Supreme Court to Reconsider Patent Exhaustion
October 30, 2007
May a patent owner sue its own licensee's customers when those customers purchase essential components that have no reasonable non-infringing use from the licensee, and then combine those components with others to form a patented product? The answer may be decided by the Supreme Court in <i>Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc.,</i> U.S., No. 06-937, <i>cert. granted</i> Sept. 25, 2007.
A Look At FIN 48
October 30, 2007
In an effort to increase comparability and consistency in how companies report income tax positions on financial statements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ('FASB') issued FASB Interpretation Number 48 ('FIN 48'), Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes on July 13, 2006. FIN 48 changes the way companies must account for uncertain tax positions taken on federal, state and local, and international income tax returns for financial reporting purposes.
The Roberts Court on Antitrust
October 30, 2007
By the end of its last term, the Supreme Court decided four significant antitrust cases, resulting in one of the most antitrust-focused terms in the Court's history. In rendering decisions favorable to the defendants in all four cases, the Court quickly drew the dreaded 'pro-business' label. Commentators on the left criticized the decisions as marking a hard-right turn on antitrust policy, while those on the right lauded the Court's restoration of free-market principles to competition analysis. These broad pronouncements overstate the similarities among the cases, which arose in a wide range of industries and raised quite different legal issues.
Case Notes
October 29, 2007
Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.
Prescription Drugs: Consumer Fraud in Sales and Marketing
October 29, 2007
Claims of consumer fraud are difficult and rarely succeed in the context of a pharmaceutical product liability action. They are, however, troublesome, because the pleading of such a claim often opens the door to extensive discovery of the company's sales and marketing departments. If the defendant cannot succeed in obtaining a dismissal prior to trial, it may still permit the jury to hear evidence of sales tactics and strategies that often paint the manufacturer in a less-than-favorable light. Companies should be aware of the potential for such claims and plan their sales and marketing strategies accordingly.
In re Allied Chemical Corp.: 'Cause' for Celebration By Defendants?
October 29, 2007
The Texas Supreme Court has made it clear that it considers the disclosure of the identities of medical or other causation experts willing to link plaintiffs' injuries to defendants' products or behavior as 'basic information' without which defendants cannot mount an appropriate defense. At least in the case of mass tort claims, trial courts are barred from setting trial dates or otherwise moving cases forward without providing defendants with a real opportunity to obtain basic causation information from plaintiffs' counsel.
Practice Tip: The Earning Capacity of Business Owners
October 29, 2007
The owner of a business can claim as lost earning capacity in a personal-injury action only the working time lost due to injuries and harm to future earning capacity, not the business' alleged profits in perpetuity.
Dealing with the Surprise Government Interview
October 29, 2007
When conducting criminal investigations about possible corporate wrongdoing, in alleged defective-products matters and other cases, government agents often seek to interview company executives and other employees ' of old-line bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce companies ' 'by ambush' outside the office, to minimize the likelihood that a supervisor or a company lawyer might intervene to thwart the interview. There is nothing improper in using this investigative technique; nevertheless, employees should know their legal rights and understand the risks they take when they submit to such surprise interrogations.
The China Syndrome: Will the U.S. Legal System Deal with Tainted Chinese Imports or Meltdown?
October 29, 2007
The 'classic' product liability lawsuit against the Chinese manufacturer raises many issues, including, but not limited to, jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, and the uncertainty as to whether traditional U.S. product liability or tort defenses apply. Probably the most important issue, enforcement of any judgment in China, is also either unchartered or risky territory for a claimant.
