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Court weighs whether to restrict 'business method' patents
Legal Career News | 2008/05/09 14:12
Is a baseball pitcher's method for throwing a curveball patentable? How about a chiropractor's techniques?

A federal appeals court wrestled with those kinds of questions Thursday when it considered placing restrictions on patent protections for business practices. The case under review is being closely watched by financial services and software companies.

The number of patents on tax preparation strategies, investment techniques and other business methods has surged since 1998, when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opened the door to such claims.

That increase has led to widespread criticism that many of the patents, including one about how to teach golf lessons, are frivolous and spur excessive litigation.

The Federal Circuit said in February that it would reconsider its decade-old decision in a case that many patent experts say is one of the most important in years. Depending on how broadly the court rules, the case could make it harder for investment banks and software companies to patent their products.



LA judge rules in favor of Notorious B.I.G.'s family
Court Feed News | 2008/05/09 10:14
A judge has reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit March 21 after determining the family missed a state deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, then moved to federal court.

The family appealed, and the judge reversed her decision after finding federal claims in the case can proceed, according to court papers obtained Thursday.

Cooper gave the family 20 days to file a new lawsuit and drop the state claims.

B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down March 9, 1997, while leaving a party at a Los Angeles museum. The 24-year-old performer's killing remains unsolved.

Two wrongful death lawsuits were filed against the city on behalf of the rapper's widow, mother and two children.

The first lawsuit, filed in 2002, alleges wrongful death and civil rights violations. It ended in a mistrial in 2005. The case remains active, with the judge allowing the family to amend the lawsuit because of newly discovered evidence.

Cooper's recent ruling involved the secondary lawsuit, which contends that rogue police officers conspired to kill Wallace and that the Police Department covered up their involvement.



Judge grants class action status in Kraft pay case
Class Action News | 2008/05/09 09:16
Employees of Kraft Foods have been given class action status for their lawsuit seeking pay for time spent putting on and taking off safety equipment.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb says current and former hourly employees who worked at the company's Oscar Mayer meat processing plant in Madison since May 2004 can take part. Crabb says the group includes at least 1,000 workers.

The workers claim the company is breaking the law by refusing to pay them for time spent donning and doffing equipment like protective boots, hard hats and ear muffs. Workers must go to the plant's third floor before and after shifts to do so. The company argues those activities do not qualify for pay and is fighting the lawsuit.


Bush nominates Va. judge to fill vacancy on 4th Circuit
Headline News | 2008/05/09 08:14
A federal judge in Virginia is President Bush's pick to fill one of several vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, widely viewed as the most conservative federal appellate bench in the country.

The White House announced Thursday that Bush had nominated Glen E. Conrad to the Richmond, Va.-based appeals court, which has handled some of the country's biggest terrorism cases.

Conrad has been a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia since 2003.

If confirmed by the Senate, Conrad would fill the seat of H. Emory Widener Jr., who died last year.

Conrad, 58, a native of Radford, Va., is a 1974 graduate of the College of William and Mary and the Marshall Wythe School of Law. From 1976 to 2003, Conrad was a federal magistrate judge in the Western District of Virginia's Abingdon, Charlottesville and Roanoke divisions.



High court says gay partners can't get health benefits
Lawyer Blog News | 2008/05/08 15:58
A same-sex marriage ban prevents governments and universities in Michigan from providing health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The 5-2 decision affects up to 20 universities, community colleges, school districts and governments in Michigan with policies covering at least 375 gay couples.

Gay rights advocates said the ruling was devastating but were confident that public-sector employers have successfully rewritten or will revise their benefit plans so same-sex partners can keep getting health care.

The ban, a constitutional amendment approved in November 2004, says the union between a man and woman is the only agreement recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose."

The court ruled that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren't identical, they are similar because they're the only relationships in Michigan defined in terms of gender and lack of a close blood connection.



Senate Democrats seek to tax oil companies
Lawyer News | 2008/05/08 15:00
Senate Democrats called Wednesday for a limited windfall profits tax on the largest oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package that also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging.

Senate Republicans strongly oppose those measures, which are widely viewed as having little chance of being enacted. Even then, they would almost certainly prompt a veto by President Bush.

The 25 percent windfall profits tax would apply only to oil companies that "fail to invest in increased (production) capacity and renewable energy sources," according to a summary of the proposals released by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office.

The energy proposals also seek to halt deliveries of oil into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve until oil prices drop to $75 a barrel.



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