Litigation Law, Mediation Law and Arbitration Law

On May 9, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") charged former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley, MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors, LLC ("MGRA") a registered investment adviser, and Mayfield the CEO and majority owner of MGRA, in connection with allegations that they were involved in a secret exchange of lavish gifts to peddle influence over Detroit’s public pension funds’ investment process.

A recent California federal court decision denied certification to a putative class of Facebook "cost-per-click" advertisers who allegedly were charged by Facebook for fraudulent or invalid clicks on their advertisements.

On February 16, 2012, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") proposed a new rule which defines the contours of CFPB’s authority to supervise certain debt collectors and consumer reporting agencies to ensure their compliance with federal consumer financial laws ("Proposed Rule").

Fueled by high financial stakes and the specter of injunctions, patent litigation is incredibly complex, expensive and can involve protracted battles at every step of the process.

In Advanced Fiber Technologies (AFT) Trust v. J&L Fiber Services, Inc., No. 11-1243 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 3, 2012), the Federal Circuit revised the district court’s construction of a term appearing only in the court’s construction of a claim term, and therefore vacated SJ of noninfringement.

In Aventis Pharma S.A. v. Hospira, Inc., No. 11-1018 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 9, 2012)

All-risk property insurance policies generally provide coverage for any peril that causes property damage, except when the damage is caused by a risk specifically excluded in the policy.

A California federal court recently issued a summary judgment ruling after interpreting two "other insurance" clauses.

In an effort to avoid the impact of the completed operations aggregate limit, policyholder counsel sometimes attempt to characterize claims as (1) rip-out exposures, or (2) as relating to "abandoned or unused materials," so as to come within a common insurance policy carve-out from the Completed Operations Hazard.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held last week that The Coca-Cola Company cannot be sued under the Lanham Act over the name and labeling of a juice product that is authorized by FDA regulations.

Chambers Global ranked four Venable attorneys in their 2012 edition, including Corporate Group partners Jim Hanks and Sharon Kroupa.

A recent California federal court decision denied certification to a putative class of Facebook "cost-per-click" advertisers who allegedly were charged by Facebook for fraudulent or invalid clicks on their advertisements.