In a 6-5 en banc decision handed down on Friday, the Federal Circuit revived two patent infringement cases—one brought by Akamai Technologies Inc. against Limelight Networks Inc., and another by McKesson Corp. against Epic Systems Corp. More significantly, the court refined the theory of "induced infringement," ruling that inducement applies even when the steps recited in the patented method were performed by multiple parties.

After a three-judge appellate panel reinstated a property owner's class action alleging that oil and chemical companies contributed to Hurricane Katrina's ferocity, the Fifth Circuit granted the defendants' motion to rehear the case en banc. Then, because it couldn't muster enough judges to hear it, the appellate court dismissed the appeal.

In a once-sleepy corner of the Treasury Department, regulation of overseas conduct is going strong. That's bad news for European banks, but good news for American foreign policy--and a handful of well-positioned firms that excel at both litigation and bank regulation.

Deloitte's lawyers at Sidley Austin persuaded a judge in Manhattan that their client was duped like everyone else by alleged fraud at Longtop Financial, the U.S.-listed Chinese software company that collapsed in 2011 under the weight of a massive accounting scandal.

After Google took home a defense verdict Wednesday in the patent phase of a blockbuster trial, the jury foreman said Oracle's lawyers at Morrison & Foerster and Boies Schiller had gained few supporters on the most crucial copyright issue in the case.

The Second Circuit's refusal to enjoin Ecuadorian plaintiffs from enforcing their $18 billion judgment against Chevron left the company's investment arbitration against Ecuador as its first global line of defense. It will be a tough defense for both Ecuador and the plaintiffs to overcome.

The dispute mushroomed to more than 100 court cases in Poland, about 30 cases in other forums, nine commercial arbitrations, and a pair of investment arbitrations. Marcin Olechowski of Warsaw's SK&S, who represented Elektrim, which sought a controlling stake in PTC, compared it to a game of pick-up sticks. "At a certain point all the proceedings became interconnected," he said. "Every time something moved, the whole geometry changed."