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In a patent infringement case involving a method for detecting fraudulent bank checks, district court’s dismissal of certain counts of plaintiff’s suit is affirmed as the allegedly infringing activity was for the United States and with its authorization and consent and thus could only be pursued in the Court of Federal Claims under 28 U.S.C. section 1498(a). Read Advanced Software Design Corp. v. Fed. Reserve Bank of St. Louis, No. 08-1152...

They’re called the “Hollywood Whackers.” They are the group of people responsible for murdering Heath Ledger, framing Mel Gibson and Robert Blake, and who stole all of Randy and Evi Quaid’s money. Now, the couple is hoping to stay in Canada, where they hope they’ll be safe from the murderous conspiracy. Meanwhile, the company that posted a $500,000 bond for Randy Quaid, and an equal sum for his wife, will get at least some of that money back, despite the couple’s unknown whereabouts....

“What, they rejected me?? How Dare they!” If the above sentence is representative of your usual reaction whenever you receive a rejection letter from a prospective employer, we applaud your self-esteem. But most people aren’t blessed with such a sense of self-importance. For most lawyers (indeed, people), looking for a job and waiting for the inevitable rejection can be a harrowing experience. But being vulnerable is all part of the process....

The worst diversity seminar I was ever subjected to happened a few years ago, while I was still in school. The presenter, eager to illustrate to the audience how diverse we really were (it was a heavily Caucasian class), had people stand up whenever she called out their group. Whether it was the lack of actual diversity in that classroom, or simply a reluctance to say, “The one person who is [minority group], stand up and be stared at,” I don’t recall, but it was awkward, and nobody learned anything from, “If you’re from the South, stand up....

Be careful ladies. There’s a serial butt grabber out there. The Florida International University (FIU) Police Department are on the hunt for a butt grabber who has attacked multiple women since June of last year. Police are unsure if this is the work of one man or several men. Ouch! While the attacks have been going on since last year, police are investigating a new report. A female student reported that a man riding on a bicycle on FIU’s Modesto A....

Earlier this year, Justice Joyce Kennard announced that she would retire from the California Supreme Court. When she did, we took a look at the court’s possible ideological shift, as well as other potential retirees. It’s no surprise to us, then, that another one of the justices has decided to step aside: Justice Marvin Baxter. And this month, a landmark ruling in a challenge to teacher tenure laws sent shockwaves through organized labor and teachers’ unions....

The robots were supposed to save us from ourselves. Artificial intelligence, in the form of self-driving cars, were designed to cut down on the millions of human error-caused auto accidents every year. These polite and rule-following autonomous automobiles were also going to reduce the number of road rage incidents. Alas, that didn’t happen. Recent incident reports from San Francisco, the cradle of self-driving civilization, detailed two separate attacks on autonomous vehicles, meaning no one, not even driverless cars, are safe from road rage....

There are a million options for your Halloween costume. Sexy cat. Sexy lumberjack. Sexy Supreme Court justice. And most of those options won’t get you into trouble with the law. But one might. While the mental image of a non-police officer dressed up as a cop being arrested by real cops is, we must admit, a little humorous, no one wants to end up behind bars this year. So, before you pass up the chance to be sexy Frankenstein’s monster in favor of a regular old police officer, is it illegal to dress up as a cop on Halloween?...

If the President can discriminate against military personnel who are transgender, why not a tire company? Because it’s against the law, says the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a new lawsuit. The EEOC has sued a Denver tire company for rescinding a job offer to a transgender man. It might shock the conscience that an employer could be so brash, but these are confusing times for companies and their general counsel....

One response to the ongoing arguments about concussions and head injuries in football has been: “They’re adults; football is a contact sport; they knew the risk; and they played anyway.” This can be persuasive if the third element is true. In a legal sense as well, an assumption of risk implies another assumption: that the person taking the risk knew of the danger and voluntarily exposed themselves to it. But what if someone wasn’t aware of the danger involved?...

A Georgia city is being sued over its sex-toy law, which a federal lawsuit alleges is unconstitutional. The city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, has enforced an ordinance that labels sex toys as obscene and prohibits their sale without proof of non-recreational use, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But some residents have alleged that this law violates their constitutional rights. What’s the inside story on this sex-toy ban? In the depths of Sandy Springs’ municipal code lies Section 38-120(c) which explicitly states, “[a]ny device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs is obscene material....

Not all Silicon Valley legal disputes get handled in California. Google has found itself in front of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals quite a bit recently, particularly as the tech giant’s self-driving car division, Waymo, has started to take off. If you’re wondering why, the answer is rather simple: The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals is home to more patent cases than any other federal appellate court because it’s the only circuit court of appeals with jurisdiction over patent appeals....

Do any former clients owe you money? What have you done to collect lately? If you’re like most lawyers, that answer is, sadly: nothing. For some reason, while we lawyers can talk a big game, when it comes to collecting money from our own clients, we put on the kid gloves and hold back our punches. Sure, there’s good reason for doing so, but there’s also good reason to at least try to collect past-due bills....

A recent court decision out of Maine will likely be used in classrooms for generations to come. That’s not because it tells a worthwhile story of American history, nor does it involve famous personalities, nor because it’s so well written it merits inclusion in America’s literary canon. Rather, it simply shows how significant an Oxford comma can be when determining the meaning of a sentence. And if you don’t know what an Oxford comma is, read on, because, clearly, it’s pretty important to writing clearly and effectively....

As the saying goes, good fences make good neighbors. But what happens when you need a little more? What Is Arbitration? Arbitration is a process by which two parties agree to meet with a neutral third party, called an arbitrator, to discuss a dispute. It is similar in many ways to litigation in that it is an adversarial process with the goal of creating a binding solution. However, there area few key differences....

In a petition for a writ of prohibition to compel respondent superior court to vacate its order granting the prosecution’s motion to unseal reporters’ transcripts of in camera hearings conducted pursuant to Penal Code section 1326(c), the petition is granted where no statutory or constitutional authority permits disclosure to the prosecution of the names of the third parties to whom defense subpoenas have been issued or the nature of the records produced....

Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours de France and was the face of one of the most popular charities in the world. Then he admitted to doping and it turned out his charity was a sham. Since then, everyone from his team sponsors to people who bought his book has wanted their money back. One of those seeking repayment was a promotions company that paid Armstrong prize money for his Tour victories....

If you’re a law student, a recent graduate, or even a new associate, here’s a tip: Consider a career in criminal law with the District Attorney’s office or the Public Defender. “But,” you say, “I couldn’t care less about criminal law. I went to law school so I could become a civil litigator!” That might be true, but what will you do after you inevitably leave this job, downtrodden and depressed?...

Fact: If your money smells like pot, you could get busted – even if there’s no pot to be found. William David Bush of Sebastopol, California, learned that the hard way when he was convicted of possessing proceeds from the sale of marijuana. Cops pulled over his Benz and discovered $47,000 in his trunk which wafted a certain, shall we say, “skunk-like” aroma. In general, automobiles may be stopped if an officer possesses a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the motorist has violated a traffic law....

An Oregon man who famously bared it all in a naked TSA protest has stripped victory from prosecutors who charged him with indecent exposure. A judge acquitted John Brennan, 50, of Portland, Ore., after finding his striptease at an airport security checkpoint in April was free speech, The Oregonian reports. “It is the speech itself that the state is seeking to punish, and that it cannot do,” the judge said....