In a new precedential decision issued August 13, 2024, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Allergan USA. v. MSN Labs, 24-1061, held that a first-filed, first-issued parent patent that receives a patent term...more
On May 3, 2022, the California Court of Appeal issued its decision in Shaw v. Superior Court, 78 Cal. App. 5th 245, 2022 WL 1400806 (2022), holding that in cases where two or more pending Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA)...more
In a recent order allowing a defendant’s motion to dismiss a case involving heated products and heat pack technology, Judge Sorokin clarified a specific application of the first-filed rule. In the case at hand, Schawbel...more
Addressing for the first time whether attorneys’ fees should be included in an award of costs under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(d), the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to include such...more
Earlier this month, a federal court in Pennsylvania faced the issue of whether it must file a second-filed suit even though the first-filed suit was transferred to the same court, and judge, as the second. The issue arose out...more
Delaware litigators are likely familiar with the teachings of McWane Cast Iron Pipe v. McDowell-Wellman Engineering, 263 A.2d 281, 283 (Del. 1970), which, in a nutshell, advise that a Delaware court will freely exercise its...more
To incentivize whistleblowers to bring false claims promptly to the government’s attention, the False Claims Act (FCA) includes a so-called “first-to-file rule“ (31 U.S.C § 3730(b)(5)), which bars a person other than the...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently stayed a Delaware action in favor of an earlier-filed Texas case because they dealt with substantially similar facts, even where the two lawsuits did not contain identical claims. The...more