Commercial Law

Recent rulings you need to know.

The California Supreme Court, in its recent 6-1 decision in Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth Inc. v. City of Rancho Cordova, 2/1/2007, concerning the Sunrise Douglas Community Plan, raised the number of hoops developers must leap through to ensure that their large-scale developments' future water needs will be met without too great an impact on the environment. The decision in Vineyard Area Citizens not only put a hold on a huge development planned for Rancho Cordova, but also placed other developers in the state on notice that certain shortcuts in water-use planning will not be accepted by the courts when challenged.

Despite no seeming fundamental economic differences, there have been occasions where divorce courts in different states have reached different conclusions of value for the same type of business. These states reach such different conclusions as to what constitutes marital property because they have different views as to the meaning of the term 'value.' This article represents a summary of some of our findings concerning the application of the premises and standards of value in divorce matters.

Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.

Expert analysis of the latest cases.

Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.

Can a Notice of Opposition in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board give rise to an actual controversy under the Declaratory Judgment Act to support a trademark Applicant's federal declaratory judgment action against the Opposer? Generally, it can't ' or more accurately, it doesn't. But in Neilmed Products, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., the Northern District of California found that the Notice of Opposition pleaded detailed factors relevant to liability for trademark infringement and dilution.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently issued one of the first decisions in the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to interpret '503(b)(9), an important new Bankruptcy Code provision passed under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act: In re Bookbinders' Restaurant Inc. '503(b)(9) is certain to impact the relationship between a debtor seeking to reorganize and the trade vendors that deal with it.