(Podcast) The Briefing: IP Rights and the “Public Good” Exemption to California’s Anti-SLAPP Law: An Update
The Briefing: IP Rights and the “Public Good” Exemption to California’s Anti-SLAPP Law: An Update
12th Man Up in the First Half: Texas Court Rules that Aggies Athletic Foundation Owes No Fiduciary Duty to Football Boosters, Second Half to Reveal Winner on Contract Claims - There is perhaps no relationship stronger and...more
Last week, in Bristol Asphalt v. Rochester Bituminous Products, the SJC jettisoned two prior decisions and revised its directions to lower courts regarding how to handle “special motions to dismiss” under Massachusetts’...more
A New York court once again declined to dismiss Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation over Fox News’s coverage of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie.” The court found that the parent company, Fox Corporation, could...more
Nevada, like California, has enacted an anti-SLAPP law that is intended to protect citizens' First Amendment rights to petition the government for redress of grievances and to free speech by limiting the chilling effect of...more
Last week, the Supreme Court of Texas addressed the quantum of evidence required for a plaintiff to support a prima facie case and survive a motion to dismiss brought under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, Texas’s...more
The Court of Appeals of Texas (Fourth District) upheld a trial court’s order denying a motion to dismiss a breach of confidentiality agreement claim pursuant to the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), which is designed...more
The Texas Court of Appeals in the 14th Circuit denied an interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s denial of a motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), holding that TCPA does not protect...more
In Jan Dunning et al. v. Kevin K. Johnson, APLC et al., the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that a developer and property owner could pursue its claims against a neighbor and project opponent for malicious prosecution...more
In TSA-Tex. Surgical Assocs., L.L.P. v. Vargas, one partner sued his other partners for various claims regarding the defendants attempt to squeeze the plaintiff out of the partnership. No. 14-19-00135-CV, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS...more
An anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied because the claims for damages arose from breach of contract and tort actions, not from any protected First Amendment activity. Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, LLC v City of...more
In Crotty v. Continuum Energy Technologies, Judge Salinger granted Thomas Crotty’s special motion to dismiss counterclaims for tortious interference brought by Continuum Energy Technologies (CET) and John Preston under the...more
Can defendants use anti-SLAPP statutes to dismiss meritorious trade secrets misappropriation lawsuits? A recent decision by the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas suggests not....more
In a striking decision issued on July 15, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that motions to dismiss based on state Anti-SLAPP statutes, which require that plaintiffs satisfy a high standard of proof...more
Rall v. Tribune 365, LLC, 2019 WL 6887261 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019) - Frederick Theodore Rall III, a political cartoonist and blogger, sued the Los Angeles Times after it published a “note to readers” and (later) a more...more
In a trilogy of recent cases, the Texas Courts of Appeals have employed the “commercial speech” exception to exclude certain business claims from the scope of the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act (“TCPA”). This trend will...more
On August 23, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Klocke v. Watson, 17-11320, 2019 WL 3977545, at *1 (5th Cir. Aug. 23, 2019), holding that the Texas Citizens...more
On August 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion resolving “an issue that has brewed for several years in this circuit” regarding the intersection of Texas free speech protections and...more
The Third District of the Texas Court of Appeals held that an action by an employer against a former employee for breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation fell within the commercial speech exemption of the Texas...more
Earlier this year, the Social Law Library hosted the “2018 Business Litigation Year in Review.” The presenters, including BLS Judge Kenneth W. Salinger, offered commentary on some recent BLS decisions....more
Judge Davis’s recent denial of an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss provides helpful guidance on how to distinguish between counterclaims used as solely as a “cudgel” and meritorious claims in breach of contract cases. The ruling...more
The California Court of Appeal affirmed dismissal of a former freelancer’s defamation and employment-related claims against the Times. Frederick Theodore Rall III, a political cartoonist and blogger for the paper, brought...more
Last year, we posted that a Georgia federal court held, in a lawsuit against CNN, that Georgia’s anti-SLAPP statute had no application in federal court. CNN appealed that decision and, last Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit...more
A Ninth Circuit panel consisting of Judges A. Wallace Tashima, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, and Paul J. Watford recently heard oral argument in Anheuser-Busch Companies v. Clark, 17-15591, concerning the denial of a former...more
In an opinion and order issued recently, a Nevada state court dismissed with prejudice a defamation claim brought by businessman Steve Wynn against the Associated Press (AP) and one of its reporters. ...more
In a dispute between a former employee and former employer over violation of a non-compete/non-disclosure agreement and other related claims, Judge Salinger denied the employee’s motion to dismiss under Massachusetts’...more