Conflicts News — Amazon IP Conflict Prime for Protest, Judge (Blind) Trust, Judicial Conflicts Rules Review

“[Judge] Alsup Phone calls Amazon In-Home Atty’s LinkedIn Hole ‘Suspicious’” —

• “Mulling a motion to disqualify Amazon’s counsel from litigation accusing the e-commerce huge of infringing MasterObjects Inc.’s lookup engine patents, U.S. District Judge William Alsup reported Wednesday it ‘looks suspicious’ that an Amazon in-dwelling lawyer omitted from his LinkedIn profile a two-yr stint at a regulation firm that represented MasterObjects.”
• “U.S. District Decide William Alsup did not situation a ruling Wednesday on MasterObjects’ bid to boot from the circumstance the two Amazon’s in-household attorney and outside the house counsel at Hueston Hennigan LLP, having the subject under submission. He did, nonetheless, deny Amazon’s request for sanctions in opposition to MasterObjects and its Hosie Rice LLP counsel for bringing the movement, saying he did not uncover it to be frivolous.”
• “Wednesday’s arguments targeted on Scott Sanford, a senior in-household patent law firm at Amazon.com Inc. who is foremost the company’s protection circumstance. He labored from 2000 to 2002 for Fliesler Meyer LLP, a San Francisco firm that taken care of MasterObjects’ patent prosecution. Sanford was not current for Wednesday’s courtroom proceedings.”
• “In a declaration, Sanford mentioned he doesn’t pay out shut consideration to his LinkedIn resume and inadvertently remaining that off. Having said that, his positions in advance of and after his employment at Fliesler Meyer ended up on his LinkedIn resume, and that’s a red flag, reported Diane Rice of Hosie Rice, a law firm for MasterObjects.”
• “MasterObjects also submitted a declaration from a lawyer, Karl Kenna, who worked with Sanford at Fliesler Meyer. Kenna explained it was a quite little legislation business, with lawyers performing in a modest San Francisco office. ‘They were cheek to jowl,’ Rice reported, ‘and courts comprehend that folks who function in shut quarters chat to each individual other about their perform.’”
• “While Sanford promises he didn’t do perform for MasterObjects all through his time at Fliesler Meyer, the law firm had accessibility to info about the consumer, Rice argued.”

“Judge’s Blind Have faith in Did not Resolve Economic Conflict of Desire, Federal Circuit Strongly Hints” —

• “The $1.9 billion bench verdict Centripetal Units received from Cisco Units Inc. in 2020 is heading to be despatched back for a do-around. That significantly was apparent adhering to arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday.”
• “The problem now will be how a lot demands to be redone owing to U.S. District Choose Henry Morgan’s failure to divest or to recuse himself soon after finding out midtrial that his spouse held $4,688 worthy of of Cisco inventory. Monday’s argument presents a judicial check of an difficulty highlighted very last slide by a collection of Wall Road Journal content about judges or their family users holding inventory in companies that look in the judges’ courtroom.”
• “Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel spouse Paul Andre argued that the verdict should stand simply because Morgan hired a law firm who right away devised a blind believe in at the time the decide realized about the holding. But Federal Circuit Judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Taranto and Tiffany Cunningham sounded persuaded that the judicial disqualification rules involve real divestment of the fiscal interest.”
• “Cisco argued that the judge’s fiscal fascination in Cisco, even so minor, mandated his recusal under 28 U.S.C. 455(b). Morgan dominated that Portion 455(b) demands recusal only if a choose has real knowledge of the economical fascination.”

“Congressional Democrats suggest new principles on recusal, secrecy for U.S. judges” —

• “Democrats in the U.S. Congress proposed a raft of new regulations for the federal judiciary on Wednesday which includes a official system to get rid of judges from hearing instances in the occasion of a conflict of desire and one more intended to lower solution court docket filings.”
• “The bill comes as U.S. Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas has faced phone calls by some Democrats to recuse himself from any cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, citing the activities of the justice’s spouse Virginia Thomas, a conservative political activist. read through a lot more.”
• “Under present-day follow, the 9 Supreme Court justices independently decide whether or not to recuse by themselves from a circumstance since of a conflict of desire. Below the proposed legislation, the full Supreme Court docket would be expected to assessment requests for recusal.”
• “In addition, the laws would require the Supreme Court to give are living movie of its oral arguments on the world-wide-web as nicely as other ethics pointers for judges. The Supreme Court docket has not allowed video of its arguments but started letting reside audio in 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has ongoing that follow.”