A California federal jury sided Friday with TransPerfect Solutions and its lawyers at Latham & Watkins and Kasowitz Benson in a patent showdown between rival website translation businesses. Competitor MotionPoint Corp. and its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel didn't prevail on any claims.

Tort reformers at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and ATRA are praising a court-ordered end to Madison County's asbestos trial allotment system. But it'll be a long time before the county's asbestos docket freezes over.

Like anglers fishing with dynamite, most non-practicing entities, a.k.a. patent trolls, would prefer to target as many defendants as possible in individual infringement suits. That tactic is mostly history now, thanks to anti-joinder rules in the America Invents Act. But what about the lingering cases that were filed before the law went into effect?

Patent reform is coming to Europe. The E.U. is establishing a new patent regime that will allow inventors to file for a single patent valid in almost all of its member states, and that will set up a new patent court with venues in London, Munich, and Paris.

Nearly two years after rolling out a model order intended to get a grip on out-of-control electronic-discovery demands, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's advisory council is poised to issue new rules that ask patent litigants to make their own sacrifices.

Both Congress and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have clamped down on multi-defendant patent suits, but the changes haven't had much practical effect for defendants already ensnared in East Texas patent litigation.

A looming trial in the case will showcase two of the country's most fearsome patent litigators — Douglas Lumish of Latham & Watkins for TransPerfect and Charles Verhoeven of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan for MotionPoint.

Back in 2004, when they filed a gender discrimination suit against Novartis on behalf of three female sales reps, the Sanford Wittels partners had no idea they'd make history with a record-setting $250 million punitive damages verdict. They offer penetrating insights about Novartis's handling of the case--and the ruling's impact on future employment discrimination suits.

After months of reading submissions, vetting, and interviews, The American Lawyer has announced the winners of the magazine's sixth biennial Litigation Department of the Year contest. Gibson Dunn cinched the top billing for the second time in a row, but plenty of additional firms and more than a half-dozen individual litigators shared in the spotlight.