Dec 28
In Carnegie Mellon University vs. Marvell Technology Group (Western District of Pennsylvania, Case no. 09-290), the jury awarded $1.17 billion in reasonable royalty damages. This is one of the largest patent infringement damage awards ever. Marvel indicated it will appeal. Recently, large damage awards have not fared well on appeal, thus generating a number of …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/huge-patent-infringement-damage-sets-the-stage-for-further-federal-circuit-guidance-on-reasonable-royalties/
Dec 27
A Northern District of California case (Brandywine Communications Technologies, LLC, vs. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case C 12-01669 WHA), provides an analysis of the damage disclosure requirements that a plaintiff has in a patent infringement case. It applies equally to any commercial dispute. The Court started with the damage disclosures under FRCP 26(a)(1)(A)(iii), which states: A …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/another-example-of-a-plaintiff-waiting-too-long-before-addressing-damages/
Dec 21
On December 4, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a statement bragging about the money it had recovered. In reality, the government had much less to do with this than the private citizens and their lawyers who filed qui tam False Claim Act cases on behalf of the U.S. when the U.S. declined to take …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/qui-tam-suits-recovering-extraordinary-amounts/
Dec 20
Effective January 1, 2013, AB-1875 amends California Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) Section 2025.290, which applies to oral depositions in civil cases. The revised law limits the deposition to seven hours of total testimony. Currently, CCP § 2025.290 does not contain any time limits on depositions. This revision brings CCP § 2025.290 more in conformity …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/californias-new-deposition-limitation-has-plenty-of-exceptions-including-experts/
Dec 18
The Northern District of California recently issued guidelines for e-discovery of electronically stored information (ESI). The guidelines and links to related resources are summarized here. The resources include: An ESI checklist to assist in the ESI meet and confer process A Model Stipulated Order re: ESI discovery A standing …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/northern-district-of-california-esi-guidelines-should-be-duplicated-elsewhere/
Dec 16
In a unanimous opinion, the California Supreme Court clarified that trial courts may use either California Evidence Code Sections 801(b) or 802 to admit or exclude the expert’s testimony. Potentially, the Opinion widens California judicial authority to exclude expert testimony by placing California closer to the federal Daubert standard and the majority of other states …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/supreme-court-brings-california-closer-to-the-federal-expert-witness-admissibility-standard/
Dec 13
The good news for California is that not as many of its residents are leaving the state now as they were six or seven years ago. The bad news is that the exodus continues to march onward, together with its domestic migration gap, which has remained steady over the past several years. 2006 saw the …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/the-decline-in-californias-exodus-fizzles-out/
Dec 12
“Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is an American game show that is based on the UK program of the same name. When ABC contracted for the show in North America, the program and concept were already successful. The showed aired on Disney’s ABC in primetime for three years, and has been in syndication for …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/hollywood-accounting-attack-upheld-by-the-ninth-circuit/
Dec 11
Plaintiffs often desire short cuts to damage measurements. Given the cost of using experts employing proper methods and data, the temptation is obvious. For example, business valuation programs are commonly available that will spit out a result once the user inputs a few financial statistics for the subject company. Why pay thousands of dollars for …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/rules-of-thumb-formulaic-software-models-are-dangerous-for-damage-calculations/
Dec 10
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly published a much anticipated guidance on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Entitled “A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act”, the “Guide” is 120 pages long, and is significantly more comprehensive than its predecessor, the “Lay Person’s Guide to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/12/doj-sec-issue-guidance-on-foreign-corrupt-practice-act/