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The Federal Circuit is weird. It hears patent cases, of course, but it also hears a whole lot of other random federal appeals: Court of Federal Claims appeals, veterans’ appeals, trademark appeals, Merit Systems Protection Board appeals, and of course, Little Tucker Act appeals. (Bonus points if you already knew that that was.) So far this Term, two cases have been granted certiorari by the Supreme Court out of the Federal Circuit, one involving the termination of a Transportation and Safety Administration whistleblower and a second which involves patents – two very different, yet very interesting cases....

Yesterday, we brought you five lawyer movies that make lawyers look just awful. When they’re not murdering, they’re lying. When they’re not lying, they’re discriminating. When they’re not discriminating, they’re literally The Devil. 1. “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch, basically the only person in 1930s Maycomb, Alabama, who isn’t a racist. Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man, against charges that he raped a white girl. The whole town thinks he did it (just because he’s black), but Atticus points out that Tom’s crippled left hand meant that he couldn’t have been the rapist....

Back in 2012, a federal jury awarded Apple a staggering one billion dollars after finding that rival smartphone maker Samsung infringed Apple’s design and utility patents, as well as Apple’s trade dress. Samsung appealed to the Federal Circuit, which yesterday handed Samsung a mixed bag. Everything but the trade dress claims could stand, the court said, setting the stage for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Trade dress,” of course, refers to nonfunctional elements of a product that are so distinctive to a particular company that consumers immediately recognize those elements as representing that company....

Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s offering: Top Five Reasons to do Pro Bono work. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has deprived us of opinions as of late and it’s the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Week; what better time to discuss pro bono work?...

A Washington man wanted on multiple local and state warrants successfully evaded police for weeks. But his evasive tactics turned out to be no match for a fictional blonde named “Sweet Cheeks.” After being unable to find wanted suspect Corey Butler IRL (“in real life,” as the kids say on the Internet these days), police were able to locate him on social media, reports Seattle’s KOMO-TV. Police decided to try their hand at “catfishing” – impersonating a real or fictitious character online, usually to deceive another person....

The D.C. Circuit has once again struck down a part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which required companies to disclose if their products used conflict minerals. Conflict minerals, gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten, are the less shiny cousins of blood diamonds. They generally come from war torn areas of the Congo, where armed factions use child soldiers and child laborers in a fight to profit off the area’s natural resources....

We are a nation of laws, and even in tough times we consider our commitment to the rule of law to define us. Even if someone is saying something we don’t like, we respect their First Amendment right to say it. Even if we think someone is guilty, they are still entitled to Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial. This commitment may be why it’s fun to imagine a world where we don’t follow the law for a little while....

A California appeals court threw out the state legislature’s law to divest grand juries of their power to issue indictments in fatal police shootings, saying that the law would require a constitutional amendment to be valid. California enacted the law in response to grand jury decisions not to indict officers in the deaths of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York. Calling for transparency in criminal proceedings, the state legislature passed the law taking away grand juries’ indictment power in such officer-involved shootings and leaving the decision to file charges solely with prosecutors....

It’s been a busy and exciting week in the D.C. Circuit, with important decisions in a variety of cases, from conflict mineral disclosure regulations, to copyright trolls’ jankety joinder, plus a failed attempt to “fix” the filibuster through the courts. Ready for a surprisingly exciting D.C. Circuit roundup? Read on: When the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed, as part of the latter mandate, it required the Securities Exchange Commission to pass a regulation that would require companies to disclose whether their minerals were from conflict zones in Africa....

Innovative Therapies, Inc. v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc., No09-1085, involved a district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s declaratory judgment action involving patents related to medical devices for treatment of chronic wounds. In affirming the district court’s dismissal on the ground of absence of an actual controversy within the contemplation of the Declaratory Judgment Act, the court agreed that plaintiff’s supplemental complaint did not establish an actual controversy at the time of the original pleading and that jurisdiction based on subsequent events did not relate back to the filing date of the initial complaint....

A Florida man proved to himself (and all of us) that you can fit a chainsaw in your pants, but you might have to deal with a theft charge. Police arrested Anthony Ballard, 28, on suspicion of shoplifting a chainsaw from the Treasure Coast Lawn Equipment store in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Despite all those sharp metal bits near his nethers, Ballard allegedly made it out of the store and dumped the power tool in a wooded lot before escaping....

Brigham Young University’s law school is making headlines with a report that for the first time most of the new students there are women. But times change, and now BYU’s law school is actually ahead of the norm. It now has more female students coming in than the national average for law schools. Ahead of the Norm According to reports, 52 percent of the incoming class at J. Reuben Clark Law School are women....

In an appeal from an order of the district court granting a petition to enforce subpoenas issued to pharmaceutical company officers in the course of an ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into agreements among companies suspected of unlawfully delaying entry of lower-cost generic versions of a drug, the order is affirmed where the FTC was permitted to record depositions by videotape in addition to stenographically. Read FTC v. Tarriff, No....

Marc Firestone, general counsel for Phillip Morris, told Congressional representatives that illegal tobacco dealers rob governments of up to $50 billion in tax revenue each year. “Criminals are the only promoters of the global illegal tobacco trade,” he reported to the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. His expert testimony highlighted a serious problem in the industry, but it also underscored a challenge that general counsel face when called upon to testify: what can you actually say?...

You can almost see this scene being played out in an episode of The Simpsons. “D’oh!” In May 2013, crematory workers at Alta Vista Cremation and Funeral Services in Pacheco, California, fired up the furnace and placed the deceased body of 91-year old Vincent Jarvis inside. About 25 minutes into the bake, employees realized they had made a grave mistake. The coroner had to inform Jarvis’s family of what happened, and why a proper autopsy could not be performed....

The California Supreme Court has had quite the year. The annual “Year in Review” is in, and the data is, as usual, fascinating. The court received nearly 7,000 filings from September 2017 through August 2018, and processed close to the same number of dispositions during that time. Notably, 85 opinions were issued, 39 in civil cases, while the remaining were split evenly between criminal and death row cases. Other big highlights from the last year involve: the success of the live streaming oral arguments, which received over 25,000 listeners; And (how can we forget about) the sweeping changes that were made to the code of attorney conduct....

In re Chippendales USA, Inc., 09-1370, concerned a challenge to the the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (Board) affirmance of the examining attorney’s refusal to register plaintiff’s mark as inherently distinctive, in plaintiff’s application seeking to register its Cuffs & Collar mark as inherently distinctive for “adult entertainment services, namely exotic dancing for women,” in the nature of live performances. In affirming the judgment, the court held that the Board’s determination that the Cuffs & Collar mark was not inherently distinctive is supported by substantial evidence, and plaintiff’s additional arguments for setting aside the Board’s decision are without merit....

Jovan Belcher’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Kansas City Chiefs, claiming that the team was directly responsible for her son’s deteriorating mental health. As you may recall, the former linebacker killed his girlfriend and himself in December 2012. Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, believes his repeated concussions were to blame for his violent actions and that the Chiefs could have prevented them. Wrongful Death Belcher took his own life at a Chief’s facility after fatally shooting his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, in their home, leaving their daughter orphaned....

There’s no love lost between President Trump and the state of California, especially when it comes to immigration policies. In fact, California has resisted President Trump’s efforts to enforce illegal immigration laws at every turn. In the latest development of this fight between California and the president, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to declare LA a sanctuary city. What Is a Sanctuary City? While there isn’t an actual legal definition of a sanctuary city, it generally means that a city has certain policies limiting government employees – including police officers – from assisting federal immigration officials....

You know what’s fun? Stories about other lawyers’ professional responsibility foibles. There’s a certain, how do you say, schadenfreude, that we get out of hearing that a lawyer made a terrible ethical gaffe. Today, we counsel on the problem of the lawyer who talks too loudly, spilling firm secrets or client confidences over lunch, on the subway, in an elevator, or on an airplane. You’ve seen it happen before: People talking loudly on their cellphones in a public place like a waiting room....