First Republic Executives Fail in Attempt to Recover Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan Assets
Amazon’s Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) program provides an expedited and low-cost tool for patent owners to stop the sale of infringing products on Amazon’s platform. But low cost does not mean low risk. The U.S. Court of...more
Mitek Systems, Inc. v. United Services Automobile Association, Appeal No. 2021-1989 (Fed. Cir. May 20, 2022) - Our Case of the Week this week is a declaratory judgment action brought against USAA. In a 27-page opinion,...more
Apple Inc. v. Zipit Wireless, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1760 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18, 2022) - In its only precedential patent case this week, the Federal Circuit addressed the extent to which a party exposes itself to personal...more
APPLE INC. v. ZIPIT WIRELESS, INC. [OPINION]- PRECEDENTIAL - Before Hughes, Mayer and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Summary: Notice letters and related...more
Littelfuse, Inc. v. Mersen USA EP Corp., Appeal No. 2021-2013 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 4, 2022) - Our Case of the Week focuses on the issue of claim construction, and, more specifically, the doctrine of claim differentiation....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a trial court judgment against a Texas franchisor, finding the lower court erred in excusing an untimely renewal notice of area development agreements. The Court held a...more
Friday, February 28th, in Southwestern Electric Power Company v. Lynch et al., the Texas Supreme Court decided a hotly contested case regarding the interpretation of “general easements.” In Texas, the term “general easement”...more
In a sweeping decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit extended the absolute pollution exclusion to the unplanned discharge of “rock fines,” pellets produced during quarry operations, and denied coverage for...more
Addressing personal jurisdiction in a declaratory judgment action, the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reversed the district court’s bench trial verdict, finding that the district court lacked specific personal...more
The Second Circuit issued a remarkable decision on termination rights under Sections 203 and 304(c) of the Copyright Act that seemingly, whether knowingly or otherwise, limits the Act’s extraterritorial reach. Ennio Morricone...more
The Fifth Circuit has joined a number of other circuits and concluded that whether class arbitration is appropriate under the terms of a particular arbitration agreement is a “gateway” issue to be decided by courts, not an...more
On May 1, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia held that a firearms exclusion in a general liability insurance policy applied to bar coverage for an underlying action arising from a shooting at the...more
A Post-URAA Patent that Issues After but Expires Before a Related Pre-URAA Patent Is Not a Double-Patenting Reference Against the Pre-URAA Patent - In Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. v. Breckenridge Pharmaceutical Inc.,...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Newman, Wallach, and Stoll. Appeal from the District Court of the Northern District of Texas. Summary: There is no generalized rule that sending letters alleging patent infringement...more
PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. v. Plano Encryption Technologies LLC, Appeal No. 2016-2700 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 7, 2018) On Friday, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a...more
Dealing with departing employees can be tricky. That’s why many companies require certain employees — particularly those with access to confidential or proprietary company information or customers — to sign written agreements...more
Appellate Court Advance Release Opinions: AC37588 - Prime Locations of CT, LLC v. Rocky Hill Development, LLC - When a commercial condominium unit owner’s association refused to grant their approval for a...more
Asia Vital Components Co., Ltd. (AVC) filed a declaratory judgment complaint seeking a declaration that its K7 and K9 products do not infringe two of Asetek Danmark A/S’s (“Asetek”) patents. According to AVC, those two...more
The Virginia Supreme Court issued a number of opinions this Spring and Summer in recent terms. Its work resulted in several opinions affecting Virginia local (and state) government law, in the areas of Virginia...more
As policyholder lawyers, one can usually count on a few basic mistakes that insurers will make. First, they wrongfully deny coverage and fail to defend. They abandon their insured who is then left to its own devices to...more