Legal Commentary

China Putting Tighter Controls on "Data Leaks" by Telecommunications and Internet Service Providers

Posted on April 27, 2010
China Moves to Tighten Data Controls, writes Sharon Lafraniere at the New York Times, pointing out that: "China is on the verge of requiring telecommunications and Internet service providers to halt and report leaks of what the government deems to be state secrets, the latest in a string of moves designed to strengthen the government?s control over private communications...

India Leads the Way in Adapting Modern Intellectual Property Law to the Realities by Introducing a New Major Copyright Reform

Posted on April 25, 2010
India has gone on the offensive to bring intellectual property law into line with reality by introducing a new major copyright reform. See the .pdf of the reform bill. Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing headlines that India's copyright bill gets it right, linking to Michael Geist and India Introduces Major Copyright Reform Bill...

Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit as a Possible Successor to Justice Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court : Stuart Taylor at National Journal Mag

Posted on April 24, 2010
Stuart Taylor Jr. at the National Journal Magazine in Garland Born To Be A Judge goes into the longest in-depth analysis that we have found of Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit as a possible successor to Justice Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.

25 great photos relating to the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano -- including the background of Northern Lights

Posted on April 24, 2010
25 great photos relating to the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano -- including the background of Northern Lights --at Latest Icelandic volcano shots.

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Some Patent Claims Covered by Standard Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) Policies According to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Posted on April 24, 2010
As written in Ninth Circuit finds coverage for patent claims under standard CGL policies at Lexology by Richard D. Milone and S. Mahmood Ahmad of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP: "Last week, the myth that insurance coverage is unavailable for patent infringement claims was disproven by the Ninth Circuit in Hyundai Motor America v...

Court Decisions and Appointments of Judges and Justices in the United States : The Role of Partisanship and Politics in the Judicial Process

Posted on April 23, 2010
Abner Mikva, a former state legislator, Congressman, Court of Appeals Judge -- with powerful ties to President Obama, Elena Kagan and Martha Minow -- says about judging (Abner Mikva Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, using the segregation and abortion issues as examples -- excerpted by LawPundit): "When I am looking at a statute, I not only look at the words, I have to understand the context in which those words are being used, because frequently they are not as straightforward and as simple as they might be, because they are the process of a compromise that has gone on at the legislative arena...

The U.S. Supreme Court and the pending Bilski decision : Experts opine that Bilski will not be reversed

Posted on April 22, 2010
Worth reading is an end-of-March posting at the EETimes.com by Rick Merritt Supreme Court expected to rule on Bilski case soon which quotes Kevin E. Noonan and Wesley D. Blakeslee to the effect that they do not expect Bilski to be reversed but that the Supremes might refine the Federal Circuit's machine-or-transformation test...

Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried calls Elena Kagan "Everyone's Dean" : But Does this Make Her "Everyone's Justice"?

Posted on April 22, 2010
Harvard Law School has just published an announcement about Professor Charles Fried and his article in the New Republic about Everyone's dean, Elena Kagan: "In The New Republic, HLS Professor Charles Fried wrote "Everyone's Dean: Why Elena Kagan has earned the respect of conservatives, like me," an article which appeared in the April 19 edition of the magazine...

Supreme Court Issues Constitutionally Correct but otherwise Unfortunate Animal Cruelty Law Decision

Posted on April 21, 2010
See Scotus Blog on First Amendment left intact: Animal cruelty videos escape ban and Mark Sherman at the Huffington Post in Supreme Court Overturns Animal Cruelty Video Ban: Ruling Could Spur New 'Crush' Videos. Essentially, this is a Constitutionally correct, but very unfortunate 8-1 Supreme Court decision...

Will the Near Certainty of a GOP Fight over Obama's upcoming Supreme Court Nomination push that Nomination into Uncharted Waters?: SCOTUS : A Diversity-Packed Court?

Posted on April 21, 2010
Daniel Foster is backed up in "the corner" at the National Review Online in Is the Conventional Wisdom Wrong on Obama?s SCOTUS pick? and writes: "... Christina Bellantoni at TPM has it from an administration official that the president feels no pressure to pick from the center-left...

Documentary Film "Patent Absurdity" Features Interviews with Major Patent and Software Players and Summarizes the Case History of Software Patenting up to Bilski : A MUST!

Posted on April 21, 2010
 H-Online.com writes at "Patent Absurdity" documentary available as free download : A new 30-minute documentary titled "Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system" about the application of patent law to software is now available to download from patentabsurdity...

Christian Legal Society (CLS) vs. Martinez (Hastings Law School) : Oral Argument Transcript: : Supreme Court of the United States

Posted on April 20, 2010
The oral argument transcript in the 1st Amendment case of the Christian CLS student group against Hastings Law School is up at: Christian Legal Society (CLS) vs. Martinez (Hastings Law School) : Oral Argument Transcript: before the Supreme Court of the United States, April 19, 2010  [LawPundit comment: The Oral Argument by Mr...

Drug Decriminalization Efforts Advance Across The Country | Ryan Grim | Huffington Post

Posted on April 20, 2010
Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post writes thatDrug Decriminalization Efforts Advance Across The Country

LawPundit Excerpts of and Comments to the ORAL ARGUMENTS in the BILSKI case, which currently awaits decision by the United States Supreme Court

Posted on April 20, 2010
This posting provides LawPundit excerpts and comments to the ORAL ARGUMENTS in the BILSKI case, soon to be decided by the United States Supreme Court (we have added the links in the excerpted text). Although much of the patent industry seems to expect the machine-or-transformation standard in Bilski to be overturned, we view the course of oral argument to suggest that the Supreme Court could well affirm the Federal Circuit limitation of patents in Bilski by pointing to the context-defined definition of "process" in the patent law as historically applying to machines and transformative inventions, it being the job of Congress -- if it so desires -- to extend that definition of "process" beyond those bounds -- an extension which, in view of the desperate need for real patent reform, is legislatively in fact not desirable...

SACGHS on Patents and Patients : The Relationship between Gene Patents and Genetic Testing

Posted on April 19, 2010
Dan Vorhaus at the Genomic Law Report in SACGHS Chair: Put Patients Before Patents writes:"This afternoon, the journal Genetics in Medicine released an online-only supplement analyzing the relationship between gene patents and genetic testing. The bulk of the issue is devoted to a series of 8 case studies surrounding 10 clinical conditions...

Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez, Docket No. 08-1371: Report on Oral Argument in the Supreme Court of the United States

Posted on April 19, 2010
Jesse J. Holland of the AP in Court splits sharply on campus Christian argument - Yahoo! News reports on today's oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez, Docket No. 08-1371.

FUTURE INTERNET: The Future of the Internet in Europe According to the European Commission

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Future of the Internet in EUROPE According to the European Commission - Press Release

Alan Rosenblatt: Creating Permanent Links to Online Government Documents Starts Now

Posted on April 18, 2010
Alan Rosenblatt: Creating Permanent Links to Online Government Documents Starts Now

1st Family to have DNA Sequenced for Non-Medical Reasons

Posted on April 18, 2010
Family become first to have DNA sequenced for non-medical reasons - Times Online"A family of four has become the first in which every member?s genome has been sequenced for non-medical reasons, opening a debate about the ethics of analysing the DNA of minors...

Stephen Colbert on Gene Patents and the Myriad Case : Humor

Posted on April 18, 2010
Formula 01 Liquid Genetic Material from ColbertNation.comThe Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cFormula 01 Liquid Genetic Materialwww.colbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFox News

Elena Kagan is a progressive on executive power. - By Walter Dellinger - Slate Magazine

Posted on April 18, 2010
Elena Kagan is a progressive on executive power. - By Walter Dellinger - Slate Magazine

Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Sorry, Stephen Colbert: Gene Patents Are Unlawful

Posted on April 18, 2010
Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Sorry, Stephen Colbert: Gene Patents Are Unlawful

Above the Law Fantasy SCOTUS Predictions for Justice Stevens?s Replacement

Posted on April 18, 2010
Fantasy SCOTUS: Predictions for Justice Stevens?s Replacement « Above the Law: A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession

BONO writes at the New York Times that Africa Reboots as Emerging Entrepreneurs and Civil Society Activists Get Together

Posted on April 18, 2010
BONO at the New York Times writes in Africa Reboots: "I SPENT March with a delegation of activists, entrepreneurs and policy wonks roaming western, southern and eastern Africa trying very hard to listen .... Despite the almost deafening roar of excitement about Africa?s hosting of soccer?s World Cup this summer, we managed to hear a surprising thing...

Bill Clinton's Advice to Obama on Supreme Court Pick - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime

Posted on April 18, 2010
Bill Clinton's Advice to Obama on Supreme Court Pick - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime

The Bizarre Case of Christian Legal Society versus Martinez (Hastings Law School) : Oral Arguments on Monday, April 19, 2010

Posted on April 18, 2010
It is a shame when a law school itself -- which should know better -- applies an alleged policy of blanket non-discrimination in a viewpoint-discriminatory manner, as appears to us to be the case in this legal case, thereby violating students' 1st Amendment free speech rights...

The Law of Making Money

Posted on April 17, 2010
Investor Who Made Billions Not Targeted in Goldman Suit - NYTimes.com

Anonymous Blog Comments and Comment Spam: Open Thread on Best Practices : Legal Blog Watch

Posted on April 17, 2010
Legal Blog Watch comments on Anonymous Blog Comments and Comment Spam: Open Thread on Best Practices.

America's Broadband Policy

Posted on April 17, 2010
Lessig at blip.tv on America's Broadband Policy.

The Supreme Court Justices of the United States and their Law Schools : A Supreme and Highly Limited Club

Posted on April 17, 2010
Timothey Egan at the New York Times writes at Supreme Club - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com: "At last count, there were about 200 law schools in the United States accredited by the American Bar Association, but apparently only two of them ? Harvard and Yale ? can be a path to serving on the highest court in the land...

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