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Supreme Court Oral Argument In Patent Case Seems To Favor Microsoft
On February 21, 2007, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp., a patent infringement action in which AT&T had prevailed in both the district court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judging by some of the questioning at oral...
Read MoreSupreme Court Ruling Leaves Issues Open Regarding Patent Licensing
On January 9, 2007, the Supreme Court issued its decision in MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., holding that a patent licensee (MedImmune in this case) has standing to sue for a declaratory judgment of invalidity, unenforceability or noninfringement of a licensor's (i.e., Genentech's) patent even...
Read MoreDistinctive Voice Characteristics Sufficient To Support Race Claims
In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Target Corp., 460 F.3d 946 (7th Cir. 2006), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Target, finding that triable issues existed as to whether the retailer failed to hire African...
Read MoreDisparate Impact Becomes Harder To Prove
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a jury finding of age discrimination premised upon alleged disparate impact in Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Lab. a/k/a KAPL Inc. , 381 F.3d 56 (2d Cir. 2004) (" Meacham I "). On remand from the United States Supreme Court, the Second Circuit reversed...
Read MoreNew York Bankruptcy Court Labels Management Bonuses An Impermissible Retention Plan
On September 5, 2006, Judge Burton R. Lifland of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York denied Dana Corporation's motion to implement an executive compensation program, ruling that the proposed program violated Section 503(c) of the Bankruptcy Code. That section,...
Read MorePremium Processing And Other Recent Developments In Employment-Based Immigration
On August 28, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting certain employment-based immigrant visa petitions for Premium Processing Service, meaning that, for an additional $1,000 fee, the cases will be adjudicated within 15 calendar days. Later, the pool of petitions...
Read MoreRecent Decisions Regarding The Whistleblower Provision Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the 'Act' or 'SOX') protects employees of public companies who report conduct they reasonably believe constitutes a violation of federal law relating to financial, securities or shareholder fraud. Recently, a number of important...
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