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In David vs. Goliath Case, Intel to Pay $250 Million to End Patent Suit
Intel Corp. agreed Wednesday to pay $250 million to settle a patent infringement suit that struggling chipmaker Transmeta Corp. — with a legal department of two — filed last year against the Silicon Valley titan, which employs 240 in-house lawyers. In return for paying $150 million up front and the rest over five years, Intel gets a perpetual nonexclusive license to all of Transmeta’s patents and patent applications.
Court urged to enter spurned spouse case (AP)
AP - A plumber and a millionaire squared off in Mississippi over a woman. The woman chose the rich guy. The plumber sued the millionaire and won more than $750,000.
Calif. Wildfires Drive Lawyers From Homes, Offices
As a brown haze shrouded Southern California on Tuesday, law firms in San Diego’s Carmel Valley region were shuttered, and more and more local attorneys and staff members were forced to leave their homes. At least two partners have lost their homes, and some law firms estimated that between a third and a half of their local attorneys and staffers had been displaced. Said one managing partner, “We don’t even know the human impact yet. There’s been 500,000 evacuated, and that includes a lot of our people.”
Indicted Partner in Stock Fraud Scheme Was Acquitted in 1991 Texas Ponzi Case
The Baker & McKenzie partner indicted Friday on stock fraud charges in New York was previously tried and acquitted on similar charges in a 1991 case brought by federal prosecutors in Texas. Martin E. Weisberg and five other men were charged last week with participating in an illegal short-selling scheme that netted two Israeli investors $55 million. At the colorful trial, the jury heard Weisberg’s voice from secretly recorded meetings with an undercover federal agent in an Atlantic City hotel room.
US judge promises quick decision in America’s Cup row (AFP)
AFP - Battling syndicates Oracle and Alinghi presented verbal evidence in their America’s Cup dispute to the New York State Supreme Court on Monday, with judge Herman Cahn promising a quick decision.
US executions on hold awaiting Supreme Court ruling (AFP)
AFP - A month after the US Supreme Court agreed to wade into the lethal injection debate, executions are effectively on hold across the nation as courts and politicians sit tight amid a legal limbo.
Justice says law degree ‘worth 15 cents’ (AP)
AP - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale law degree, blaming the school’s affirmative action policies in the 1970s for his difficulty finding a job after he graduated.
Death penalty slowdown in US (AP)
AP - Stop executions for a while and perhaps they can be stopped forever. That calculation has been part of the strategy of capital punishment opponents for decades.
New Study Suggests Veteran Advocates Sway Supreme Court
Dramatic new research by Georgetown University Law Center professor Richard Lazarus shows that more and more Supreme Court cases are brought and argued by the seasoned veterans who have honed Supreme Court practice into a fine, and exclusive, art form. Lazarus claims that the increasing dominance of the Supreme Court Bar is beginning to have an impact on the Court’s doctrine. Increasingly, Lazarus says, the modern-day Court is ruling in favor of “monied interests more able to pay for such expertise.”
Alito: Few would watch Supreme Court TV (AP)
AP - Justice Samuel Alito doubts the public is clamoring for Supreme Court sessions to be televised and predicts they would battle Congress for last place in the ratings.