Busy Day at Federal Circuits

Shazaam!  

Our U.S. circuit judges -- and their sitting by designation helpers -- must've spent the holidays running Westlaw searches and tapping out judicial prose.  For today the electronic opinionosphere fairly gushed a freshet of big, juicy, and momentous decisions.

In view of the abundance of material, Blawgletter offers even-briefer-than-usual blurbs (but still with links!):

• Argentina explicitly waived sovereign immunity defense to enforcement of German bonds in U.S. courts.  Capital Ventures Int'l v. Republic of Argentina, No. 07-1551-cv (2d Cir. Jan. 13, 2009).
• West Virginia's restrictions on advertising of "video lottery" games survives free speech assault.  WV Ass'n of Club Owners and Fraternal Services, Inc. v. Musgrave, No. 07-2032 (4th Cir. Jan. 13, 2009).
• U.S. Department of Interior violated a statutory restriction on collecting royalties from operators of offshore oil and gas leases before they produced specific quantities of hydrocarbons.  Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp. v. United States Dept. of Interior, No. 08-30069 (5th Cir. Jan. 12, 2009).
• Contrary to district court's ruling, evidence didn't establish conclusively that a long-term Supply Agreement for furnishing of polypropelene catalyst prohibited assignment of contract to successor by series of merger and acquisition transactions.  INEOS Polymers Inc. v. BASF Catalysts, No. 08-1359 (7th Cir. Jan. 13, 2009).
• In multi-district litigation under 28 U.S.C. 1407(a), the district court properly remanded case to the district court from which it originated after termination of pretrial proceedings despite claim of undue delay and waiver of right to remand.  Armstrong v. LaSalle Bank Nat'l Ass'n, No. 07-2280 (7th Cir. Jan. 13, 2009).
• Summary judgment evidence didn't support application of the "sham" litigation exception to the Noerr-Pennington defense to a monopolization claim but did suffice to require trial on claim that pharmaceutical maker monopolized the terazosin hydrochloride market by enforcing a patent whose issuance it fraudulently procured.  Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., No. 06-55687 (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2009).
• Two more securities fraud class actions bite the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act dust.  Rubke v. Capitol Bancorp Ltd., No. 07-15083 (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2009); Zucco Partners, LLP v. Digimarc Corp., No. 06-17226 (9th Cir. Jan. 12, 2009).
• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision to reject a patent application relating to "a method and system for mandatory arbitration involving legal documents" stands in part and falls in part under 35 U.S.C. 101, which defines unpatentable subject matter.  In re Comiskey, No. 06-1286 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 13, 2009) (en banc).

  End of transmission!