Author Archive
Wal-Mart Class Action Resources
06/29/2011 | Author Alanah Gentle
On June 20th, 2011, the United States Supreme Court threw out the class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart brought by 1.5 million female employees alleging sex discrimination in violation of Title VII. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes et al. is a landmark decision for federal class-action employment discrimination lawsuits. In a 5-4 decision, Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the Court holding that the women of the putative class did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate Wal-Mart operated under a general policy of discrimination in order to satisfy the commonality prong to permit class certification.
The ruling from the United States Supreme Court has many believing it will make it more difficult for plaintiffs to bring employment discrimination class actions in federal court. Nina Totenberg for National Public Radio reports that the president of the National Women’s Law Center Marsha Greenberger refers to the decision as having “a triple whammy of a disaster effect for those who are trying to fight discrimination in the workplace.” The NPR Morning Edition, “High Court Limits Wal-Mart Discrimination Case” is available on Westlaw at 2011 WLNR 12367309.
Although the decision may make it more difficult to maintain these types of class actions in federal courts, many states have more liberalized views on these types of suits. Additionally, the United States Supreme Court clearly stated in a unanimous decision, Smith v. Bayer, that class actions in state law can proceed even though they could not be maintained in federal court.
Westlaw.com and WestlawNext have several employment law treatises which give a state by state analysis of employment discrimination laws with annotations. For example, Part II of the Employment Discrimination Coordinator (EDC) lists employment discrimination law in the fifty states and other jurisdictions. Other helpful treatises include Employment Law: A State-by-State Compendium (DRI-EMPSTATE) and Employment Coordinator (EMPC).
Since the Wal-Mart decision, many companies and corporations may be thinking of filing summary judgment motions, motions to dismiss, or for de-certification of a class based on the court’s ruling. Try the following search to track any decisions, briefs, or filings on Westlaw.com:
Databases: FED-FILING-ALL,FED-BRIEF-ALL,ALLFEDS
wal-mart /5 dukes & summary-judgment (motion /3 dismiss!) de-certif! & DA(AFT 06/19/2011)
To view the petition for certiorari for Wal-Mart v. Dukes, any filed briefs, and transcripts of oral arguments, simply go to the case on Westlaw.com at 2011 WL 2437013 and scroll all of the way to the bottom to access these documents. On WestlawNext, simply click on the Filings tab once on the document.
Going Even Greener at the USPTO
11/18/2010 | Author Alanah Gentle
The USPTO Expands and Extends the Green Technology Pilot Program
On Wednesday November 11th, the USPTO announced (75 FR 69049-03) plans to extend and expand the Green Technology Pilot Program. The purpose of the Pilot Program is to encourage green technology and it allows an applicant the opportunity to advance out of turn, if their application relates to green technologies and materially enhances the environment. The original notice required an application be filed before December 8, 2009 and will only run for 12 months from the date of the notice (December 8, 2009). But, the USPTO announced that it is expanding the eligibility of the program to include “unexamined non-reissue non-provisional utility applications filed on or after December 8, 2009.” Additionally, the USPTO will extend the program through December, 31, 2011.
Director of the USPTO David Kappos issued a press release on October 21st stating that “there has been a tremendous amount of interest in the Green Technology Pilot Program, and we would like to enable applicants whose inventions did not fall within the initial classifications eligible for the program to be eligible.” The USPTO has gathered statistics on the number of green petitions granted, dismissed, denied, and pending.
To find patents on Westlaw which have applied under the program, try the following search in US-PAT-HISTORY:
The official form to make an application special under this program is available on also available on Westlaw. Follow this link of the USPTO to find any frequently asked questions, contacts, press releases, etc.
According to Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog, “the average time between the approval of a green technology petition and the first action on an application is just 49 days.”
Other commentary on the USPTO’s move to going even greener are here:
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Patent Term Adjustments
11/08/2010 | Author Alanah Gentle
We have recently been fielding requests for patent term adjustments on various platforms: Westlaw, Thomson Innovation, Delphion. Currently , there is no way to search adjustments on Thomson Innovation or Delphion. The information does not not appear in the integrated view on these platforms. The adjustment language pursuant to 154(b) is contained in the original PDF image of the patent which is not searchable at this time either through Thomson Innovation or Delphion.
However, you can search for patent term adjustments on westlaw.com. The following search in US-PAT-ALL will retrieve patents which have been extended pursuant to 154(b):
154(b) /10 extend extended extending extension adjust!
Simply place an ampersand after the word adjust and put in the remainder of your terms, and you will return results of patents which have been extended.
Curiousity led us to research just how many patents have been extended over time. We ran the search above in US-UTIL (U.S. Utility Patents) for the application date years of 2000 through 2010.
For more on term extension under 154, see 69 CJS Patents sec. 234.
Fashion Law Resources
10/27/2010 | Author Alanah Gentle
We tested a search in our lawyer profiler databases (PROFILER-WLD) for “fashion” under practice area. Can you guess how many results? Let’s just say fashion law is a practice area. Our interest in the topic was piqued not so much by research requests for fashion-related resources but by Fordham’s launch of the Fashion Law Institute and Senator Schumer’s introduction the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act (IDPPPA). The IDPPPA protects original fashion designs for a three year period. Find the bill on Westlaw at 2009 CONG US S 3728.
After messing around a bit, we came up with a number of research ideas. Rather than posting them here, we published a short collection of Fashion Law Research References which include:
- Legislative Material Resources/Citations
- Intellectual Property Citations
- Key Secondary Sources
- Regulatory / Administrative
- Market and Company Information
- Blog Roll
The Fashion Law Research References are available on our LinkedIn pages via JDSupra (registration required to access full profile) Or, email one of us:
Nate Baker | nate.baker@thomsonreuters.com