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The Federal Circuit has offered more guidance on willful patent infringement in a revised ruling in i4i Limited Partnership v. Microsoft Corp. The ruling upheld a lower court's $290 million patent judgment against Microsoft and found that Microsoft must stop selling an infringing version of Microsoft Word 2007. The holding is important because it said that, even if Microsoft had preserved its right to appeal the jury's willfulness verdict, there was sufficient evidence to sustain that verdict, said a lawyer for i4i.
Both appointed to the 9th Circuit in 1979 as part of a historic reshaping of the court, Stephen Reinhardt and Dorothy Nelson parted ways Thursday as Nelson handed Reinhardt a bitter defeat by siding with conservative Judge Carlos Bea in an opinion upholding the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The ruling is the latest episode in a case that has brought scorn upon the 9th Circuit from across the country and has highlighted Reinhardt as an unapologetic -- yet increasingly solitary -- iconoclast.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to adopt four articles of impeachment against Eastern District of Louisiana Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr., wrapping up a wide-ranging investigation into allegations that Porteous took cash and gifts from lawyers and lied in his own bankruptcy case. The stage is set for a trial in the Senate unless Porteous resigns from his seat. He has so far declined to do so, despite high-profile investigations by the House, the 5th Circuit Judicial Council and the Department of Justice.
When Kathleen Sullivan began practicing law about 30 years ago, there were no female litigation partners practicing at big firms. On Thursday, capping a career that has also included stints as a Harvard Law School professor and the dean of Stanford Law School, Sullivan became a name partner at Quinn Emanuel, marking the first time a woman's name is on the door of an Am Law 100 firm.
The Justice Department unlawfully recorded privileged phone calls between former Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., and his lawyers during an insurance fraud probe, a federal magistrate judge in Arizona ruled Thursday in recommending the recordings be suppressed. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco found that prosecutors made false statements to the supervising judge, but is recommending that Renzi's motion to dismiss the indictment be denied, noting that the government's conduct "does not rise to the level of outrageousness."
The regulatory and legal landscape for data privacy is changing rapidly. Although these changes have not garnered much attention, say attorneys Satish M. Kini and Thomas S. Wyler, they deserve careful consideration by in-house counsel, privacy compliance staff and IT departments.
Cutting-edge questions in the First Amendment arena have recently stemmed from clashes between students and school districts over limits put on speech posted on social networking sites. Now lawyers on both sides of the issue are urging the 3rd Circuit to vacate two seemingly conflicting decisions by two different three-judge panels, and to hold rearguments before the full court. Both cases involved high school students suspended for creating fake MySpace pages on their home computers ridiculing their principals.
What may have been a case of oversharing on the part of a DLA Piper associate has dragged the firm into court to defend a legal malpractice lawsuit. Former client George Sutton & Associates, a San Diego software company, claimed in a complaint filed on Tuesday that DLA Piper unlawfully "rifled through" its files and disclosed confidential information to a third party, resulting in about $1.2 million in damages.
Robert Ruyak, Howrey's managing partner, confirmed Thursday that the firm plans to cut between 20 and 30 partners. The firm's profits per partner dropped 35 percent in 2009, and the acquisition of high-profile laterals created internal client conflicts that hurt some partners, sources say. Ruyak says that the hope is to keep the partners at Howrey until helping them land elsewhere. The plan is to position Howrey for a fast recovery, and Ruyak says he believes the firm can thrive by focusing on its core litigation practices.
The regulatory and legal landscape for data privacy is changing rapidly. Although these changes have not garnered much attention, say attorneys Satish M. Kini and Thomas S. Wyler, they deserve careful consideration by in-house counsel, privacy compliance staff and IT departments.
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