Specific-Questions Guide to Child Custody Investigations
No matter how skilled a forensic examiner may be in conducting an evaluation, the relevance of the information gathered in the evaluation is directly tied to the clarity and scope of the questions that guide the investigation. Here is a comphrehensive guide to the correct questions.
Warn Potential Patent Infringers: But Do Your Homework First
Part One of this article addressed <i>800 Adept, Inc. v. Murex Secs., Ltd. et al.</i> and the required level of care that must be taken before issuing notice letters to potential infringers and the legal standard under which that care may later be judged. This second installment discusses <i>Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd. v. OSRAM Gmbh.</i>
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The Third Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law
The Third Amendment to the Chinese Patent Law is expected to bring the law into closer conformity with international standards, particularly commensurate with U.S. Patent contract and litigation practice, even though several changes such as the absolute novelty requirement still clearly reflect the influence of European Patent laws on the development of the Chinese Patent Law. The Third Amendment includes changes to patent application and enforcement processes, ownership rights, compulsory licensing rules, international exhaustion rights, penalties for patent infringement, prior art defenses, and exemptions, summarized in this article.
The Changing Tide of Declaratory Judgment Jurisdiction in Patent Cases
During the last two years, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decided a series of cases that collectively explore what circumstances are sufficient, or insufficient, to establish declaratory judgment jurisdiction in the context of a patent dispute. Several of these decisions, which have put patentees at an increased risk for declaratory judgment lawsuits, are addressed in this article.
High Court Dismisses Philip Morris Appeal of $79 Million Punitive Damages Verdict
On March 31, the U.S. Supreme Court blinked in a long-running standoff with the Oregon Supreme Court over the handling of a punitive damages suit against Philip Morris brought by the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer in 1997. The high court dismissed the case of Philip Morris v. Williams as "improvidently granted"in a one-sentence opinion.
Exxon May Be Sued for Natural Resource Damage Done Prior to Passage of NJ Spill Act
New Jersey can pursue Exxon Mobil for natural resource damage done by two refineries prior to enactment of the state's Spill Compensation and Control Act, a Union County judge has ruled. This article explains the background.
Features
Sophisticated User Defense Gains Acceptance
The sophisticated user doctrine has become a prevalent defense nationwide in product liability actions involving failure-to-warn claims. This article expounds upon recent cases that help to entrench the sophisticated user doctrine in many states' case law, to a full or limited degree.
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- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›
- What Does 2024 Hold for Cybersecurity?Our annual poll of experts on the trends and developments to watch out for in 2024 in AI, data privacy, cybersecurity, e-discovery and more.Read More ›