Law Reports

Emily Pataki | Bloomberg Law Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, S. 2038, 112 Cong. (2012) This week, the Senate took up a bill intended to prohibit Members of Congress and their employees from trading on nonpublic information derived from their official positions. Since the bill’s introduction on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Eric Cantor [...]

John G. Haley | Bloomberg Law Long v. Tommy Hilfiger U.S.A., Inc., No. 11-1554, 2012 BL 15170 (3d Cir. Jan. 24, 2012) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”) 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., prohibits merchants from printing any part of a [...]

Christopher Bernard | Bloomberg Law Client assets sourcebook: Custody liens – FSA Policy Statement PS12/2 of Jan. 2012 The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published new rules including changes to its Client Assets Sourcebook (CASS) regarding the granting of liens in custody agreements over client assets. The rules were adopted in response to concerns [...]

Peter O’Hara | Bloomberg Law Bullock v. Napolitano, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 10-CV-1222, 2012 BL 13446 (4th Cir. Jan. 23, 2012) The majority of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Willie Bullock could not pursue his race discrimination claim under Title VII of [...]

Blayne V. Scofield | Bloomberg Law Poleck v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 24, 2012 BL 19735 (Md. Jan. 24, 2012) (consolidated) Recently, Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, denied an effort by consumers to expand the scope of lender and assignee liability under Maryland law. The dispute centered on lender practices in [...]

Jennifer Gaeta | Bloomberg Law Kinbook, LLC v. Microsoft, Corp., No. 10-CV-04828, 2012 BL 15872 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 24, 2012) Plaintiff Kinbook, LLC, is an online software company that instituted an action against Microsoft Corp. for unfair competition and reverse confusion in connection with its launch of the KINECT for XBOX 360 product and KIN [...]

Jonathan D. Gupta | Bloomberg Law IOSCO, Follow-On Analysis to the Report on Trading of OTC Derivatives (Jan. 17, 2012) The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a report on the types of trading platforms available for executing over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions. IOSCO highlighted different approaches used by global regulators to mandate the use [...]

Sarah Jane Leake | Bloomberg Law Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive – Financial Services Authority Discussion Paper DP12/1 of 23 January 2012 The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive1 (AIFM Directive) came into force on 21 July last year. Like all Member States, the UK must transpose the Directive’s provisions2 into national law [...]

Susan M. Greenwood | Bloomberg Law SEC v. Powell, No. 11-CV-00161 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 25, 2012) The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied Phillip Powell’s motion to dismiss insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursuant to Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and [...]

Jessica McKinney | Bloomberg Law Golan v. Holder, No. 10-00545, 2012 BL 12206 (U.S. Jan. 18, 2012) In a significant decision with potentially far-reaching effects, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 19941 (“URAA”), which restored the copyrights in millions of foreign works that were [...]

Laura McQuade | Bloomberg Law In September 2011, the U.S. Copyright Office sought comments1on its proposed amendments to the process for service providers to designate an agent to receive notices of alleged infringement pursuant to Section 512(c)(2)2 of the Copyright Act, the so-called “takedown notices.” The Copyright Office asked for all comments by November 28, [...]

Yamuna Bhaskaran | Bloomberg Law Farris v. Seabrook, No. 11-35620, 2012 BL 11510 (9th Cir. Jan. 19, 2012) The State of Washington’s Constitution permits elected officials to be recalled for specific offenses, including malfeasance, misfeasance, or violations of the oath of office. Under Washington Revised Code § 42.17A.405(3), contributions to recall campaigns were limited to no [...]

Aude Gerspacher | Bloomberg Law In Re Apple Inc., Misc. No. 103, 2012 BL 7093 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 12, 2012) The Federal Circuit denied Apple’s petition to transfer venue in a patent infringement action, citing Apple’s failure to meet its burden in establishing greater convenience in the transferee venue and Apple’s delay in taking action. [...]

Alex Kreonidis | Bloomberg Law CFTC Proposed Rule, Prohibitions and Restrictions on Proprietary Trading and Certain Interests in, and Relationships with, Hedge Funds and Covered Funds (Jan. 11, 2012) The CFTC Volcker Rule proposal is substantively similar to an October 2011 proposal by the SEC and banking regulators. The main difference is that the CFTC [...]

Keeton v. Morningstar, Inc., No. 11-CV-2298, 2012 BL 10022 (7th Cir. Jan. 13, 2012) Where the non-moving party fails to respond to the moving party’s statement of uncontested facts supporting its summary judgment motion, the court will deem those facts admitted to the extent they are supported by evidence in the record. To establish a [...]

Maren Peterson | Bloomberg Law TruePosition, Inc. v. LM Ericsson Tel. Co., No. 11-4574, 2012 BL 2759 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 06, 2012) To raise an inference of a conspiracy, allegations of parallel conduct by the alleged conspirators must be accompanied by allegations of “plus factors” that tend to suggest that the parallel conduct was the [...]

Donald v. Sybra, Incorporated, No. 10-CV-2153, 2012 BL 9499 (6th Cir. Jan. 17, 2012) To establish a prima facie case of FMLA interference, an employee must show: (1) she was eligible to take FMLA leave; (2) the employer was covered by the FMLA; (3) the employee was entitled to FMLA leave; (4) the employee provided [...]

Fanni Koszeg | Bloomberg Law Better Markets and CME strongly support position limits for cash commodity swaps to protect markets from excessive speculation by financial industry market participants. Financial industry groups firmly oppose position limits and criticized the CFTC for lack of proper market and statutory analysis. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted its [...]

Sarah Jane Leake | Bloomberg Law AIMA says financial transaction tax could undermine EU single market – Alternative Investment Management Association Press Release, 17 Jan. 2012 Last September, the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive introducing an EU-wide financial transaction tax (FTT) on certain transactions between financial institutions to take effect from 1 [...]

Jason M. Brocks | Bloomberg Law Drs. Pass & Bertherman, Inc. v. Neighborhood Health Plan of R.I., Nos. 2009-349-Appeal. (PB 07-2970), 2012 BL 10835 (R.I. Jan. 12, 2012) The Rhode Island Supreme Court held that the Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (NHP), which facilitated the provision of eye care services to Medicaid managed care [...]