Analysis

Trump's Potential Witness Could Be Defense 'Dynamite'

By Phillip Bantz

As Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan nears its end, experts say criminal defense attorney Robert Costello, who once advised the former president's ex-fixer and key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, has surfaced as a potentially bombshell witness for the defense.

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Pfizer Unit Wins $107.5M Patent Verdict Against AstraZeneca

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Delaware federal jury on Friday said that AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP should pay $107.5 million in royalty damages for infringing a Pfizer-brand cancer treatment patent, although a final decision won't be issued until after a bench trial on some of AstraZeneca's additional defenses. 

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Qorvo Wins $38.6M In Akoustis Trade Secrets And Patent Trial

By Ryan Davis

A Delaware federal jury on Friday told Akoustis Technologies Inc. to pay wireless company Qorvo Inc. nearly $38.6 million for misappropriating its trade secrets and infringing its patents, following a two-week trial over radio frequency filter technology.

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Boeing Jury Urged To Award Startup At Least $163M At IP Trial

By Greg Lamm

An electric-jet company told a Seattle jury Friday that Boeing misappropriated its trade secrets to build a copycat plane under the guise of investing in the startup, entitling it to an award of more than $163 million.

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Calif. Jury Finds Samsung Breached Contract With Netlist

By Craig Clough

A Los Angeles federal jury found on Friday that Samsung materially breached a contract with chipmaker Netlist by cutting off its supply of crucial memory products, delivering a significant win for Netlist in its multi-jurisdictional patent fight with Samsung even though no monetary damages were at stake.

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Menendez Bribery Trial: 5 Things To Know About Week 1

By Carla Baranauckas

Explosive opening statements, closed-door jury questioning and an FBI agent's recount of the moment he found a treasure trove of gold bars and cash highlighted the first week of trial in the government's second corruption case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

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Judge Sets Hearing For Delay In Hunter Biden's Tax Trial

By Anna Scott Farrell

A California federal judge agreed Friday to consider Hunter Biden's request to push back his $1.4 million criminal tax trial, setting a hearing to address his claim that the dates interfere with his Delaware gun trial and threaten to prevent him from getting a fair shake.

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'Confusing' Evidence Leads To New Patent Trial For Shopify

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal judge Friday granted in part Shopify Inc.'s bid for a new trial in an infringement suit over a series of patents for website generation owned by Express Mobile Inc. after Express won a $40 million jury verdict in 2022.

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3rd Circ. Won't Rethink Cancellation Of $10M Win In TM Battle

By Matthew Santoni

Texans can continue to be subjected to the earworm that is the "Kars 4 Kids" jingle, as the Third Circuit declined this week to reconsider its ruling against a local charity that had temporarily won a $10 million judgment in a trademark dispute over the name.

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Ex-Baltimore State's Atty Says 20-Month Sentence Too Harsh

By Emily Sawicki

Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has asked a federal judge to cut down prosecutors' requested 20-month prison sentence after she was convicted of abusing a COVID-19-era program to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, arguing the proposal "stray[s] from the reality of this case."

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Jury Convicts NC Provider In Medicaid, COVID Fraud Scheme

By Hayley Fowler

A clinical social worker in North Carolina was found guilty Friday of defrauding South Carolina's Medicaid program and falsely obtaining COVID-19 relief checks following a nine-day trial in Charlotte's federal courthouse, prosecutors said.

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Feds Want Prison For Kiosk Salesman Who Faked Deductions

By Anna Scott Farrell

An electronic-sweepstakes kiosk salesman from Chicago should spend more than two years in prison for submitting false tax returns that fabricated more than $400,000 in business expenses and more than $60,000 in church donations, federal prosecutors told an Illinois federal court.

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Judge Doubts 9th Circ. Ruling Upends VC's Fraud Conviction

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared skeptical Friday of convicted self-described "millennial" venture capitalist Michael Rothenberg's renewed request for a new trial or acquittal in light of a recent Ninth Circuit decision clarifying "materiality" in the federal criminal fraud statutes, doubting that Rothenberg was prejudiced by jury instructions addressing materiality.

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Two Guilty Of Wire Fraud And Conspiracy In Forex Case

By Daniel Ducassi

A Colorado federal jury on Friday found two men guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy related to their work soliciting tens of millions of dollars from investors for their foreign exchange investment business.

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Feds Seek 10 Years In First Product Safety Conviction

By Jared Foretek

The government is asking for a pair of 10-year prison sentences for two Gree USA Inc. executives convicted of failing to report defective humidifiers, after the two were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

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Texas Justices Let Fen-Phen Atty Malpractice Fight Roll On

By Daniel Connolly

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that roughly 4,000 former clients of a Houston mass tort lawyer can continue pressing their claims that the lawyer improperly kept millions of dollars in fen-phen diet drug settlement money.

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Google Says Payment Means No Need For DOJ Ad Tech Jury

By Matthew Perlman

Google is arguing in Virginia federal court the government has no right to a jury trial in a case accusing the company of monopolizing key digital advertising technology, especially after Google issued a check for the money enforcers could be awarded if they won.

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Las Vegas Sun Wants Day In Court Against Review-Journal

By Bryan Koenig

The Las Vegas Sun asked a Nevada federal judge Thursday to schedule trial in its antitrust suit against the Las Vegas Review-Journal, arguing the larger paper and soured distribution partner cannot be allowed to continue running out the clock in an effort to put the Sun out of business.

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Ga. Police Officer Asks For New Trial In $40M Force Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

Atlanta police officer Jon Grubbs, who was ordered by a Georgia jury to pay $40 million to a man who was rendered quadriplegic after Grubbs shocked him with a Taser over suspicions of panhandling, has asked a federal judge for a new trial.

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Baldwin Wants 'Rust' Case Tossed, Says Grand Jury Was Duped

By Phillip Bantz

Alec Baldwin's attorneys urged a New Mexico state judge during a hearing Friday to throw out involuntary manslaughter charges against the actor in the "Rust" movie shooting, arguing prosecutors misled the grand jury in the case.

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Philly Surgeon Settles Sex Bias Case With Jefferson Hospital

By P.J. D'Annunzio

An orthopedic surgeon who sued Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for gender discrimination over its handling of sexual assault allegations has settled his case with the hospital after a $15 million award in his favor was erased.

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Judge Will Drop Some Charges For Convicted Atlanta Exec

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge moved forward Thursday with the government's request to drop four criminal counts against convicted Atlanta city hall official Mitzi Bickers after recent case law made the wire fraud charges nonviable.

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DC Circ. Affirms Ex-HUD Official's Conviction For False Docs

By Elliot Weld

The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the documents falsification conviction of a former high-ranking staffer within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General, rejecting his arguments that prosecutors had diverged at trial from the charges laid out in an indictment.

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Pa. Federal District Judge Gene Pratter Dead At 75

By James Boyle

U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter, who joined the bench in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2004 and presided over several landmark cases, died Friday at the age of 75, according to a statement from the court.

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Menendez Texts With Wife A Legislative Promise, Judge Says

By Pete Brush

Emoji-laden texts between Sen. Robert Menendez and his wife about an arms sale constitute a legislative promise, a Manhattan federal judge reiterated Monday, as the government seeks to prove the power couple had a corrupt agreement with a New Jersey businessman.

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McElroy Deutsch Says Ex-Exec's Guilt Boosts Home Claim

By Emily Sawicki

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP doubled down on its attempt to seize the home of two former firm executives following a guilty plea on criminal embezzlement charges earlier this month by one of them, the firm's former chief financial officer.

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