A “company called VS Technologies is suing Twitter, alleging that it infringes on a patent of theirs, entitled ‘Method and system for creating an interactive virtual community of famous people’.” [TechCrunch]
“First lady, Wal-Mart reach pact on nutrition”
It’s disturbing to think of the federal government’s pressuring and jawboning a private business to reformulate perfectly lawful products, cut prices on some lines of goods, and so forth. In this case, however, as I told the Washington Times, there’s reason to think the nation’s largest retailer might have wanted to proceed with a “healthy-eating” remake anyway, and this way it can get Michelle Obama’s valuable endorsement with all the attendant publicity. Bonus: Ms. Obama has now vocally backed the idea of opening Wal-Marts in more “underserved areas” such as urban neighborhoods without full-line supermarkets; in the past union and local-merchant opposition has often stymied Wal-Mart’s wish to enter such neighborhoods.
P.S. Coincident news story: creepy pro-union group pickets home of developer who hopes to bring Wal-Mart to the District of Columbia. And Ira Stoll has covered the sometimes-exaggerated extent of “food deserts”.
Texting Fountain Lady considers lawsuit
After a video went viral showing a distracted shopper walking into a mall fountain, it’s not clear that much of anyone would have known that the blurry figure was Ms. Marrero. They know now, though, as her lawyer talks about holding someone “responsible” for the less-than-professional reaction of security, which included laughing and not going up to her to confirm that she wasn’t hurt. [Mediaite, Balasubramani, Salon, Popehat, MSNBC “Technolog”, Mystal]
Suit: quality complaint over escort resulted in trauma
A college student is suing a stripper-referral service, saying the assigned dancer engaged in an illegal act of prostitution with him but did not stay the full hour as promised. Proceeding pro se without a lawyer, the student “said he now needs medical treatment for a mental condition related to the incident.” When he complained to Las Vegas police about the incident, he says, they threatened to arrest him. He “said he also told the company he was incapable of making an informed agreement with the stripper because he was drunk at the time.” [Las Vegas Sun]
January 21 roundup
- More commentary on Obama regulatory initiative [Federal News Radio with quotes from Cass Sunstein, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steven Malanga, David Harsanyi, Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Iain Murray, Lammi/WLF, earlier]
- Corporate governance buffs will want to check out new Proxy Monitor website from Manhattan Institute which includes a database of shareholder resolution activity at the 100 largest public companies [Jim Copland/Point of Law (some early empirical findings), Bainbridge (“This is going to be a great resource for anyone interested in shareholder activism”), ShopFloor]
- Lawyer solicits subway blizzard strandees. OK under NY rules? [Turkewitz]
- California reform ideas: “A Modest Proposal For Fixing Proposition 65” [Cal Biz Lit] “A Better Consumer Legal Remedies Act” [same]
- Proposed criminal prohibition on doctors’ questioning patients about guns “would violate the First Amendment, as well as just being a lousy idea” [Volokh]
- Oldest federal bench ever — and the problems that can cause [Joseph Goldstein, Slate]
- Attention “payday lending” critics: “Lawsuit Loans Add New Risk for the Injured” [NY Times, Kenneth Anderson, California Civil Justice; defenses of champerty/litigation finance from Larry Ribstein and Stephen Gillers]
- Wisconsin student sues unsuccessfully over summer homework requirement for pre-calculus class [six years ago on Overlawyered]
Comcast-NBC merger conditions
Attaching strings to its permission gives the Federal Communications Commission a way to fund social programs Congress would never, ever pass [Stoll, Future of Capitalism] More: Josh Wright, TotM, Mickey Kaus (“backdoor bilingualism”).
Schools for Misrule publicity: ABA Journal
Some great pre-publication publicity for my book from the ABA Journal and reporter Debra Cassens Weiss, based on my postings in this space, the jacket copy and the podcast I did with Arin Greenwood for the Heartland Institute. The attention-arresting headline: “Book Argues Ideas Hatched in Law Schools Are ‘Catastrophically Bad for America’.” Read it here.
I’ve also been taping some audio and video interviews related to the book that will air closer to or after its February 15 publication date. They include John J. Miller’s “Between the Covers” audio podcast series on new books at National Review, and segments on Reason TV.
Followup: “Academic Advantage fires law firm that threatened BoingBoing”
The law firm in question had sent a nastygram over a blog post that wasn’t even about their client, but merely combined the phrase “academic advantage” with (in comments) the word “scam.” Academic Advantage now says it has “severed its relationship” with the L.A. law firm involved. [California Watch, BoingBoing, earlier]
“Lawsuit planned by family of teen who fell from airplane”
Hoping to ride for free, 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale stowed away in the landing gear of a US Airways flight but fell to his death in the Boston area. Now his family is suing, represented by Florida attorney Christopher Chestnut, who argues that the lad “should never have successfully gained access to that airplane. Had airport security been up to par, he would be alive and well with his family today.” [Boston Globe and more via TortsProf, BoingBoing]
“Wooly Willy” maker settles patent false marking case
The maker of a 1950s-vintage kids’ toy is the latest target as the false-marking lawsuit wave continues [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]