Law Reports

By Aaron Lorenzo The confirmation process for Treasury Secretary nominee Jacob “Jack” Lew is moving forward as expected, with few significant speed bumps foreseen on his path, several outside observers have recently said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held Jan. 25 that President Obama’s recess appointments of three members to the National Labor Relations Board were invalid and the board lacked a valid quorum to support an unfair labor practice order against a Washington bottling firm (Noel Canning Div. of Noel Corp. [...]

An inter partes reexamination challenger was improperly barred by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences from presenting an obviousness argument, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Jan. 23 (Rexnord Industries L.L.C. v. Kappos, Fed. Cir., No. 2011-1434, 1/23/13). After an examiner concluded that the reexamined patent’s claims were obvious, the [...]

By Paul Barbagallo The Federal Communications Commission lacks the statutory authority to restrict the use of so-called “encoding” technologies that block consumers from recording television programs, a federal appeals court has ruled (EchoStar Satellite LLC v. FCC, D.C. Cir., No. 04-1033, 01/15/13). The decision handed down Jan. 15 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for [...]

By Paul Barbagallo Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee, said she will soon reintroduce a bill that would require wireless carriers to disclose detailed information about their fourth-generation mobile broadband services to consumers. In remarks during the Broadband Breakfast Club Jan. 15, Eshoo suggested that the [...]

A Volvo assembly line worker in Virginia who was placed on disability leave because of his deteriorating vision, and who did not identify a vacant position for which he had seniority under a bargaining agreement and was qualified to perform, lacks a failure to accommodate claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. District [...]

By Stephanie M. Acree A motion by a group of shareholders seeking to modify a bankruptcy plan because of alleged fraud was properly denied pursuant to Bankruptcy Code Section 1144, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in a Jan. 23 unpublished decision (Anti Lothian Bankruptcy Fraud Committee v. Lothian Oil Inc. [...]

A female employee who received a discharge in bankruptcy may not pursue her Title VII sexual harassment and retaliation claims, because she lacks standing to pursue claims that belong to her bankruptcy estate, or, in the alternative, because judicial estoppel bars her from litigating claims she failed to disclose in her bankruptcy petition, a federal [...]

The act of licensing patents to foreign manufacturers may be sufficient to establish that a “domestic industry” exists for the purposes of obtaining an order from the International Trade Commission to exclude allegedly infringing imports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held Jan. 10 in a 2-1 decision (InterDigital Communications L.L.C. v. [...]

President Obama signed into law Jan. 14 a bill, H.R. 6621, that mostly makes technical corrections to the 2011 patent reform bill, the America Invents Act. The bill fills in some gaps in the AIA and clarifies some items that were not particularly controversial. It goes beyond the AIA only in the area of patent [...]

By Alex Ruoff   Despite a growing body of evidence on the benefits of health information technology use by mental health providers, the perennial effort to extend federal health IT incentives to mental health providers faces an uphill battle, advocates told BNA. Behavioral health professionals with access to electronic health record systems reported lower readmission [...]

By Samson Habte The Perkins Coie law firm must be disqualified as defense counsel in major patent infringement litigation because it presumably obtained confidential information about the plaintiff through its contacts with one defendant’s “outside in-house counsel” who previously represented the plaintiff in matters involving three of the four patents at issue in the lawsuits, [...]

By Yin Wilczek Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Elisse Walter Jan. 18 said that first on the agency’s rulemaking agenda is issuance of a proposal on how it will regulate cross-border derivatives trades and foreign entities engaged in U.S. swap transactions. The proposal is “the critical lynchpin” and the “most important thing that we need [...]

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado refused Jan. 17 to sign off on a proposed settlement of a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action against two Colorado men and their company who allegedly defrauded investors of more than $6 million in a Ponzi scheme (SEC v. Bridge Premium Finance LLC, D. Colo., [...]

One hundred anonymous entities’ sale of counterfeit Ugg products through domain names incorporating the mark is likely to cause consumer confusion and irreparable harm to the brand, supporting the brand’s request for a preliminary injunction, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled Jan. 16 (Deckers Outdoor Corp. v. Doe, N.D. Ill., [...]

A based-on-a-true-story television movie’s recreation of a “wanted” poster based on an actual photograph of the real people on whose lives the movie was based was not infringing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Jan. 7 (Harney v. Sony Pictures Television Inc., 1st Cir., No. 11-1760, 1/7/13). Affirming summary judgment of [...]

ROME–A decree published Jan. 17 by Italy’s Ministry of Finance set a fixed tax of 0.75 percent per month on arrears payments from companies and self-employed workers for fees related to their business.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–Fiduciaries in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases must give notice to the Franchise Tax Board of their qualifications as fiduciaries beginning March 18 under new regulations that clarify notice requirements, FTB said in a Jan. 17 notice.

By Mike Ferullo The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued new standards Jan. 17 for the mortgage servicing industry, including procedures for managing delinquent loans and helping troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure. The final rules under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act address a wide range of loan servicing topics, [...]

  By Joan C. Rogers   California lawyers who use social media to boast about career milestones must comply with rules governing lawyer advertising if the postings indicate the lawyer’s availability for professional employment, according to a recent opinion from the California bar’s ethics committee (California State Bar Standing Comm. on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, [...]