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News Briefs
The latest news from the franchising world.
Foreign F.O.B. Shipment of Infringing Product Does Not Defeat Federal Subject Matter Jurisdiction
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has determined that a trial court does not lose subject matter jurisdiction over a patent or copyright infringement case where all sales of accused products to U.S. customers were made f.o.b. in Canada by a Canadian corporation.
Features
<i>Quanta Computer, Inc., et al. v. LG Electronics, Inc.</i>
In <i>Quanta Computer</i>, many observers believed that the Court would address whether, and to what extent, a party can contractually restrict application of the patent exhaustion doctrine, under which patent rights covering a product are extinguished when the product is sold without restriction. Instead, the Court's decision in <i>Quanta</i> appears to be relatively narrow, confirming that the sale of unpatented components can exhaust a system patent that is substantially, but not completely, embodied by those components, but leaving open the broader question of whether parties can contractually limit application of the patent exhaustion doctrine to the detriment of downstream good faith purchasers.
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Case Briefs
Medical Services Must Be Legally Rendered to Qualify for Payment
Unfavorable Forum Selection Clauses
More and more frequently, insurers are including 'choice of forum' provisions in their policies in which these insurers identify a particular state or country where coverage litigation 'must' be pursued. While in the past few decades a body of law has developed in federal courts that provides some support for this approach, the standard is not nearly as rigid as insurers would have their insureds and courts overseeing coverage litigation believe.
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The 'Sophisticated Insured' Defense
A majority of courts consider the <i>contra proferentem</i> doctrine to be a pillar of insurance law. The doctrine requires ambiguous terms in an insurance policy to be construed against the insurer and in favor of coverage for the insured. A prominent rationale behind the doctrine is that insurance policies are usually standard-form contracts drafted entirely by insurers.
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Conflicts of Interest Between an Insurer and Its Insured
This article examines potential conflicts of interest between an insurer and its insured and the extent of an insured's right to its own independent counsel in such circumstances. This article also discusses other situations that may raise conflicts of interest between an insurer and an insured sufficient to trigger a right to independent counsel. Finally, it considers whether the insurer or the insured has the right to select that counsel.
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Marketplace
Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.
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Credit Applications
Although credit applications assist lessors in making these credit decisions, the lessor should make sure that it avoids the pitfalls of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ('ECOA') and that the financial information it obtains through the credit application is stored appropriately to avoid liability under various state laws regulating the storage of private financial information. This article discusses the components of a good credit application, the requirements of the ECOA, and the best practices for storing private financial information.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- 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 ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.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 ›