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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held on Aug. 29 that a District of Columbia federal judge did not err in finding that a prolific patent applicant’s applications were barred under the doctrine of prosecution laches, rejecting as forfeited the inventor’s argument that a 1992 decision by the Board of Patent Appeals and Inferences showed he had no reason to change his method of prosecuting the applications.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived a copyright infringement dispute between two writers of Catholic liturgical music, partly reversing an Oregon federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant-appellee songwriter and her publisher because questions of fact remain as to whether the defendant songwriter had access to the plaintiff-appellant’s hymn.
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 2 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of Arizona Beverages USA LLC in its breach of contract lawsuit against its insurer, finding that the full amount of the insured’s $552,573.25 audit expenses arising from damage caused by a power surge is covered under the insurance policy’s Extra Expense provision.
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas law concerning proxy advisers’ consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG), diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and sustainability factors that otherwise went into effect Sept. 1 will not be enforced against two proxy advisory firms under preliminary injunctions that a Texas federal judge granted Aug. 29.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge on Aug. 29 granted summary judgment in favor of a tobacco company and several retailers and vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s final rule requiring graphic warnings on all tobacco products pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) after finding FDA’s “failure to disclose the raw data for its studies” violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 29 ruled that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) satisfied the requirements of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) when it drafted a program for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and, therefore, environmental groups’ challenge to the offshore leasing program in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) failed.
NEW YORK — A long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities would be resolved under a proposed $332 million settlement that the 1,177-member class of retirees partly unveiled Aug. 29 in a New York federal court.
CINCINNATI — Two female college students who brought a putative class complaint against their school over the way in which their reports of being raped by other students were handled failed to show disparate treatment, a divided Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the case.
NEW YORK — A split panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that investors plausibly alleged Peloton Interactive Inc. and its executives stated two actionable material misstatements, vacating in part a lower court’s dismissal of the investors’ stock-drop suit against the company and executives.
OMAHA, Neb. — A trial court judge erred in granting partial dismissal and summary judgment to a railway accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of creating a hostile work environment for a female employee as well as a class of similarly situated female workers, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Aug. 28, opining that a heightened pleading standard was applied in error when dismissing the claims of the class of women and that genuine issues of material fact should have prevented the summary judgment ruling.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court on Aug. 28 affirmed a lower court’s order dismissing a fraud, negligence and breach of contract suit filed by one driver against another driver and insurers for purported damages incurred in a motor vehicle accident, finding that the plaintiff’s assignments of error lack merit because service of process was not adequately made on the individual defendant within one year of filing the complaint as required by the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure.