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US Court Denies Injunction Sought by Verigy
Legal News |
2008/03/05 12:28
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| Chip testing equipment maker Verigy Ltd. said Wednesday that a U.S. district court has granted a preliminary injunction preventing Silicon Test Systems Inc. from selling its integrated circuit product for the next five months.pThe U.S. District Court for the Northern California District of California, San Jose Division, issued its ruling on Friday. The preliminary injunction prevents the defendants from selling, licensing, distributing, transferring or marketing Flash Enhancer and any product based on Flash Enhancer./ppAccording to Verigy, the court found that Flash Enhancer is substantially based upon Verigy's trade secrets./ppVerigy said defendant Romi Mayder was employed by the company until September 2006 and began developing an integrated circuit product for a new business venture while still employed by Verigy. Mayder's brother, Wesley Mayder, is also named as a defendant./ppIn a phone interview, Romi Mayder noted that the judge denied the absolute injunction that Verigy sought. Mayder said the information used to develop his product was publicly available and that his use of it amounted to a five-month head start./ppVerigy sued the defendants in August 2007 for breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, statutory and common law unfair competition and other charges./ppThe court issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants on Aug. 24, which was still in effect when the preliminary injunction was issued./p |
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Judge Wants Shipwreck Evidence Worked On
Legal News |
2008/03/05 10:01
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| A judge wants Florida shipwreck explorers and the Spanish government to settle their differences over sharing evidence related to an estimated $500 million in treasure the company recovered last year.pIn Tampa, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo told lawyers for Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain to agree by Friday _ or he will be forced to intervene./ppSpain believes it has a claim to the 17 tons of colonial-era coins Odyssey raised from an Atlantic Ocean shipwreck. But Odyssey has kept most details of the find secret to protect the site from competitors./ppThe two sides bickered in a hearing Wednesday over whether Tampa-based Odyssey has handed over sufficient information about the wreck site and treasure for Spain to determine the extent of a possible claim./p |
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Judge accepts plea deal in Cody Warren's death
Legal News |
2008/03/04 14:21
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| A military judge has accepted the guilty plea from the Marine accused of killing Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren in Iraq in 2006. pCpl. Douglas Michael Sullivan, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of the 19-year-old Gordon County native who had been deployed to Iraq with his Marine Reserve unit. pRobin Patterson, Warren’s mother, told the Calhoun Times earlier that she was “absolutely appalled” when she learned of the plea agreement last month. pPatterson planned to go to California for Sullivan’s court martial and is expected to testify during the sentencing phase. pWarren graduated from Gordon Central High School in 2005 and joined the Marine Reserves. pSullivan said that he accidently shot Warren while improperly handling a weapon at Forward Operating base Trebil, near Fallujah, Iraq. /p |
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Yanez beats Criss in Texas Supreme Court primary
Legal News |
2008/03/03 12:31
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span class=vitstorybodySouth Texas appellate Judge Linda Reyna Yanez will be the next Democrat trying to win a seat on the GOP-dominated Texas Supreme Court. pYanez won the high civil court's Place 8 Democratic primary Wednesday over Galveston Judge Susan Criss. Yanez is a judge in the state's Thirteenth Court of Appeals. pCriss lost despite the visibility she earned presiding over recent high-profile cases like the civil lawsuits filed in wake of the deadly 2005 BP refinery explosion in Texas City. /span!-- vstory end --
/p |
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Suspect in Ivy League ID Theft in Court
Legal News |
2008/03/03 11:27
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| A woman accused of using a missing person's identity to get into an Ivy League school made her first court appearance Monday, and the victim's relatives said they just want the theft suspect punished.pWhen Esther Elizabeth Reed was indicted last year, Brooke Henson's relatives said they hoped Reed could tell authorities where to find her./ppOf course at first, it was just giving us hope that Brooke was alive, Lisa Henson, Brooke's aunt, said Monday./ppInvestigators have since said they don't think Reed had anything to do with Henson's 1999 disappearance./ppReed is accused of stealing Henson's identity in 2003 and posing as her to obtain false identification documents, take a high school equivalency test and get into Columbia University./ppShe was indicted last year and made her first court appearance Monday on federal charges of identity theft, mail and wire fraud and obtaining false identification documents. If convicted on all four charges, Reed faces a possible $1 million fine and 47 years in prison, time Lisa Henson said she hopes Reed will serve./p |
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A Selection of Breyer's Hypotheticals
Legal News |
2008/03/02 14:18
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| The nine justices in black robes file into the Supreme Court consumed with thoughts about the great legal issues of the day. Only one of them is likely to ask questions involving raccoons, an unruly son, pet oysters or even the dreaded tomato children.pWhen Justice Stephen Breyer leans toward his microphone at the end of the bench, lawyers can expect to be asked almost anything. The 69-year-old Breyer is the court's most frequent practitioner of the hypothetical question, a conjurer of images that are unusual and occasionally bizarre./ppThe last time I was up there arguing, it was easier for him to wrap his mind around bicycle pedals, said Carter Phillips. The experienced Supreme Court lawyer recalled an exchange with Breyer during arguments over patents for computer chips./ppHe kept shifting the focus over to bicycle pedals and I was trying to live with him in that world, Phillips said. I was taking the bicycle pedals and putting them on my Stair Master./ppThe hypothetical is a mainstay of Supreme Court arguments. At their best, such questions help justices address what is bothering them after they have pored over hundreds of pages of dense, often dry legal briefs./ppThe point is to try to focus on a matter that is worrying me, Breyer said in an interview with The Associated Press. Sometimes it's easier to do that with an example./ppFrom the lawyer's perspective, the well-constructed example helps focus the mind, said Roy Englert, a Supreme Court lawyer who studied antitrust law under Breyer at Harvard Law School./ppOne recent case involved punishment for repeat criminals under a difficult-to-decipher provision of federal law. The image Breyer called to mind was one to which any parent or sibling could relate./ppSuppose with your own children: 'I told you half an hour ago not to interrupt your sister when she is doing her homework. This is the second time you've done it.' Wouldn't you, with your own child — I would with mine — think that the second time he did it was worse behavior than the first time? Breyer said. I just told him not to./ppThe point was succinct and sweet. It's a familiar example, your honor, conceded Charles Rothfeld, the lawyer for the recidivist whose case was before the court./ppThe justices generally have distinct styles in the way they ask questions./ppAntonin Scalia makes liberal use of sarcasm. John Paul Stevens begins with an unassuming, May I ask ...? Then, Phillips said, it's a dagger through the heart. Ruth Bader Ginsburg digs deep into the case record and is a stickler for following the rules./ppBreyer, said Supreme Court specialist Thomas Goldstein, sometimes comes up with a situation that is so extreme that it makes you think just about the legal principle because the facts are impossible./ppOr, as Breyer said, An odd example can call particular attention to the point./ppGoldstein was on the receiving end of such a question in a dispute last year over the patent for a gas pedal./ppNow to me, I grant you I'm not an expert, but it looks at about the same level as I have a sensor on my garage door at the lower hinge for when the car is coming in and out, and the raccoons are eating it, Breyer said. So I think of the brainstorm of putting it on the upper hinge, OK? Now I just think that how could I get a patent for that?/ppEnglert said Breyer is still the law professor he knew 30 years ago. He had to learn how to keep a bunch of 22-to-25-year-olds entertained and interested, Englert said./p |
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