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There’s a word for what the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said in Royal Crown Company v. The Coca-Cola Company. It’s “zero.” Of course, the decision is much more complicated but still came down to the same word. Basically, the appeals court zeroed out a trademark decision regarding the term. The Federal Circuit said the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board erred in framing the genericness of the term and sent the case back for further consideration....

Edward DuMont won’t be rounding out the judicial lineup for the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. DuMont has asked President Obama to withdraw his name from consideration for the final opening on the Federal Circuit bench. DuMont isn’t the first Obama nominee to make such a request this year; Berkeley Law professor Goodwin Liu, now an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, withdrew his nomination in May after Republicans filibustered his confirmation vote....

As Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac threatened the Republican National Convention in Tampa and battered New Orleans this week, we were reminded that it is once again hurricane season. For the good folks on the Gulf Coast, hurricane preparations are a way of life. Growing up in Louisiana, we expected schools and government offices to close multiple times throughout the later summer/early fall. When we moved to D.C., government closures seemed like a thing of the past....

Wanless v. Shinseki, 10-7007, involved an incarcerated veteran’s request for full reinstatement of his disability benefits following his transfer from a state-operated prison to a privately owned prison. In affirming the Board of Veterans’ Appeals’ and the Veterans Court’s denial of the request, the court held that the Veterans Court properly construed section 5313 to include penal institutions that are privately operated, yet state-contracted. Related Resources: Full text of Broekelschen v....

In the national battle over immigrant rights, the latest conflict in California was over faster than the war for the territory in 1847. Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that protects immigrants from having to disclose their legal status in court. The bill had been making its way to the governor’s desk since last year, when federal agents were reportedly tracking people down in state courthouses. With the new law, California has practically become a sanctuary state....

After admitting he shot his wife in the back, a prominent Atlanta lawyer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Claud “Tex” McIver said he was sleeping in the back seat of a car, when he abruptly woke up and shot his wife through the back of the front seat. He said he had the gun in his lap to protect them as a driver took them through a tough part of town, and he fired reflexively when he woke up....

A Florida man was pulled over by police for a DUI but decided to take one last swig before his field sobriety test. Police say they saw Dana Allen Seaman’s vehicle swerve three times, the Ocala.com reports. The 61-year-old man was stopped and agreed to take a field sobriety test. But while stopped and awaiting roadside for his field sobriety test, Seaman took one last swing of alcohol. A deputy watched Seaman take a drink from a cup and toss it under the passenger seat....

A Florida man who lost his left hand in an alligator attack has been charged with illegally feeding the gator. Talk about adding insult to injury. Wallace Weatherholt, a 63-year-old airboat captain, was giving an Indiana family a tour of the Everglades when he was attacked. Weatherholt allegedly tried to get a nine-foot gator to surface by feeding it and patting the water. The tactic worked too well, and Weatherholt lost his hand....

Allison Jones Rushing, newly confirmed to a federal appeals court, is the youngest judge in the United States judiciary. At 37, she will take a seat on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals with judges who were practicing law before she was born. Not that age matters, but Rushing will certainly bring a fresh perspective to the court. After all, President Trump has been looking for younger judicial nominees to shape the highest courts....

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the release of 11 million documents detailing some shady financial dealings of the world’s shadiest characters involved a few members of the world’s shadiest sports organization. The Panama Papers data dump, highlighting the pervasive use of offshore accounts and tax havens to skirt tax laws, appears to have implicated both FIFA’s new president and its ethics lawyer. A little more surprising, to those who hadn’t been following his tax evasion case, is that the world’s best and least shady player, Lionel Messi, was also caught up in the scandal....

Harrisburg High School’s new principal wanted to get the attention of students who were skipping class and their parents. “Many parents send their kids to school and they’re thinking they’re going to class,” Lisa Love told the Patriot-News. “I needed to reach out because of the enormous number not going to class.” The school therefore sent suspension notices to 500 of its 1,100 students last week, punishing kids for not going to class by not allowing them to attend class....

Trial court judgment declaring minor children dependents of the juvenile court is reversed where the evidence is insufficient to support the court’s findings that the minors were at substantial risk of suffering serious physical harm or illness as a result of the mother’s mental illness or substance abuse, or that the father was unable to protect them. Read San Diego County Health and Human Serv. Agency v. Violet R., No. D054065 in PDF...

Strike three and you’re out … of nominees to the D.C. Circuit. After Monday’s vote to end debate on Republican delay on nominee Robert Wilkins failed by seven votes, it appears that Senate Democrats have no more nominees to put before the full Senate. The Associated Press reports that President Obama called the blocking of his third nominee to the D.C. Circuit a “completely unprecedented” obstruction, accusing Congress of failing to uphold its constitutional responsibilities....

Drug conviction appeals can be monotonous. They’re always full of “it wasn’t mine” and “illegal search and seizure.” That’s why Jean Ballantine, the court-appointed attorney in People v. Richie Quang Le, wins our newly-created - and unlikely to be again bestowed - FindLaw Defense of the Week award for her zealous challenge of her client’s Ecstasy possession conviction. A jury convicted Ballantine’s client, Richie Quang Le, of one count of transportation for sale and one count of possession for sale of a controlled substance in violation of California law....

Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes of the Pittsburgh Steelers got arraigned on a misdemeanor marijuana charge today, according to the AP. The star wide receiver’s attorney, Robert DelGreco Jr., described the charge “as low as a grade a misdemeanor you can get” with a penalty of “up to 30 days probation and a $500 fine”. That may be so, but DelGreco and Holmes apparently don’t plan on letting this case see the courtroom light....

If you were a low-level fugitive in need of handcuff removal, where would be the first place that you would go? To your family? A friend? How about the Home Depot located 1 mile down the road? If you chose the last option, you might be just as stupid as Michael Jay Scott. And that’s saying a lot. Michael Jay Scott was in a fight on Sunday morning when he was detained by Escambia County Sheriff’s Office near Pensacola, Florida, reports WALA....

What is it with lawyers and math? It’s one of the oldest jokes in the profession that lawyers went to law school because they were no good at math. As it turns out, it’s no joke. According to statistics, math students score the highest on law school admission tests but relatively few go to law school. At a time when law school admissions are down, it is an unsettling fact that the smartest students are going into other professions....

Hell hath no fury like.. a woman with a power tool? It seems a Washington woman was arrested for trying to cut her husband’s head off with a power saw. The husband was sleeping at the time and woke up in the darkened room to the sounds of the power tool. A frightening scenario, considering a chainsaw to the neck isn’t the most gentle of wake-up calls. It was only after he flipped on the lights that he saw it was his wife with the saw, the New York Daily News reports....

In an incident befitting a very drunk Scrooge McDuck, a woman last week assaulted a $30 million painting located in Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum. Carmen Tisch, 36, drunkenly dropped trou in front of the 9 1/2-foot by 13-foot canvas and then proceeded to rub her butt on the painting. She then slid down the abstract masterpiece and urinated on herself when she reached the floor. The painting remained urine free, but was marred by visible scratches....

Smoking is a nasty habit and quitting can be a challenge. Some people try the nicotine patch, while others apparently go to jail to quit smoking. Not rehab, jail. Etta Mae Lopez decided to slap a sheriff’s deputy so she could go to jail, where smoking isn’t allowed, the Associated Press reports. (Dear smokers: Does nicotine chewing gum taste that bad?) “She waited all day for a deputy to come out because she knew if she assaulted a deputy she would go to jail and be inside long enough to quit her smoking habit,” the battered deputy told The Sacramento Bee....