The Third Circuit has now joined the D.C. Circuit in finding that the National Labor Relations Board lacks authority to act because one of its members was not properly appointed:
We hold that “the Recess of the Senate” in the Recess Appointments Clause refers to only intersession breaks. As a consequence, we conclude that the National [...]
A U.K. appeals court dismissed a libel lawsuit from Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), a maker of electric vehicles led by billionaire Elon Musk, against the British Broadcasting Corp. show “Top Gear.”
The court rejected Tesla’s appeal of last year’s decision to strike out its “libel and malicious falsehood” case against the BBC. The Palo Alto, California-based [...]
The Court finds that the ordinance fails to provide due process guarantees to any person
receiving a Notice of Liability, from The Village of Elmwood Place. … [W]hen a speed monitoring device records a violation, a motorist is mailed a Notice of Liability. If the owner of the vehicle wants to contest the liability. he or [...]
Interesting opinion by retired Justice Srikrishna of the Supreme Court of India holding that:
[A]n employee in-house counsel [in India] rendering advice even on matters of law, however valuable, does not qualify to be a “legal professional adviser” within the meaning of Section 129 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. There would thus be no privilege [...]
Was this an attempt to avoid the prior art effect of author’s paper on a patent application(s):
We regret to inform that the published paper included a few parts that disclosed confidential information which should have been protected under patent law. We admit that the request for retraction is due to the indiscretion of the authors, [...]
[T]wice in the [Supreme] [C]ourt’s history cameras [have] g[otten] in. It was stealthy and illicit, but two rogue photographers managed to capture what few have seen—the justices at work.
…
In 1932, photojournalist Erich Salomon sneaked a camera into a Supreme Court argument, being held in what was known as “The Old Senate Chambers.” To pull [...]
Source: Brian Boychuk and Ron Boychuk, Robertson v. Acme Coffee Co., Chuckle Bros (Sept. 13, 2012).
Revision 9 of the 8th Edition of the MPEP is out.
The Second Circuit’s decision in Christian Louboutin S.A. v. Yves St. Laurent Am. Holdings, Inc. gives a partial win to both Christian Louboutin and Yves St. Laurent:
We [] conclude that Louboutin’s trademark, consisting of a red, lacquered outsole on a high fashion woman’s shoe, has acquired limited “secondary meaning” as a distinctive symbol that identifies [...]
Source: Brian Boychuk and Ron Boychuk, Highest Court, Chuckle Bros (June 7, 2012).