services, doesn't permit employment bias claims.
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September 11, 2012
Jury Doubles Wynn's Award To $40M In Slander Case
A California jury on Tuesday doubled its award to casino magnate Steve Wynn to $40 million in a slander trial against "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis, a day after finding the soft-core pornographer liable for claiming Wynn had threatened to murder him for not paying a gambling debt.
Expert Analysis
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Coming Soon: The IP Exchange International
A typical means to “monetize” a company's otherwise intangible IP asset — such as a patent — is by way of licensing. The introduction of a new IP-related exchange, which aims to eliminate licensing inefficiencies while facilitating investment in and risk management of IP-related assets, undoubtedly will shake up this landscape, say attorneys with Gibbons PC.
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The Sackett Decision: What It Means For Fracking
While the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may have restricted the EPA’s enforcement reach under the Clean Water Act, it may have provided the EPA with a procedural tool in its attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act, says Earl Hagstrom of Sedgwick LLP.
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Crowdfunding — Who In Their Right Mind Would ...
The unnecessarily complex crowdfunding provisions of the JOBS Act stand in stark contrast to the relaxed public solicitation/advertising rules now permitted for Rule 506 private offerings to accredited investors, the new relaxed filing/governance standards for "emerging growth companies" with miniscule $1 billion in annual revenues, and the increase in the "of record" shareholders before registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is required, says Thomas Sherman of Locke Lord LLP.
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The Mayo Test: Impact On Personalized Medicine And Beyond
In the life science community particularly, claims directed to inventions in diagnostics and personalized medicine will likely face serious challenges under the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories Inc., say Ling Zhong and Paul Prestia of RatnerPrestia.
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The Latest On The Carried Interest Fairness Act
While H.R. 4016 is more evidence that some in the House and the Obama administration are serious about taxing income from carried interests as services income, the bill makes no attempt to carve out half the gain from assets held for more than five years that was included in the Senate version as an accommodation to the venture capital industry, which made a late game play during the last go around on this topic, say Steven Bortnick and Timothy Leska of Pepper Hamilton LLP.
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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.