The Justice Department has suffered consecutive setbacks in an economic espionage case against four Chinese companies because they have no U.S. employees to serve with a summons, and no U.S. office where one can be mailed. That's why the department is hoping to eliminate certain requirements for service on foreign businesses.

The U.K. Bribery Act arrived this summer in a hail of publicity. But that act won't move mountains without a change in Britain's legal structure. "There's a real need [in the U.K.] for a middle ground between full-on criminal prosecution and civil recovery," said the former U.K. corruption prosecutor Matthew Cowie, now with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom.

Russia's claims to the famed Stolichnaya vodka trademark in the U.S. were put on ice by a federal appellate ruling on Monday.

Apple had a lousy week in patent litigation. Not only did it lose a hefty infringement verdict to a small software company called VirnetX, but a rate-setting case against Motorola Mobility Inc. went off the rails on the eve of trial.

In the court's first application of tougher standards for proving inequitable conduct, Winston's James Hurst convinced the Federal Circuit to back a district court's finding that two patents related to a Sanofi-Aventis cancer treatment were invalid.