Patents
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Basketball, Defamation, Divorce Train Wrecks, Intellectual Property, Legal Ethics, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, Sex, Sex Scandals, Sports, Supreme Court, Women's Issues
Non-Sequiturs: 05.13.13
* Joseph Rakofsky has lost his case against, well basically everyone. Including ATL. [Popehat] * EDNY Judge Edward Korman is earning accolades for his sassiness. [Jezebel] * The Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Monsanto case. Reading the decision is not exhausting. Get it? [Patently-O] * Happy Mother’s Day from Kobe Bryant! Black Mamba takes his mom to court. [Legal Blitz] * Sammy Hagar can’t be held liable for defaming a woman. He also can’t drive 55. [Courthouse News Service] * Stealing $100 worth of cigarettes may seem crazy, but $100 worth of cigarettes in Texas would net something like $480,000 in New York City. [Legal Juice] * Intellectual property run amok. And it doesn’t involve Prenda in any way! [Dealbreaker] * As we reported before, being a divorce lawyer is not just for nailing your clients anymore. [Jezebel] -
Intellectual Property, Patents, Ridiculousness, Rudeness
The Return of the Mad-As-Hell Patent Attorney [WITH PICS]
If you thought the patent attorney meltdown from last month was funny when he was mad about a patent application, wait until you see how he responds to media attention. - Sponsored
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Books, Crime, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, Sexual Harassment, White-Collar Crime
Non-Sequiturs: 04.30.13
* A patent infringement suit filed over the “hairy visor.” The best idea for combatting hair loss since SNL’s Chia Head. [Lowering the Bar] * The Hong Kong legal community is split over the continued donning of wigs. It’s nice how China allows them to think they have a choice on such matters. [Wall Street […]
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Intellectual Property, Patents, Rudeness
Patent Attorney Mad As Hell and Not Going To Take It (From the USPTO) Anymore
There's something beautiful about watching someone have a full meltdown. -
Biglaw, Intellectual Property, Law Schools, Money, Patents, Perks / Fringe Benefits, Student Loans
Biglaw Perk Watch: Tuition Reimbursement
Want to go to law school for free? Get your employer to pay for it! -
Biglaw, Book Club, Books, D.C. Circuit, Guns / Firearms, Intellectual Property, Jed Rakoff, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Lindsay Lohan, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Patents, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, Wall Street Journal, Weddings
Morning Docket: 04.11.13
* “I don’t believe judges should be filibustered.” Tell that to the rest of your Republican pals, Senator Hatch. D.C. Circuit nom Sri Srinivasan faced little drama at the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. [Bloomberg]
* A bipartisan gun regulation deal has been reached in the Senate, and of course the NRA is opposing it — well, except for the parts that expand gun rights. The group really likes those parts. [Washington Post]
* Trolling for patent partners? Bingham recently snagged five IP partners from DLA Piper’s Los Angeles office, including the former co-chair of DLA patent litigation department. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
* Time well spent: while Detroit hangs on the precipice of bankruptcy, local politicians are worrying about whether retaining Jones Day poses a conflict of interest for their emergency manager (formerly of Jones Day). [Am Law Daily]
* NYLS — or should we say “New York’s law school” — is revamping its clinical program to kill two birds with one stone (e.g., fulfilling pro bono hours and boosting job prospects). [National Law Journal]
* For all the talk of his being a hard ass, Judge Rakoff is a nice guy after all! The judge gave an ex-SAC trader permission to go on a honeymoon after his release from prison. [DealBook / New York Times]
* If you’ve ever wondered how Lat spends his free time, sometimes he’s off writing book reviews for distinguished publications. Check out his review of Mistrial (affiliate link) here. [Wall Street Journal]
* “Lindsay Lohan is the victim.” What the Heller you talking about? LiLo’s lawyer thinks there’s a conspiracy among the prosecutors on her case that’s resulted in leaks of information to TMZ. [CNN]
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Biglaw, ERISA, Gender, Intellectual Property, Labor / Employment, Litigators, Litigatrix, Old People, Partner Issues, Partner Profits, Patents, Women's Issues
Does Ropes & Gray Hate the Old and Gray?
Wouldn't you love such generous retirement benefits? -
Guns / Firearms, Law Schools, Lindsay Lohan, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, SCOTUS, Securities and Exchange Commission, Securities Law, Supreme Court, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 03.18.13
* A former general counsel has settled a case with the SEC alleging a slew of backdated options. It was suspicious when all the options were backdated to October 30, 1929. [ABA Journal via The Recorder] * “If Microsoft Shuts Down Google Maps In Germany, How Does That Benefit The Public?” Um, it makes it harder for them to find Poland! Duh. [TechDirt] * Senator Ted Cruz is having a rough go of it in the Senate. He’s already been publicly ripped by fellow Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Then he raised the ire of Senator Diane Feinstein, who has exactly zero patience for his crap. [Jezebel] * Based on the description, HLN is licking its chops. [Craigslist] * Supreme Court bobbleheads! I’m particularly impressed by Justice Brandeis riding the railroad. [Justices For Sale] * To get yourself wound up for March Madness, here’s a fictional lawyer bracket from Constitutional Daily. Jack McCoy didn’t even make the field so this won’t be a repeat of the Above the Law winner. [Constitutional Daily] * Lifting the amazing disappearing cloak over merit scholarships. [TaxProf Blog via National Jurist] * Lawyer cited as the good guy in a punchline. Hurray! [OMFG Meme] * Video after the jump of Lindsay Lohan showing up late for court, and getting a surprise gift from the crowd… - Sponsored
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Dorsey & Whitney, Election Law, Job Searches, John Roberts, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Patents, Sandra Day O'Connor, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 03.04.13
* “Do you know which state has the worst ratio of white voter turnout to African American voter turnout? Massachusetts.” Sorry, Chief Justice Roberts, but the Bay State’s top elections official begs to differ with your assessment. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* This retired SCOTUS justice — the first woman to ever serve on the nation’s highest court — now refers to herself as “an unemployed cowgirl.” We wonder what Justice Scalia will refer to himself as in interviews after he retires. [Sacramento Bee]
* Mayer Brown wasn’t the only Biglaw firm that had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Dorsey & Whitney’s 2012 revenue was also at a six-year low, but firm leaders think they can turn it around. [Star Tribune]
* Billion-dollar patent verdicts, so hot right now: 2012 was a “banner year” for for Biglaw firms representing winning clients, with K&L Gates leading the pack for the highest monetary award. [National Law Journal]
* “I wouldn’t want to be coming out of law school now.” Oh my God, you guys, the legal job market is still really tough for brand-spanking new law grads. This is new information that no one’s heard before. [Buffalo News]
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Intellectual Property, Patents, Technology, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Conflicts of Interest Are Just Classier With English Accents
UK judge who sided with Samsung a few months ago takes consulting job for Samsung. There's no way people will draw negative inferences from that. -
Crime, Immigration, Intellectual Property, Patents, SCOTUS, State Judges, Supreme Court
Today at the Supreme Court: Mistakes Were Made
What are the consequences for various kinds of screw-ups? That's the theme of today's opinions from the Supreme Court. -
Federal Circuit, Intellectual Property, Patents, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Technology
Monsanto Tells Supreme Court The True Value Of A Hill Of Beans
The Supreme Court will hear arguments to determine if secondhand seeds are worse than secondhand smoke. -
American Bar Association / ABA, Attorney Misconduct, Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Bonuses, California, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Federal Judges, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Money, Morning Docket, Munger Tolles & Olson, Partner Issues, Patents, Privacy, SCOTUS, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court, Travel / Vacation, United Kingdom / Great Britain
Morning Docket: 02.18.13
Ed. note: Due to the Presidents’ Day holiday, we will be on a reduced publication schedule today. We will be back in full swing tomorrow. We hope that you will enjoy your day off, but please feel free to lament your lack thereof in the comments.
* “[T]hey don’t want to hear nothing.” Vedel Browne, the man accused of robbing Stephen Breyer at machete-point while the justice was vacationing in his home in the Caribbean, now claims that he’s innocent, mon. [St. Kitts-Nevis Observer]
* You know what, the farmer in the Super Bowl commercial probably didn’t have to deal with bullsh*t like Monsanto’s seed patents, but today’s farmers do, and they’ll argue their case before the Supreme Court this week. [New York Times]
* “I’m a betting man. And I would bet and give odds that Sullivan & Cromwell has never said that publicly.” Who dares question S&C’s stance in the hot mess that is Herbalife? None other than Carl Icahn. [Am Law Daily]
* Here’s an important Biglaw math lesson that’s been provided to us via California-based firms like Irell & Manella, Munger Tolles, and Orrick: a little revenue minus a lot of partners equals profitability. [Recorder]
* Amid a flurry of filings on Valentine’s Day, love must’ve been a battlefield for the embattled Dewey & LeBoeuf refugees who were in desperate search of their once promised 2011 bonuses. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* From the department of things that suck: having to defend your office’s alleged “underhanded tactics” in a $150 million wrongful conviction case while you’re trying to get re-elected as district attorney. [New York Times]
* We got bitches in the office lawyerin’ on, and they ain’t leavin’ till six in the mornin’ — unless they want to be fired. An ex-Travers Smith trainee claims she was canned for leaving the firm “early”… at 6:30 a.m. [Telegraph]
* If it weren’t for Cosmo, this woman wouldn’t have known her landlord was an alleged creeper. A Maryland lawyer now faces criminal charges for allegedly filming his female tenants in the nude. [Washington Post]
* “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious!” The ABA officially put Florida A&M on notice that its law school accreditation may be in jeopardy if they don’t shape up in terms of bar passage. [Orlando Sentinel]
* What do you do the second you step off a cruise ship that’s been described as “a floating toilet, a floating petri dish, a floating hell”? You grab the very first lawyers you see, and sue! [Nation Now / Los Angeles Times]
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Intellectual Property, Patents, Technology
President Obama Admits That Patent Trolls Just Try To 'Extort' Money; Reform Needed
Now we've got the big guns working on the patent troll problem. -
Art, Bloomberg, Career Alternatives, Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property, Patents, Videos, YouTube
Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Professional Balloon Twister
From lawyer to balloon twister -- yes, like the kind of you see at children's birthday parties. But how many have twisted balloons at the White House for two presidents? -
Andrew Cuomo, B for Beauty, Biglaw, Department of Justice, FTC, Google / Search Engines, Law Schools, Morning Docket, New York Times, Patents, State Judges, Wall Street Journal
Morning Docket: 01.04.13
* The Department of Justice has reached yet another settlement in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill case, this time with Transocean Ltd. for $1.4 billion in civil and criminal penalties and fines. [National Law Journal]
* “[W]ith success comes regulatory scrutiny.” Google convinced the FTC to close its ongoing antitrust probe by promising to change its allegedly shady patent usage and purportedly skewed search terms. [Bloomberg]
* According to Littler Mendelson, federal contractors might want to consider sending out sequestration-related layoff notices to employees in order to comply with the WARN Act. America, f**k yeah! [Government Executive]
* Governor Andrew Cuomo will have a major impact on the New York Court of Appeals when appointing new judges. It could be a partisan decision, but his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, insists his son will leave politics at home. [Capital New York]
* When you write in defense of the value proposition of law school, you wind up in the op-ed pages of the NYT. When you tell the truth about it, you wind up in the opinion pages of the WSJ. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]
* Remember Danae Couch, the Texas Tech law student who was crowned as Miss Texas? She’ll compete for the Miss America title next weekend. If you’d like to help her become a finalist, you can vote for her here! [KFYO]
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Airplanes / Aviation, American Bar Association / ABA, Antitrust, Arnold & Porter, Biglaw, Confirmations, Crime, Deaths, Department of Justice, Hate Crimes, John Roberts, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Murder, Patents, SCOTUS, Student Loans, Supreme Court, Travel / Vacation, Trendspotting, Violence
Morning Docket: 01.02.13
* While Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts made a plea to keep funding for the federal judiciary intact, we learned that student loan default cases have fallen since 2011. You really gotta love that income-based repayment. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* Introducing the Asia 50, a list of the largest firms in the Asia-Pacific region. When it comes to the firms with the biggest footprints, only one American Biglaw shop made the cut. Go ahead and take a wild guess on which one it was. [Asian Lawyer]
* Congratulations are in order, because after almost a year of stalling, Arnold & Porter partner William Baer was finally confirmed by the Senate as the chief of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. [Bloomberg]
* Our elected officials might not have allowed the country to fall off the fiscal cliff, but the American Invents Act was put on hold, so if you’re a patent nerd, you can still be mad about something. [National Law Journal]
* Remember when Rutgers-Camden Law said “many top students” were making bank after graduation? Yeah, about that: Law School Transparency just filed an ABA complaint. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
* Here are some law school trends to look out for in 2013. FYI, the applicant pool is smaller because no one wants to foolishly gamble on their careers anymore. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]
* In the latest NYC subway shoving death, a woman was charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, and allegedly bragged about other hate crimes she’s committed to police. Lovely. [New York Times]
* Next time you’re trapped on a plane that’s literally filled with other people’s crap for 11 hours, don’t bother suing over your hellish experience — you’re going to be preempted by federal law. [New York Law Journal]
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Biglaw, Bonuses, Breasts, Cocaine / Crack, Drugs, Gender, General Counsel, Hotties, Litigators, Money, Morning Docket, NALP, National Association for Law Placement (NALP), Patents, Women's Issues
Morning Docket: 12.14.12
* NALP is becoming the harbinger of doom for law practice. Here’s some cheerful news: the percentage of female associates in Biglaw dropped for the third year in a row. Perhaps they’re going the way of the Clifford Chance mommy. [National Law Journal]
* Biglaw hotties are coming to a continent near you! Davis Polk & Wardwell will be adding a litigation practice to its existing shop in Hong Kong, and they managed to poach two big name Clifford Chance litigators in the process. [DealBook / New York Times]
* According to the ACC, in 2012, base salaries for general counsel rose 1.9 percent, while cash bonuses dropped 7.9 percent. But really, who’s going to complain about a six-figure bonus? [Corporate Counsel]
* A Delaware jury ruled that Apple infringed on several patents in a mobile-device technologies case filed by MobileMedia Ideas. Somewhere, Samsung’s bigwigs are laughing their asses off. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* A woman was arrested in Spain for trying to smuggle in cocaine from Colombia. Seems pretty standard, except for the fact that she was hiding the coke in brand new breast implants — three pounds of it! [CNN]
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2nd Circuit, Blogging, China, Fashion, Federal Judges, Intellectual Property, Law School Deans, Law Schools, Money, Morning Docket, Patents, S.D.N.Y., Wall Street
Morning Docket: 12.13.12
* “This is a total victory not just for the C.F.T.C., but also for financial reform.” Regulators, mount up, because you basically just got a free pass to do your jobs and keep a more watchful and vigilant eye on Wall Street. [DealBook / New York Times]
* Last year, China officially surpassed the United States in terms of the number of patent applications filed. China’s probably surpassed the United States in terms of patents infringed, but that’s neither here nor there. [National Law Journal]
* And now we see why St. Louis University School of Law’s interim dean said he’d be donating his salary to the school. He’s no “butt boy” — he’s settled $25M worth of cases since the fall. [Madison-St. Clair Record]
* “Help me, I’m poor”: the Huffington Post’s army of unpaid bloggers will continue to be unpaid, because the Second Circuit recently affirmed the S.D.N.Y.’s decision to toss out their case. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]
* Diane von Furstenberg, the fashion designer behind luxury brand DVF, is suing an ex-distributor for selling her wares on the cheap to the likes of TJ Maxx and Marshalls. Ugh, cringe… that’s très déclassé. [Bloomberg]
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Election 2012, Gender, Lindsay Lohan, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, Politics, Sexism, Tax Law
Non-Sequiturs: 12.12.12
* It’s 12/12/12. Or as rational people call it, “just another Wednesday already, God.” [ABC News] * Elizabeth Warren is going to be on the Senate Banking Committee. Boom. How ya like me now. [Reuters] * Do women make better lawyers than men? For some reason this question made me want to make a really sexist joke. But I’m afraid of being yelled at by feminists. Afraid, like a little girl. [Law Frat] * Verizon to take on copyright trolls. I hope this leads to a commercial with that Verizon 4G woman playing whack-a-mole in a sun dress. [Torrent Freak] * You know what could keep us from falling off the fiscal cliff? The death tax? Mwahahaha. [Tax Prof Blog] * SCOTUSblog is looking to hire a good law student or LL.M. student. Qualification #1: you should probably know what SCOTUS refers to. [SCOTUSblog] * Lindsey Lohan had her probation revoked. If you are one of the people who care about this story, thus necessitating this mention of it, I hope bad things happen to you this holiday season. I’m serious, if you care about Lindsey Lohan, I hope Santa brings you herpes. [TMZ]