Category Archives: Litigation

Treatise Update: Post-Grant Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Post-Grant Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board guides readers through the process of initiating a post-grant proceeding, taking discovery, seeking sanctions, proposing and opposing claim amendments, effectively advocating at the oral hearing, appealing to the Federal Circuit, and handling a wide array of issues involving co-pending district court litigation.

Updates from Release #10 include:

  • In Chapter 2, the section on Claim construction discusses changes to the PTAB standard for petitions filed after November 13, 2018, from the broadest reasonable interpretation standard to the Phillips v. AWH Corp. standard used in civil actions and at the International Trade Commission. See § 2:5, at note 57.
  • In Chapter 3, a section on Standing—real party in interest discusses Applications in Internet Time, LLC v. RPX Corp., in which the Federal Circuit held that “the focus of the real-party-in-interest inquiry is on the patentability of the claims challenged in the IPR petition, bearing in mind who will benefit from having those claims canceled or invalidated.” See § 3:2.3[A], at note 46.
  • In Chapter 3, the section called Joinder discusses the first case to be taken up by the PTAB’s Precedential Opinion Panel, which determined that, under appropriate and limited circumstances, a petitioner may join its own previously instituted IPR to request joinder and institution of new issues (Proppant Express Investments, LLC v. Oren Technology, LLC). See § 3:6, at note 193.
  • In Chapter 8, Amendments to claims discusses the notice of proposed rulemaking put forth by the USPTO on October 21, 2019. See § 8:3.1, at note 99.
  • In Chapter 8, under the section Inter partes review—timelines, a new figure 8-1 depicts the anticipated trial flow of an inter partes review proceeding, depending on whether or not a second, revised motion to amend is filed by the patent owner. See § 8:3.1.
  • Chapter 14, Appeals to the Federal Circuit includes updated information on the number of PTO appeals filed in the CAFC. See § 14:1, at note 2.

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Treatise Update! Directors’ and Officers’ Liability: Current Law, Recent Developments, Emerging Issues (Third Edition)

Directors’ and Officers’ Liability provides a cutting edge, straightforward explanation of the obligations of directors and officers of public companies, the penalties that they face if they fail to meet their obligations, and the protections that are offered them under the law or by agreement. This treatise for corporate counsel, private practitioners, and for directors and officers themselves guides readers through the essentials of the current law, recent developments, and emerging issues of directors’ and officers’ liability.  This title covers the sources of law governing the duties of directors and officers; the key facets of board committees; the duties of directors and officers under state corporate law and federal and state securities laws; private civil actions and public enforcement; exculpation, indemnity, and insurance; cybersecurity; contested mergers and acquisitions; Securities Act suits filed in state court; special issues in pharma and biotech; and more.

The highlights for the latest release for Directors’ and Officers’ Liability  include:

  • Emerging Issues: A Revival of Caremark Claims. Two recent decisions, one issued by the Delaware Supreme Court in June 2019 and another issued by the Delaware Court of Chancery in October 2019, herald what might be a new era of shareholders asserting Caremark claims, breach of the duty of loyalty by a failure of oversight, and those claims surviving motions to dismiss. See new section 8:7 and section 3:3.14 for a review of Caremark and analysis of Marchand v. Barnhill and In re Clovis Oncology, Inc. Derivative Litigation.
  • Federal Forum Exclusive Venue Provisions for Securities Act Claims. In Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that company charter provisions stating that federal courts shall be the exclusive forum for Securities Act class action claims are invalid. See new section 1:4.2 for a history and analysis of jurisdiction over securities class actions under the PSLRA, SLUSA, and the latest Delaware cases.

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS.  If you would like to order a print copy, please contact libraryrelations@pli.edu.

Treatise Update: Fragomen on Immigration Fundamentals

Offering in-depth coverage of bedrock immigration legislation, the latest USCIS rules and programs, and pivotal court decisions, Fragomen on Immigration Fundamentals: A Guide to Law and Practice (Fifth Edition) provides the legal and procedural knowledge to work more efficiently and effectively with employers, noncitizens, nonimmigrants, refugees, naturalized citizens, and government officials.

The latest release for Fragomen on Immigration Fundamentals updates the following chapters:

Among the new developments covered in this release are:

  • Public charge determinations: The Trump administration has implemented strict new standards for determining whether an adjustment applicant or immigrant visa applicant is, or is likely to become, a public charge. The new rules require officials to weigh a number of factors rather than reviewing only the sponsor’s financial information, and lengthen the list of public benefits to be considered in the review. New section 3:4.3[F], Public Charge Determinations.
  • Southwest border crisis: In August 2019, DHS and HHS issued a new rule relating to the detention of minors, which, in their view, terminates the Flores agreement. The rule creates an alternative licensing scheme that allows the detention of families together in the same facility; states that the criteria governing the parole of persons in expedited removal proceedings apply to minors, as well as to adults; and states that bond redetermination hearings are only available to minors in regular, not expedited, removal proceedings. Section 7:5.7[A], Trump Administration Policies.
  • Asylum claims: The USCIS and EOIR issued a joint rule in July 2019 that bars asylum claims by individuals who enter or attempt to enter the United States across the southern land border after failing to apply for protection from persecution or torture while in a third country through which they transited. That same month, a California district court issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, but the Ninth Circuit limited the reach of the injunction to cases arising within that circuit. New Section 6:2.6[C][7], Failure to Apply in Safe Third Country.
  • Expedited removal: Pursuant to new directive, in July 2019, Acting Secretary McAleenan designated for expedited removal two additional categories of persons. Section 7:5.6[A], Classes of Individuals Subject to Expedited Removal.

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS. If you would like to order a print copy, please contact LibraryRelations@pli.edu.

New Edition! Federal Bail and Detention Handbook 2019

We are pleased to announce that the Honorable Evelyn J. Furse, a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Utah, at Salt Lake City, joins as Co-Author of Federal Bail and Detention Handbook.

Federal Bail and Detention Handbook 2019 provides up-to-date and accessible coverage of developments under the Federal Bail Reform Act of 1984. Among the important recent cases discussed in this edition are:

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS. If you would like to order a print copy, please visit our website or contact libraryrelations@pli.edu.

Treatise Update: Directors’ and Officers’ Liability

 

Directors’ and Officers’ Liability: Current Law, Recent Developments, Emerging Issues (Third Edition) provides a cutting-edge, straightforward explanation of the obligations of directors and officers of public companies, the penalties they face if they fail to meet their obligations, and the protections available to them under the law or by agreement. Authors Barry Kaplan and Gregory Watts provide solid coverage of topics of utmost importance to directors and officers—the sources of law governing the duties of directors and officers; the key facets of board committees; D&O duties under state corporate law and federal and state securities laws; private civil actions and public enforcement; exculpations, indemnity, and insurance; cybersecurity; contested mergers and acquisitions; Securities Act suits filed in state court; special issues in pharma and biotech; and more.

Of particular note, the chapter on Emerging Issues provides readers with coverage of the latest new developments in the area. Regularly updated, this chapter brings readers’ attention to the latest on dynamic issues like D&O liability related to data breaches, sexual harassment, and climate change.

Director’ and Officers’ Liability is a vital resource for corporate and outside counsel and private practitioners—particularly those whose expertise and specialized training may not include corporate governance and securities.

Highlights of Release #2 include:

  • Emerging Issues: Chapter 8 has been extensively updated to bring you timely discussion of emerging areas of potential liability for directors and officers such as cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings, sexual harassment, and climate change.
  • Board Membership Policies: Gender and ethnic diversity is increasingly a criterion for membership on the board of a public company, and in September 2018, California became the first state to require public companies to have female directors on their boards.

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS. If you would like to purchase a print copy, please contact libraryrelations@pli.edu.

 

New Title! Depositions Answer Book

Depositions are the key component of all litigation matters that survive a motion to dismiss, allowing parties to discover the legal and factual theories of their opponent and to explore the validity of their own case theories and themes. What litigants learn from depositions can guide critical strategic decisions such as whether to settle (and, if so, at what value) or proceed to trial.

The newest answer book title from PLI Press, Depositions Answer Book draws on author Thomas Jackson’s decades of experience in antitrust, business, securities, IP and other litigation to help you master the crucial deposition process, delivering practice-based guidance on:

This essential new title is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

 

New Title! Arbitrating Commercial Disputes in the United States

PLI recently published a new title, Arbitrating Commercial Disputes in the United States.

Bringing or defending commercial arbitrations requires a clear grasp of the latest developments in the field, a practical understanding of how the arbitration process works, and knowledge of how the courts interpret and enforce arbitration agreements and treat arbitral awards. And participating in an arbitration demands a distinctive set of skills, different from those learned in the courtroom.

In Arbitrating Commercial Disputes in the United States, author/editor David Singer and his contributors—many of them arbitrators, and all of them deeply familiar with the arbitration process—provide the information and insights that will help readers master commercial arbitration.

Citing hundreds of cases, as well as drawing upon the extensive experience of the contributors, this book addresses the strategies that lead to success.

This essential new treatise is available on PLI PLUS, our research database.  If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

 

Treatise Update! Sack on Defamation

Written by a U.S. Court of Appeals judge and cited by courts throughout the United States–including by the U.S. Supreme Court–Sack on Defamation delivers definitive legal, strategic, and tactical insight into libel, slander, and other defamation-related causes of action for both plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys.

Highlights of the new release include:

• Context of allegedly defamatory statement: In McKee v. Cosby, the
plaintiff accused the defendant of defaming her in a letter by using her
published statements out of context. But the First Circuit, applying
Massachusetts law, concluded to the contrary, noting that the quotations
were “immediately followed by a hyperlink to the source article, allowing
readers to put [the plaintiff’s quoted] statements into proper context.”
• Defamation of groups and group members: In Elias v. Rolling Stone
LLC, the Second Circuit, applying New York law, held that it was error
to dismiss a defamation cause of action brought by a group of fifty-three
members of a college fraternity, based on a false published statement
by the defendant that some nine of the fraternity’s then members had
committed or participated in a rape at their fraternity house.
• Hepps doctrine—matters of public concern: The Texas Supreme Court,
in Brady v. Klentzman, has “recognized that even if the general subject
matter of a publication may be a matter of legitimate public concern,
some of the details may not be. But if a ‘logical nexus’ exists between
these details ‘and the general subject matter’ of the article, then they are
reasonably included as a matter of public concern.”
• Opinion—emojis and emoticons: Digital media may well give rise to
a new context in which to decide whether a statement is fact or opinion.
One can guess that emojis and emoticons will, by their nature, ordinarily
be treated as nonactionable opinion or commentary. See § 4:3.1[A], at
note 121.1.
• Public officials: Persons held to be public officials include the director of
budget and finance for a public school system; a former town clerk who,
as such, “had the primary responsibility for organizing and issuing the
payroll for the town”; and the deputy manager of a U.S. shuttle projects
office partially responsible for overseeing the development and operation
of the propulsion systems for the ill-fated Challenger shuttle.
• “Actual malice”—fictionalization: In Lovingood v. Discovery
Communications, Inc., a federal district court in Alabama found no
“actual malice” where a BBC docudrama broadcast under license by the
defendant contained an invented scene defamatory of the public-figure
plaintiff; “there is no evidence from which jurors could reasonably infer
that the . . . defendants had reason to doubt the accuracy of the scenes
in the . . . film or that the defendants’ failure to do more to investigate
the accuracy of the two scenes at issue evidences ‘an intent to avoid the
truth.’”
• Absolute privilege—statements to federal authorities: Statements to
federal officials may also be entitled to absolute privilege. For example,
in Mangold v. Analytic Services, Inc., a divided panel of the Fourth Circuit
held that statements made by a government contractor in the course of
the investigation of an Air Force colonel’s dealings with the contractor
were absolutely privileged. The court saw the privilege as analogous
to immunity for testimony in court, before a grand jury, and to public
prosecutors.
• Qualified privilege—charges of child sexual abuse: In Connecticut, by
statute, charges of child sexual abuse made to the Department of Children
and Families are entitled to qualified immunity.
• Damages: Although the courts continue to monitor and sometimes limit
damage awards, there are still large libel verdicts that survive appellate
review, as a number of multi-million-dollar cases demonstrate.
• Jurisdiction—New York long-arm statute: New York’s long-arm
statute includes exceptions that limit its application in defamation cases;
this favorable treatment of defendants in defamation cases has been held
by the Second Circuit, in a thorough opinion by Judge Walker, to be
constitutional, abridging neither the plaintiff’s First Amendment right to
petition nor his or her Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection
(Friedman v. Bloomberg L.P.).
• Texas Defamation Mitigation Act: In addition to its anti-SLAPP statute,
Texas has enacted the Defamation Mitigation Act, which requires a
prospective plaintiff to make a request of the prospective defendant for a
correction, clarification, or retraction of offending allegedly defamatory
material before bringing a defamation action, unless the defendant has
made such a correction, clarification, or retraction without such a request.
• Anti-SLAPP laws—Massachusetts, Maine: Recent cases interpret and
apply the anti-SLAPP statutes of Massachusetts (Blanchard v. Steward
Carney Hospital, Inc.) and Maine (Gaudette v. Mainely Media, LLC),
which are both aimed at protecting the constitutional right to petition,
rather than freedom of speech or of the press generally.

The updated treatise is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database.  If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

Trial Handbook (Spring 2018) Now Available!

Trial Handbook is the one-stop resource you can trust for the planning, trial, and post-trial stages of litigation. Designed for quick reference in the courtroom, Trial Handbook is keyed to the Federal Rules of Evidence and focuses on the presentation of proof and the evidentiary problems faced by counsel.

Packed with practical checklists, charts, outlines, and sample jury selection questions, Trial Handbook gives you the knowledge and tools to:

New to the Spring 2018 Edition are a discussion of the amendment limiting the “ancient documents” exception to the hearsay rule and a discussion of the amendments to Rule 902 that allow certain electronic evidence to be authenticated by a written pre-trial certification of a qualified person.

At the heart of Trial Handbook is its unique Evidence Guide, also included as a laminated fold-out, which clearly explains the meaning, purpose, operation, and history of every rule, including how each rule applies to other cases and how leading cases construe a particular rule.

This essential title is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877-900-5291.