United States Supreme Court

It is rare for a discovery sanction case to reach the nation's highest court. But on April 18, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Haeger, reversing a $2.7 million sanctions award that had been rendered by an Arizona district court and affirmed by a divided Ninth Circuit panel.

'Disparaging' Trademarks Decision
High Court Declines Takedown Notice/Fair Use Case

The Supreme Court's decision in Impression Products v. Lexmark is the latest Supreme Court ruling to eviscerate years-long, patentee-friendly Federal Circuit precedent.

Recognizing a Fifth Amendment privilege for corporations — whether through wholesale abolition of the collective entity doctrine or by recognizing some limited exception for custodians of smaller corporations — would not foreclose meaningful white-collar prosecutions, but it would restore protection of the Fifth Amendment rights of individuals who are sacrificed under the current bright-line rule. Will Justice Gorsuch help in this endeavor?

First the copyright infringement case over the use of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine in a Broadway play was dismissed by a New York federal judge. Then it rounded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but was tagged out again. Now, in its third at bat, the lawsuit struck out with the U.S. Supreme Court declining to review the case.

A discussion of a case in which the United States Supreme Court faced a claim by the City of Miami that two banks had violated the federal Fair Housing Act by issuing loans to black and Latino customers on terms less favorable than loans issued to similarly situated customers who were white and non-Latino.

The landscape for patent law has changed more quickly over the last five years than it had in preceding decades. Recent cases have profoundly changed the way courts and the USPTO treat patents and patent applications. The U.S. Supreme Court will have ample opportunity, if it chooses, to revisit the issues that have been raised by these cases over the next few terms.

Fashion, furniture, and other design-oriented companies will take note of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., which resolved a division among the federal circuits on the issue of the separability of designs of useful articles under the Copyright Act.