Rambus is still paying for its decision to shred reams of documents before it launched a litigation campaign against a big swath of the semiconductor industry. The latest blow came on Friday, when the judge most sympathetic to Rambus over the years ruled that the company spoliated evidence and signaled that he would reduce a $397 million judgment that Rambus won against rival SK Hynix in 2009.

Longtop Financial Technologies, the Chinese company whose fortunes were upended last year by a billion-dollar accounting scandal, has yet to file an appearance in federal multidistrict litigation accusing it of massive securities fraud. After reading the most recent opinion in the case, we can understand why Longtop might be avoiding U.S. courts.

Given that 60 percent of the DOJ's FCPA enforcement actions last year involved alleged bribes to employees of state-owned companies, a lot was riding on Lindsey Manufacturing's argument that Congress didn't intend those employees to be considered foreign officials under FCPA. Judge Matz's ruling hewed closely to the specific facts before him, leaving open the possibility that another defendant may yet succeed in a similar challenge.

For litigators, it pays to be both tenacious and creative. For evidence, look no further than William Isaacson's long antitrust crusade against Chinese vitamin C manufacturers, which culminated this month in an historic $162 million jury verdict.