Legal News

The Morning?s News: Word Up! Microsoft Wins a Stay, More

By Ashby Jones

A few items we’ve got to get to, LBers, this morning, just to make sure you’re well-informed before you put your head down and churn out a few last billables before heading Up the Coast, Down the Shore, Out to the Cape, to take full advantage of summer’s last unofficial weekend.

Microsoft Wins a Stay: Microsoft Corp. won't have to immediately alter its Word program or halt sales because of a patent-infringement case it lost. The Fifth Circuit on Thursday put on hold an order imposed last month that would have limited Microsoft's ability to offer some features in Word. The order won't take effect until an appeal of the underlying patent case is resolved. Oral arguments on the appeal are scheduled for Sept. 23 in Washington. (Bloomberg)

No Go on Elan-J&J Deal: Manhattan federal judge Deborah Batts ruled on Thursday that Irish pharmaceutical company’s Elan PLC’s recent deal with Johnson & Johnson breaches its nine-year collaboration with Biogen Idec Inc. to sell multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri. The ruling means that Elan must alter the J&J agreement in its current form by Sept. 26 or run the risk of losing all rights to Tysabri, a drug that generates nearly $1 billion in annual revenue and is the major growth driver for both companies. (WSJ)

The WSJ Takes on Kroes: The folks over at the WSJ editorial page have some sharp words on Friday for Neelie Kroes, the head of the European competition competitor, who on Thursday announced she was extending Brussels’ review of the $7.4 billion Oracle-Sun Microsystems merger for another four months. The WSJ folks aren’t happy about it:

“The whole exercise has the faint smell of a shakedown-namely, that Commission bureaucrats don’t like the idea of big, bad Oracle owning the shiny-happy open-source MySQL, and are using this extended investigation to shake it loose.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 04, 2009 (boomark / email).