William J. Watkins, Jr., “Patent Trolls”

New 96-page paperback available from the Independent Institute. I wrote a blurb:

In clear and non-lawyerly language, Patent Trolls spells out why patent trollery is so loathed and so lucrative: its rapid rise (with lawsuits quintupling in the past three years), the havoc it’s wreaking from Silicon Valley down to your local restaurant and hotel; and the reasons it can be so hard to distinguish trolls from legitimate patent claimants. He lays out remedies worth considering.

— Walter K. Olson, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; author, The Litigation Explosion and The Rule of Lawyers; editor, Overlawyered.com

Speaking of restaurants, the latest business to speak out about its bad experience with patent trolls is the venerable hamburger chain White Castle.

Filed under: patent trolls, restaurants

“The plot to make Big Food pay”

“Lawyers are pitching state attorneys general in 16 states with a radical idea: make the food industry pay for soaring obesity-related health care costs. … So far none have agreed to sign on.” One hope: the theory popularized by former FDA chief David Kessler that bacon, brownies and buttered popcorn should be seen as “addictive.” Paul McDonald, a Chicago lawyer who is organizing the campaign, is described as a former “senior counsel at Kraft Foods.” [Helena Bottemiller Evich, Politico]

Filed under: attorneys general, obesity, regulation through litigation

Financial and banking roundup

Following vindication, Mark Cuban begins transcribing transcripts of other SEC trials on his blog [Blog Maverick, background] “Why Settling With The SEC Can Be Worse Than Losing At Trial” [John J. Carney, David Choi and Francesca Harker]
Congress needs to investigate whether administration browbeat Standard & Poor’s over sovereign debt rating [John McGinnis]
As regs squeeze banks out of small business lending, will we like non-bank alternatives as well? [John Cochrane] More: Kevin Funnell;
Cash business can’t bank its proceeds: “Robber gangs terrorize Colorado pot shops” [NBC News]
“Will Plaintiff Lawyers Cut Down On The Choices In Your 401(k)?” [Daniel Fisher]
Does Delaware have an incentive to keep securities lawyers happy with big fees? [Bainbridge]
“It’s Time To Grill the Federal Reserve About Bitcoin” [Ira Stoll]

Filed under: banks, Delaware, Securities and Exchange Commission, securities litigation

Taxpayer trips over IRS phone cord, cont’d

Lowering the Bar has a closer look at the medical basis of that $862,000 judgment on Long Island. “Did the judge add a zero by mistake?”

Filed under: damages, taxpayers

“At some campuses the accuser’s having had one drink…”

“…is sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt” [James Taranto on campus assault regulations, the federal influence on which we have discussed often in this space, e.g. here, here, and here] More: Greenfield.

Related: “More grotesque sex hearings at Yale” [KC Johnson, Minding the Campus]

Filed under: colleges and universities, harassment law, sexual assault

Nanny state roundup

Sock puppets: U.K. and E.U. governments both fund public advocacy campaigns on paternalism themes, effectively lobbying themselves at taxpayer expense. Sounds kinda familiar [Christopher Snowdon on Institute for Economic Affairs studies]
Federal government, in the form of the CDC, wishes your doctor would nag you more about your drinking [Jacob Sullum, more]
“$10m look into games and gun violence a bust” [Rob Beschizza; Mike Rose, Gamasutra; related, Scott Shackford]
Assumption of risk won a round at the California Supreme Court a year ago in a case on amusement park bumper cars [S.F. Chronicle, ABA Journal, related on Disneyland teacups] J.D. Tuccille on motorcycle risks [Reason]
As a country Australia is known for freedom, so why’s it a leader in enacting bans? [Vivienne Crompton, IPA “Freedom Watch”]
“Maine’s unwise and unconstitutional ban on disclosing the alcohol content of beers” [Jonathan Adler]
FDA mandate on removal of nicotine could benefit head regulator’s former client [Jacob Grier] Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson & Johnson also push bans on e-cigarettes, which compete with their nicotine therapies [Tim Carney] AGs from 24 states (AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, ME, MD, MS, MT, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT, WA) write FDA urging ban on menthol in cigarettes [CSPNet] “Cigarette Sin-Tax Hike Could Boost Black Markets” [Steven Greenhut] Brendan O’Neill on secondhand smoke [Reason]

Filed under: advocacy funding, alcohol, amusement parks, assumption of risk, Australia, beer and brewers, FDA, Maine, nanny state, tobacco, videogames

D.C. Circuit strikes down IRS attempt to license tax preparers

It’s a win for small tax return preparers and a loss both for unilateral assertions of agency power (Congress had never given the Internal Revenue Service the power it claimed here) and for big national tax-prep chains, which had supported the regulation with a view to suppressing “kitchen table” competitors. Andrew Grossman analyzes for Cato, and the Institute for Justice, representing independent tax preparers, can take due credit for a big legal win.

More: H & R Block’s CEO — of course! — is unhappy. And John Steele Gordon explains the role of the Horse Act of 1884.

Filed under: occupational licensure, taxes

Speech to ABA on nanny state and Bloomberg soda ban

You can watch here (earlier). Related videos, including those of the other panelists, at the American Bar Association site.

Meanwhile, even former enthusiasts are beginning to give up on the “food desert” theory — opening a supermarket nearby does little to change unhealthy diet habits. So guess what’s next? Yep, calls for more and stronger intervention [Ann Althouse].

Filed under: Michael Bloomberg, nanny state, obesity, on TV and radio, soft drinks

Feds to extract $1 billion from Toyota over non-runaway cars

Imagine how much they might have gotten if the cars had actually been suddenly accelerating! “Do We Really Want To Regulate This Way?” asks Daniel Fisher [Forbes]

Filed under: NHTSA, Toyota

February 11 roundup

If you’ve answered a consumer survey about which pharmaceuticals you take, you may be hearing from this guy’s staff [Paul Barrett, Business Week on mass tort “lead generator”]
Jury awards $9 million to Vancouver, Wash. man imprisoned for 20 years after wrongful child abuse conviction [Insurance Journal; The Columbian/Seattle Times 2009]
Product liability: jury awards $18 million in fatal fire attributed to altered space heater [Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, outcome subject to confidential agreement]
$500 million California verdict in competition case between two drug companies [Kyle White, Abnormal Use, Daniel Fisher (Actelion case)]
Short film tackles city of Detroit’s decline, GM bailout, with commentary from bank economist David Littmann, Todd Zywicki [“Bankrupt”]
Hardee’s CEO: Easier to open a new restaurant in Shanghai than in Los Angeles [Legal NewsLine]
Fooled ya! “I intend to reverse” trend of President bypassing Congress to bring power into executive branch, said Obama in 2008 [Tom Rogan/The Week, Jim Powell/Forbes] Constitutional issues of federal contractor minimum wage executive order [Eugene Kontorovich and followup, On Labor, Gene Healy, Peter Kirsanow]

Filed under: Barack Obama, chasing clients, Detroit, executive orders, government contract compliance, Los Angeles, pharmaceuticals, product liability, restaurants