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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three companies that send child support payments to recipients filed a notice of appeal in California federal court on Dec. 9 stating they are appealing the court’s $7.6 million restitution award against them in favor of a certified class of child support recipients, who the court found were charged 50-cent service fees for making customer support phone calls in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida on Dec. 9 granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss insureds’ lawsuit seeking full coverage for their flood damage caused by Hurricane Ian, concluding that the lawsuit is time-barred.
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority on Dec. 9 reversed a lower federal court’s order that granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law in its declaratory judgment lawsuit arising from a spinal cord injury that occurred at its insureds’ home, ruling there was a legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a jury to determine that the spinal injury did not arise out of the use of a controlled substance and, therefore, the policy’s controlled substance exclusion does not bar coverage.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state judge declared a mistrial after jurors indicated that they could not reach a unanimous verdict after deliberating for weeks in a case brought by Florida hospitals accusing pharmacies of contributing to the opioid crisis through their company policies.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 9 reversed a decision from the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) rejecting a coffee company’s application for a trademark on the name “Kahwa” as the name of coffee shops; the panel said there was no evidence in the record that the word for a type of tea would be understood by customers as a generic term for coffee shops.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying that now is the time for the U.S. Supreme Court to address a question it has thrice declined to consider — and acknowledging that the position it now takes represents a change from its historical one — the U.S. government on Dec. 9 filed an amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant a certiorari petition that asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware did not err in granting judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of noninfringement in a declaratory judgment patent case brought by Shopify Inc. against a patent holder, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, agreeing that the patent holder failed to show that an element of Shopify’s user interface (UI) met certain claim limitations.
AUSTIN, Texas— The Texas Supreme Court denied a homeowners insurer’s petition for a writ of mandamus in a subrogation suit stemming from a roofing contractor’s defective work, refusing to disturb a trial court’s decision to set aside a default judgment and final judgment by default entered against the roofing contractor.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Ohio correctly granted judgment as a matter of law to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. because no reasonable jury could have found that the plaintiffs/appellants should have been added as inventors to one of Goodyear’s patents on a self-inflating tire, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Dec. 8.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A trial court’s dismissal of a putative class claim that a movie theater chain violated the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) was affirmed by an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 8, which concluded that although the chain shares certain consumer information with Meta Platforms Inc., it does not qualify as a video tape service provider (VTSP) under the statute.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 8, applying a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling on certified questions of law regarding the arbitrability of insurance disputes, affirmed a lower court’s denial of domestic insurers’ motion to compel arbitration of a Louisiana town’s claims for damages, breach of contract and bad faith after finding that the participation of foreign insurers in the policy does not require the court to apply the New York Convention.