Law Reports

By James Swann   The American Medical Association, along with 42 state medical organizations and 40 medical speciality groups, urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to cancel implementation of the ICD-10 code set, according to a letter sent in late December. “The implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of [...]

By Robert Emeritz   In a Sixth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released Jan. 3 [FCC 12-166], the Federal Communications Commission sought further comment on its requirement that licensees and other entities filing the Form 323 Commercial Broadcast Station Ownership Report provide an FCC Registration Number (FRN) generated by the CORES Registration System not only for [...]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Dec. 28 denied panel and en banc rehearing in a case exploring whether so-called skip-tracing is covered by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (Meyer v. Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC, 9th Cir., No. 11-56600, 12/28/12). The TCPA makes it unlawful for any person [...]

The widow of jazz band leader Cab Calloway was not operating any “ongoing and existing” business for which “Cab Calloway” could serve as a trademark and thus her attempt to assign an intent-to-use application was void, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Dec. 27 (Creative Arts by Calloway L.L.C. [...]

The head of a Dubai-based holding company Jan. 11 pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe brokers in a bid to artificially boost the firm’s stock price, federal prosecutors announced that day (United States v. Neuhaus, E.D.N.Y., 12-00439, 1/11/13). According to the government, Axius Inc. chief executive Roland Kaufmann admitted to conspiring with co-defendant Jean-Pierre Neuhaus [...]

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee Jan. 10 dismissed an investor suit alleging biotech concern BioMimetic Therapeutics Inc. (BMTI) and certain of its officials made material misrepresentations concerning the clinical trial for its flagship product, Augment Bone Grafting, as well as the prospects for regulatory approval (Sarafin v. BioMimetic Inc., M.D. [...]

After a third public roundtable Jan. 10 on a Congress-mandated study, the Patent and Trademark Office is no closer to a consensus on recommendations for easing patient access to a second opinion genetic diagnostic test that is patented. With 20 speakers at the PTO’s Alexandria, Va., headquarters roughly equally split between those who want a [...]

By Lydia Beyoud The status of passthrough entities poses a key, and possibly inescapable, roadblock for any comprehensive tax reform negotiations between political parties already at loggerheads over what the goals of tax reform ought to be, a tax analyst said Jan. 11 during a tax and trade policy forecast.

By Nora Macaluso LANSING, Mich.–Major changes in Michigan tax policy, some of which took effect at the start of 2012, have shifted the sources of tax revenue but will keep the amount of money flowing to the state Treasury fairly steady, economists and state budget analysts said Jan. 11.

Despite a “ misguided” decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court should deny review of the scope of the Hatch-Waxman Act’s safe harbor provision on patent infringement, according to a Dec. 13 government brief (GlaxoSmithKline v. Classen Immunotherapies Inc., U.S., No. 11-1078, gov’t brief filed, 12/13/12). The [...]

The Copyright Office will no longer refund overpayments of cable royalty fees for statements dated prior to Jan. 1, 2010, unless the cable operator owed the refund is current on all its outstanding dues, according to a final rule published Jan. 9. 78 Fed. Reg. 1,755 (Jan. 9, 2013). When the Satellite Television Extension and [...]

A Michigan county may have violated federal disability discrimination law when it failed to hire an applicant for a lifeguard position at a pool because he is deaf, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Jan. 10, reversing a lower court (Keith v. Oakland Cnty., 6th Cir., No. 11-2276, 1/10/13). Addressing an [...]

By Lawrence E. Dubé The National Labor Relations Board experienced nearly a 3 percent decrease in total case intake during fiscal year 2012, with more than a 6 percent decrease in representation case filings, Acting General Counsel Lafe E. Solomon reported in a summary of operations released Jan. 11 (Memorandum GC 13-01). The agency received [...]

By Stephanie M. Acree A plan confirmation order was modified to remove an injunction that would bar priests who allegedly committed sexual abuse against minors from receiving certain benefits Dec. 18 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Martin v. Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Inc., D. Del., No. 1:11-cv-00814 (SLR), 12/18/12). Judge [...]

By Stephanie M. Acree Bakers Footwear Group Inc. won court approval to liquidate its remaining 56 stores Jan. 9 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (In re Bakers Footwear Group Inc., Bankr. E.D. Mo., No. 4:12-bk-49658-705 (CER), motion granted 1/9/13). Judge Charles E. Rendlen III granted the debtor’s motion to [...]

The Internal Revenue Service Dec. 28 released long-awaited proposed regulations on the “shared responsibility” provisions under the Affordable Care Act on employer-provided health coverage (REG-138006-12). Starting in 2014, tax code Section 4980H, added by ACA, will require employers with at least 50 full-time and/or full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) to offer affordable health care coverage that [...]

By Joan C. Rogers   California lawyers publicly disparaged by a former client may not fight fire with fire but may try to counter the criticism so long as they stay within certain boundaries, according to a Dec. 6 opinion from the Los Angeles County bar’s ethics committee (Los Angeles County Bar Ass’n Professional Responsibility [...]

By Joan C. Rogers   An Idaho lawyer who has not practiced much in recent years due to anxiety and depression and who therefore cannot meet the “active practice requirement” for admission on motion will not be admitted to practice law in Utah without taking the bar examination despite his substantial legal experience, the Utah [...]

By Joan C. Rogers   A California lawyer who is unable to obtain waivers to deal with a “thrust-upon” conflict of interest arising from a corporate client’s merger may ethically withdraw from representing one client and continue to represent the other if he has not received confidential information from the now-former client that is substantially [...]

By Alex Ruoff   A small nonprofit hospice organization in Idaho has agreed to pay $50,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services to settle allegations of federal data security rule violations over the loss of a laptop containing the personal health information of 441 patients, HHS announced Jan. 2. The settlement is the [...]