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On June 23, 2011, the House of Representatives approved the renamed Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (H.R. 1249) by a bipartisan vote of 304-117. In March, the Senate passed S. 23, “The America Invents Act,” with larger bipartisan approval. Although there are differences between the House and Senate versions, I suspect that these differences will be …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/07/house-passes-patent-changes-without-altering-damages-in-litigation/
If you have $32,400 to spend on a survey of the Big Four accounting firms, then BTI Consulting will sell you their recent survey of chief financial officers of major U.S. public companies. But, our headline is free. Only 6 in 10 clients would recommend their Big 4 auditor to others, and 18.5% of companies are …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/06/cfos-are-dissatisfied-with-big-4-accounting-firms/
The Ninth Circuit took a narrow reading of the whistleblower protections provided under Sarbanes-Oxley, and thereby eliminated the applicability of any whistleblower protection. The would-be whistleblowers were two internal auditors at Boeing. Both employees spoke to a newspaper reporter regarding their concerns. The reporter included the employees’ information in an article entitled “Computer security faults …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/05/sox-whistleblower-protections-again-interpreted-narrowly/
In monetary terms, the biggest decision made by the Supreme Court in the current session is a case that they decided NOT to take. On March 21, 2011, the Supreme Court denied certiorari of a Ninth Circuit ruling made on September 3, 2010 in re: F.B.T. Productions vs. Aftermath Records. Absent a settlement, the case …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/05/perhaps-2-billion-owed-under-music-contracts/
In an April 2011 ruling, a federal judge in Tyler, Texas, threw out a $625 million jury award against Apple. In the October 2010 trial, a jury decided that Apple infringed three patents owned by Mirror Worlds. The patents involve certain document display technologies used in Apple’s Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow. These features …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/04/huge-patent-damage-award-reversed/
A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) can be a tax-efficient technique for transferring to children property that the transferor expects to appreciate in value. The transferor (the “grantor” of the trust) creates an irrevocable trust, places property into the trust as a gift, and retains the right to a fixed payment each year until the …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/house-votes-to-reduce-grats-act-before-the-effective-date/
The Internal Revenue Service paid a $1.1 million reward to an anonymous whistleblower for information that exposed a tax fraud by Enron, Bankers Trust and others before the company collapsed. The whistleblower, a Wall Street banker who has chosen to remain anonymous to protect his job and career, received the maximum reward of 15 percent. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/large-irs-whistleblower-payoff-encourages-others/
A Lone Pine order is a case management device in which the judge requires the plaintiff to make a prima facie showing of injury, causation, and/or damages. Its purpose is to simplify or eliminate cases to lessen the burdens on the courts and defendants. In a Lone Star order, plaintiffs are required to show an …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/03/ninth-circuit-supports-lone-pine-orders-without-restrictions/
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a required annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program report. The report showed that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars in fiscal year 2010. This is the highest annual amount ever recovered.
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/02/federal-health-care-fraud-enforcement-efforts-recover-record-amounts/
Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Act contains a whistleblower program sponsored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This law (i) makes significant changes in the existing whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and (ii) authorizes the SEC to pay between 10 and 30 percent of a recovery over $1 million to anyone …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/02/update-on-sec-whistleblower-program-under-dodd-frank/
