Case Summaries

Commercial Law

[09/01] Hollander v. Copacabana Nightclub
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action brought against several New York City nightclubs for discriminating against men on “Ladies’ Nights," dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where the nightclubs were not state actors and thus were not subject to section 1983.

[08/31] Sinoying Logistics Pte Ltd. v. Yi Da Xin Trading Corp.
In an action seeking to attach defendant's property in New York as pre-judgment security for a pending arbitration in Hong Kong, dismissal of the action for lack of personal jurisdiction is affirmed where the district court did not err in declining to fashion an equitable remedy in circumstances where it was clear that the original attachment order could not be sustained in light of Shipping Corp. of India Ltd. v. Jaldhi Overseas Pte Ltd., 585 F.3d 58 (2d Cir. 2009).

[08/30] Princo Corp. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n
In plaintiff's patent infringement suit related to two types of digital storage devices, recordable discs (CD-Rs) and rewritable compact discs (CD-RWs), claiming that defendant was violating section 337(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing CD-Rs and CD-RWs that infringed its patents, the International Trade Commission's decision that the doctrine of patent misuse does not bar intervenor-U.S. Philips Corporation from enforcing its patent rights against defendant is affirmed as, even if Phillips and Sony engaged in an agreement not to license the patent at issue for non-Orange-Book purposes, that hypothesized agreement had no bearing on the physical or temporal scope of the patents in suit, nor did it have anti-competitive effects in the relevant market. Therefore, the asserted agreement between Phillips and Sony did not constitute misuse and cannot justify rendering all of Phillips' Orange Book patents unenforceable.

[08/30] Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Chimet, S.P.A.
In Delta Airlines' suit for declaratory judgment seeking to limit its liability for losing approximately 100 kilograms of pure platinum shipped from Italy to Pennsylvania, district court's grant of defendant's motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds is affirmed as the district court did not abuse its discretion by granting defendant's motion to dismiss as the private interest factors affecting the convenience of the litigants and the public interest factors affecting the convenience of the forum weighed in favor of litigating this dispute in Italy.

[08/26] Bankston v. Then

[08/25] DPC Indus., Inc. v. Am. Int'l Specialty Lines Ins. Co.
In an action seeking additional insurance coverage against a liability insurer, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) nothing in the policy or an additional endorsement required that an insured property be actually owned or operated by the specific entity seeking coverage related to that facility; and 2) the record contained uncontradicted evidence that defendant provided indemnity coverage to plaintiff.

[08/25] Advanced Body Care Solutions, LLC v. Thione Int'l., Inc.
In an action arising out of a contract that required a company to make minimum purchases of products in exchange for an exclusive license to market and distribute them, judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the district court properly rejected plaintiff's argument that defendant's shipment of the defective ampoules breached the entire Licensing Agreement; 2) because the Licensing Agreement did not clearly express that the listed remedies were the exclusive remedies available to defendant, regardless of what the parties' intentions may have been, the Agreement did not effectively limit defendant's remedies; and 3) the jury's verdict, which did not exceed the amount of defendant's expert's calculations, was neither against the great weight of the evidence nor excessive.

[08/25] Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. v. St. Paul
In a First Amendment action against the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, after the St. Paul City Council enacted an ordinance prohibiting all billboard extensions, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where a refusal to remand in this situation simply retained the status quo and allowed the City to begin its legislative process anew.

[08/24] Rexam Beverage Can Co. v. Bolger
In a commercial landlord-tenant dispute involving at a warehouse with a leaky roof, the replacement of which both landlord and tenant denied was their responsibility, judgment in favor of defendant-landlord on his counterclaim on several Illinois state law grounds is affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded where: 1) a conclusion that tenant was contractually bound to replace the roof of the warehouse is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded; 2) district court's award of $405,470 in damages for tenant's failure to replace the roof is affirmed; and 3) district court's Holdover Statute award of $1,156,232.24 is vacated and remanded for a determination of the fair market net rental value of the property and the assessment of a penalty equal to double that value for the duration of the tenant's holdover.

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Contracts

[09/02] Travelers Prop. Cas. Ins. Co. of Am. v. Nat'l. Union Ins. Co.
In an action by one insurer against another seeking $10 million in subrogation proceeds, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where plaintiff waived certain rights by refusing repeated invitations to participate in subrogation discussions. However, the judgment is reversed in part where, as the excess insurer, plaintiff was entitled to a priority interest in the subrogation proceeds representing insured losses.

[09/02] Bodum USA, Inc. v. La Cafetiere, Inc.
In a suit for common law trade dress of a French-press coffee maker known as the Chambord, district court's judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed as, Article 4 of the parties' contract is clear and precise as it allows defendant to sell the coffee maker design anywhere except France - provided that it does not use the Chambord or Melior names and does not use plaintiff's supply channels for four years.

[09/02] Atlantic Nat'l Trust LLC v. Mt. Hawley Ins. Co.
In an action seeking insurance proceeds arising from a fire, defendants' appeal from the grant of plaintiff's motion to remand is dismissed where the court lacked appellate jurisdiction to review a federal district court order remanding a case to state court based on a ground colorably characterized as a "defect" for purposes of 28 U.S.C. section 1447(c).

[09/01] US ex rel. SNAPP v. Ford Motor Co.
District court's denial of plaintiff's motion to file a second amended complaint concluding that the proposed amended complaint, which included a list of contracts that the government allegedly entered into as a result of fraudulent representations on the part of Ford, did not allege with sufficient particularity the existence of a "claim" as defined by the False Claims Act (FCA), is affirmed as, because no holding of Bledsoe II affected the circuit's law on the questions at issue before the district court, the district court did not abuse its discretion in holding that its original rationale for not permitting plaintiff to file its second amended complaint pursuant to Rule 59(e) still obtained and that permitting such a filing was not otherwise "required in order to prevent an injustice."

[09/01] Smith v. Selma Cmty. Hosp.
In plaintiff's successful suit against a hospital to have his hospital privileges reinstated, trial court's denial of his motion for attorney fees is reversed and remanded where: 1) when the conditions contained in section 809.9 are shown, the prevailing party is entitled to attorney fees; 2) the statutory phrase "frivolous, unreasonable, without foundation, or in bad faith," set forth separate grounds for an award of attorney fees; 3) the terms "frivolous," "unreasonable" and "without foundation" are objective standards that might overlap; 4) the term "bad faith" is a subjective standard concerned with a defendant's motives for defending or litigating a lawsuit; and 5) because a defendant's subjective state of mind is usually proven by circumstantial evidence, a defendant's prelitigaton conduct and postlitigation conduct are relevant evidence from which inferences can be drawn regarding its motives in defending or litigating a lawsuit.

[09/01] Hinerfeld-Ward, Inc. v. Lipian
In a general contractor's suit against homeowners for breach of oral contract, quantum meruit, wrongful withholding of progress payments, and related cause of action, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed as, the oral contract was enforceable and the contractor is entitled to attorney fees for the homeowners' delay in making progress payments.

[08/31] Hayes Lemmerz Int'l, Inc. v. ACE Am. Ins. Co.
In an employer's suit against its insurer for refusing to tender defense in an underlying suit under its workers' compensation and employer liability policy, judgment of the district court in favor of the insurer is affirmed as, because defendant was, by virtue of Indiana law, a joint employer, insurer was contractually obligated to reimburse the reasonable expense of defendant's getting itself dismissed from the tort suit. However, because the defendant is not claiming that insurer refused to pay that amount, but rather, it is complaining that the insurer breached its duty to defend by failing to advise defendant that it's law firm was not defending the suit properly, the insurer had no duty to provide its insured's lawyers with legal advice.

[08/31] Sinoying Logistics Pte Ltd. v. Yi Da Xin Trading Corp.
In an action seeking to attach defendant's property in New York as pre-judgment security for a pending arbitration in Hong Kong, dismissal of the action for lack of personal jurisdiction is affirmed where the district court did not err in declining to fashion an equitable remedy in circumstances where it was clear that the original attachment order could not be sustained in light of Shipping Corp. of India Ltd. v. Jaldhi Overseas Pte Ltd., 585 F.3d 58 (2d Cir. 2009).

[08/31] Force Framing, Inc. v. Chinatrust Bank
In plaintiff's suit against defendant-lender for a bonded stop notice, trial court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment because plaintiff served the statutorily required 20-day preliminary notice on another lender, and not defendant, is reversed where: 1) the trial court erred when it granted summary judgment because there is a triable issue of fact regarding the reasonableness of plaintiff's belief that another lender was the lender for the project; 2) defendant's argument that plaintiff could not have held a good faith belief that the other lender was the actual lender because plaintiff did not check the county records for the deed of trust that the lender recorded in 2005 is rejected; and 3) the court is not persuaded that, as a matter of law, pursuant to Kodiak, plaintiff had constructive notice that defendant was the actual lender and could not have held a good faith belief that the other lender was the actual lender.

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Copyright

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Dispute Resolution & Arbitration

[08/31] Cent. States Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. O'Neil Bros. Transfer & Storage Co.
In a multi-employer pension fund administrator's suit against an employer seeking interim payment of withdrawal liability under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, district court's grant of summary judgment for administrator is affirmed as defendant's default is governed by the provisions of 29 U.S.C. section 1399(c)(5)(B), and under that section, as interpreted reasonably by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the entire amount of the withdrawal payment is immediately payable upon default and that obligation is not deferred because of the pendency of arbitration.

[08/31] Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy v. Universal Paragon Corp.
In defendant's suit against a law firm, claiming that an arbitrator's award of $7,554,149.13 in attorney fees and expenses for the law firm, related to its representation of defendant in an underlying complex environmental litigation, is unconscionable and violates public policy, superior court's affirmance of the award is affirmed as, assuming that defendant's claim of unconscionability is subject to judicial review as a predicate for determining whether the arbitration award violates public policy, the claim is rejected on the merits as neither the fee agreement nor the award actually issued by the arbitrator is unconscionable under rule 4-200 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

[08/30] Next Step Med. Co., Inc. v. Johnson & Johnson Int'l

[08/30] Critzer v. Enos
In plaintiffs' suit against a homeowners association (HOA), and a property owner and its successor in interest, involving a dispute concerning a window installed in defendant-property owner's upstairs bathroom, trial court's order enforcing the parties' settlement is reversed where: 1) the order enforcing the settlement finally determined the rights of the parties, and therefore, the order is amended to include an appealable judgment; and 2) because there was neither an oral settlement all parties personally agreed upon, nor a written settlement signed by all of the parties, the court lacked authority under the summary procedure of section 664.6 to enforce any settlement.

[08/26] Bank of Am., N.A. v. UMB Fin. Servs., Inc.
In an appeal from a series of orders in which the district court declined to compel plaintiff to submit to arbitration and declined to stay litigation pending the outcome of such arbitration, the orders are affirmed where: 1) plaintiff never signed an agreement containing an arbitration clause, and the document plaintiff did sign, the employment agreement, did not incorporate the arbitration clause of the FINRA contracts by reference or otherwise; and 2) the court need not reach the question of waiver since the district court properly determined there was no existing right to arbitration in this case.

[08/25] Teamsters Local Union No. 89 v. Kroger Co.
In a union's suit against an employer to compel arbitration for violating the parties' collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by subcontracting out operations to third parties employing non-union members, a grant of union's motion for summary judgment is affirmed where: 1) neither defendant's subcontracting nor the parties' execution of the Letter of Understanding demonstrates an intent to exclude union's subcontracting grievances from arbitration under the agreement; and 2) defendant has failed to rebut the presumption in favor of arbitrability and the district court correctly compelled arbitration.

[08/23] Ruiz v. Podolsky
In a medical malpractice and wrongful death suit brought by decedent's wife and children against an orthopedic surgeon and other health care providers, judgment of the court of appeal is reversed and remanded as, in accordance with the intent of the Legislature that enacted Code of Civil Procedure section 1295 and related statutes, all wrongful death claimants are bound by arbitration agreements entered into pursuant to section 1295, at least when, as here, the language of the agreement manifests an intent to bind these claimants.

[08/19] Radford v. Shehorn
In defendant's motion to enforce a settlement agreement against the plaintiff, arising from plaintiff's petition in probate court challenging the defendant's distribution of trust assets established by their parents, trial court's conclusion that the first page of the two-page settlement was part of the agreement in granting the motion to enforce the settlement is affirmed as, although the trial court erred in admitting the mediator's declaration into evidence, the error was harmless as there is no reasonable probability that plaintiff would have obtained a more favorable result in the absence of the error in admitting the mediator's declaration.

[08/17] Greenwood Corp. v. CompuCredit Corp.
The order of the district court denying certain credit providers' motion to compel arbitration is affirmed where the district court correctly concluded that the arbitration agreement was void because the Credit Repair Organization Act (CROA) specifically prohibited provisions disallowing any waiver of a consumer's right to sue in court for CROA violations.

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International Law

[09/02] Bodum USA, Inc. v. La Cafetiere, Inc.
In a suit for common law trade dress of a French-press coffee maker known as the Chambord, district court's judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed as, Article 4 of the parties' contract is clear and precise as it allows defendant to sell the coffee maker design anywhere except France - provided that it does not use the Chambord or Melior names and does not use plaintiff's supply channels for four years.

[09/02] Bakalar v. Vavra
In an action seeking a declaration that plaintiff was the owner of a drawing by Egon Schiele, judgment for plaintiff is vacated where: 1) although it is unclear whether a cause of action comparable to the counterclaims of defendants could be successfully brought in Austria, allowing the claims to go forward under New York law was consistent with the principles underlying the decision of the Supreme Court of Austria; and 2) the district judge, by applying Swiss Law, erred in placing the burden of proof on defendants to show that the Nazis looted the drawing.

[09/01] Funai Elec. Co., Ltd. v. Daewoo Elec. Corp.
In a patent infringement suit pertaining to various electrical and mechanical components of video cassette players and recorders (VCRs), judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment of infringement of three patents and the damages for the infringement are affirmed; and 2) district court's determination of no successor liability in applying the South Korean law is reversed and remanded.

[08/30] Lechoslaw v. Bank of America
In plaintiff's suit against a bank for damages, claiming that a four-and-a-half month delay in receiving his $31,787.34 disrupted the construction of a motel and restaurant in Poland and caused him severe emotional distress, judgment of the district court is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff has failed to meet his burden of proving that the Bank in Poland met the requirements for the exercise of personal jurisdiction, and trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the Bank did not waive its defense of lack of personal jurisdiction; 2) there was no abuse of discretion on the facts in the court's exclusion of the statement as offered against Bank of America (BoA); 3) there was no evidence that BoA violated chapter 93A in any of its dealings with plaintiff, and the district court properly entered judgment in its favor; and 4) it was not an abuse of discretion for the courts not to reopen discovery according to the Hague Convention.

[08/30] Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Chimet, S.P.A.
In Delta Airlines' suit for declaratory judgment seeking to limit its liability for losing approximately 100 kilograms of pure platinum shipped from Italy to Pennsylvania, district court's grant of defendant's motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds is affirmed as the district court did not abuse its discretion by granting defendant's motion to dismiss as the private interest factors affecting the convenience of the litigants and the public interest factors affecting the convenience of the forum weighed in favor of litigating this dispute in Italy.

[08/24] Karpenko v. Leendertz
In a child custody dispute, a grant of a mother's petition for the child's return under the Hague Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is affirmed and the minor child's immediate return to her mother in the Netherlands is ordered where: 1) the district court's findings of fact were not clearly erroneous; and 2) the application of the unclean hands doctrine would undermine the Hague Convention's goal of protecting the well-being of the child, of restoring the status quo before the child's abduction, and of ensuring that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting States.

[08/17] City of N.Y. v. Permanent Mission of India to the U.N.
In an action by New York City against certain foreign missions for unpaid property taxes, a denial of defendants' motion to dismiss is reversed where the Notice issued by the Department of State was a lawful exercise of the Department's authority under the Foreign Missions Act, and the Notice operated in this case to render appellants exempt from the property taxes imposed by the City, and so nullified the City's existing tax liens against appellants.

[08/16] OSS Nokalva, Inc. v. European Space Agency
In a software corporation's suit against the European Space Agency (ESA), for breach of contract relating to license agreements and corresponding software maintenance agreements, district court's judgment is affirmed based on reasons other than those relied on by the district court as, in light of the "same immunity" language in the International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA), it is unreasonable to assume that those international organizations that were established under the IOIA after foreign sovereign immunity had been altered by the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) would still be subject to that level of immunity enjoyed by foreign governments and international organizations in 1945. Therefore, ESA is not entitled to immunity as it stood for foreign sovereigns in 1945.

[08/12] Thai I-Mei Frozen Foods Co., Ltd. v. US
In an anti-dumping duty case, involving frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Thailand, the Court of International Trade's decision reversing and remanding Commerce's first remand determination is reversed as Commerce's statement of a general preference for exclusion of sales outside the ordinary course of trade where, as here, the date are for like products sold by other respondents, is reasonable. Thus, Commerce reasonably determined that in this case, where such data were readily available, and indeed had been used for the other two respondents, it was reasonable to make its determination excluding sales outside the ordinary course of trade.

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International Trade

[08/30] Princo Corp. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n
In plaintiff's patent infringement suit related to two types of digital storage devices, recordable discs (CD-Rs) and rewritable compact discs (CD-RWs), claiming that defendant was violating section 337(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing CD-Rs and CD-RWs that infringed its patents, the International Trade Commission's decision that the doctrine of patent misuse does not bar intervenor-U.S. Philips Corporation from enforcing its patent rights against defendant is affirmed as, even if Phillips and Sony engaged in an agreement not to license the patent at issue for non-Orange-Book purposes, that hypothesized agreement had no bearing on the physical or temporal scope of the patents in suit, nor did it have anti-competitive effects in the relevant market. Therefore, the asserted agreement between Phillips and Sony did not constitute misuse and cannot justify rendering all of Phillips' Orange Book patents unenforceable.

[08/27] Gen. Protecht Group, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n
The International Trade Commission's determination that the importation into the United States of certain ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, in issuing limited exclusion orders against the importation of GFCI products from the petitioners and judgment finding that these products infringe the '340 patent is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) GPG's 2003 and 2006 FCIs and ELE's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '340 patent, because they do not have a "detection circuit" as claimed in the patent; 2) Trimone's 2006 GFCIs and ELE's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '340 patent because the "load terminals" of the patent do not include receptacle outlets; 3) GPG's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '398 patent because GPG performs the function of the "latching means" in a substantially different way than the structure disclosed in the patent; and 4) the Commission's determination is affirmed in all other respects.

[08/27] Pass & Seymour, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n.
In plaintiff's suit against various defendants claiming infringement of its patents related to circuit interrupters for use with household electrical appliances, the International Trade Commission's judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed as, because the accused products at issue here do not meet the "mounting means" limitation as properly construed, and thus do not meet every limitation of the asserted claims, there can be no infringement. Accordingly, Commission's finding of no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is affirmed.

[08/19] Leisure Caviar, LLC v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv.
In plaintiff's suit against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and two of its employees in their official capacities, claiming that the agency failed to act on a timely basis on five permit applications for permission to export 4074.05 pounds of roe worth approximately $500,000, district court's denial of plaintiffs' Rule 59 motion to alter the order dismissing their suit is affirmed as a claimant who seeks to amend a complaint after losing the case must provide a compelling explanation to the district court for granting the motion, and here, the district court did not exceed its discretion in concluding that plaintiffs provided nothing of the sort.

[08/12] Thai I-Mei Frozen Foods Co., Ltd. v. US
In an anti-dumping duty case, involving frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Thailand, the Court of International Trade's decision reversing and remanding Commerce's first remand determination is reversed as Commerce's statement of a general preference for exclusion of sales outside the ordinary course of trade where, as here, the date are for like products sold by other respondents, is reasonable. Thus, Commerce reasonably determined that in this case, where such data were readily available, and indeed had been used for the other two respondents, it was reasonable to make its determination excluding sales outside the ordinary course of trade.

[07/21] Forestal Guarani S.A. v. Daros Int'l, Inc.
In an Argentinian corporation's breach of contract suit against a New Jersey corporation under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, district court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment is vacated and remanded where: 1) the district court incorrectly concluded that Argentina's declaration, opting out of the provision in the Convention allowing a contract to be proved even if it was not in writing, imposed a writing requirements and that the absence of a written contract in this case precluded the plaintiff's claim; and 2) where, as here, one party's country of incorporation has made a declaration while the other's has not, a court must first decide, based on the forum state's choice-of-law rules, which forum's law applies, and then apply the law of the forum designated by the choice-of-law analysis.

[07/16] Micei Int'l v. Dep't of Comm.
In a petition for review of the Department of Commerce's order sanctioning petitioner for alleged violations of export regulations, the petition is dismissed where, because the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not contain a direct review provision, review jurisdiction resided as a first matter in federal district court.

[07/08] Natural Resources Def. Council v. US Dep't of Agric.
In an action claiming that the Department of Agriculture failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Plant Protection Act when it adopted new regulations for the importation of unmanufactured wood packaging material into the United States, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where defendants considered all reasonable alternatives to the proposed rule, and did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in adopting a rule providing for either heat treatment or fumigation with methyl bromide of the wood material prior to importation.

[07/06] Diamond Sawblades Mfr. Coation v. US
In an antidumping case involving diamond sawblades and related parts from Korea and China, decisions of the Court of International Trade are affirmed where: 1) the Court of International Trade did not abuse its discretion when it ordered remand for further consideration an original Commission determination that there was neither material injury nor threat of material injury to the domestic diamond sawblade industry; and 2) the Commission's affirmative finding that imports of sawblades and parts from China and Korea pose a threat of material injury to the domestic industry is affirmed as the Court of International Trade correctly found that the Commission's determination on remand was supported by substantial evidence.

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Trade Secrets

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Trademark

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Intellectual Property

[09/02] Bodum USA, Inc. v. La Cafetiere, Inc.
In a suit for common law trade dress of a French-press coffee maker known as the Chambord, district court's judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed as, Article 4 of the parties' contract is clear and precise as it allows defendant to sell the coffee maker design anywhere except France - provided that it does not use the Chambord or Melior names and does not use plaintiff's supply channels for four years.

[09/02] Bouchat v. Baltimore Ravens Ltd, P'Ship
In plaintiff's copyright infringement suit against the Baltimore Ravens football organization and National Football League entities for their unauthorized copying of a Ravens team logo, drawn by plaintiff, that was used for three seasons as the team's official symbol, district court's determination that defendants' depictions of the logo in season highlight films and in the Ravens corporate lobby were fair use, in entering judgment against the plaintiff is reversed in part, affirmed in part and remanded where: 1) because defendants cannot establish a fair use defense for the depictions of the logo in the highlight films, where the logo use is nontransformative and commercial, district court's judgment on this matter is reversed; 2) defendants' claim that plaintiff's request for injunctive relief against these acts of infringement is precluded is rejected and on remand, district court is directed to consider whether an injunction is appropriate; and 3) district court's finding of fair use as to the depictions of the logo in the Ravens corporate lobby, where team history is portrayed, free of charge, is affirmed.

[09/01] Eli Lilly & Co. v. Teva Pharm. USA, Inc.
In a patent infringement suit related to a drug for postmenopausal osteoporosis, judgment of the district court is affirmed where: 1) the record amply supports the district court's conclusion that the ordinary artisan would not have considered it obvious to use raloxifene to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis; 2) because the district court's conclusion that the Bone Loss Patents would not have been obvious, its conclusion as to the Low Dose Patent is affirmed as well; 3) district court did not err in concluding that the Bone Loss Patents and the Low Dose Patents were not invalid for lack of enablement; 4) the district court did not clearly err in invalidating the asserted claims of the Particle Size Patents for lack of written description.

[09/01] Funai Elec. Co., Ltd. v. Daewoo Elec. Corp.
In a patent infringement suit pertaining to various electrical and mechanical components of video cassette players and recorders (VCRs), judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment of infringement of three patents and the damages for the infringement are affirmed; and 2) district court's determination of no successor liability in applying the South Korean law is reversed and remanded.

[08/31] Stauffer v. Brooks Bros. Inc.
In plaintiff's qui tam action against Brooks Brothers under 35 U.S.C. section 292, claiming that defendants falsely marked its bow ties, district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claim for lack of standing and denial of government's motion to intervene is reversed where: 1) plaintiff had standing as he has sufficient alleged (i) an injury in fact to the United States that (ii) is caused by Brooks Brothers' alleged conduct, attaching the markings to its bow ties, and (iii) is likely to be redressed, with a statutory fine, by a favorable decision; and 2) the district court made an error of law in denying the government's motion to intervene under Rule 24(a)(2).

[08/30] Princo Corp. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n
In plaintiff's patent infringement suit related to two types of digital storage devices, recordable discs (CD-Rs) and rewritable compact discs (CD-RWs), claiming that defendant was violating section 337(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing CD-Rs and CD-RWs that infringed its patents, the International Trade Commission's decision that the doctrine of patent misuse does not bar intervenor-U.S. Philips Corporation from enforcing its patent rights against defendant is affirmed as, even if Phillips and Sony engaged in an agreement not to license the patent at issue for non-Orange-Book purposes, that hypothesized agreement had no bearing on the physical or temporal scope of the patents in suit, nor did it have anti-competitive effects in the relevant market. Therefore, the asserted agreement between Phillips and Sony did not constitute misuse and cannot justify rendering all of Phillips' Orange Book patents unenforceable.

[08/30] Ajaxo Inc. v. E*Trade Fin. Corp.
In plaintiff's suit against E*Trade Financial Corporation (E*Trade) for misappropriation of trade secrets under the California Uniform Trade Secret Act, trial court's denial of plaintiff's request for award of reasonable royalties is reversed and remanded where: 1) given the jury's finding that E*Trade did not profit from its misappropriation of trade secrets, unjust enrichment is not "provable" within the meaning of section 3426.3; 2) since E*Trade had consistently and successfully taken the position that plaintiff's actual losses are not provable, E*Trade is estopped from arguing otherwise now; and 3) because neither actual loss nor unjust enrichment is provable, the trial court had discretion pursuant to section 3426.3(b) to order payment of a reasonable royalty.

[08/27] Gen. Protecht Group, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n
The International Trade Commission's determination that the importation into the United States of certain ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) violated section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, in issuing limited exclusion orders against the importation of GFCI products from the petitioners and judgment finding that these products infringe the '340 patent is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) GPG's 2003 and 2006 FCIs and ELE's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '340 patent, because they do not have a "detection circuit" as claimed in the patent; 2) Trimone's 2006 GFCIs and ELE's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '340 patent because the "load terminals" of the patent do not include receptacle outlets; 3) GPG's 2006 GFCIs do not infringe the '398 patent because GPG performs the function of the "latching means" in a substantially different way than the structure disclosed in the patent; and 4) the Commission's determination is affirmed in all other respects.

[08/27] Pass & Seymour, Inc. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n.
In plaintiff's suit against various defendants claiming infringement of its patents related to circuit interrupters for use with household electrical appliances, the International Trade Commission's judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed as, because the accused products at issue here do not meet the "mounting means" limitation as properly construed, and thus do not meet every limitation of the asserted claims, there can be no infringement. Accordingly, Commission's finding of no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 is affirmed.

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