On October 26, 2018, the dying plaintiff in the first-of-its-kind case involving Monsanto Co.’s glyphosate product, ROUNDUP®, has accepted a judge’s punitive damages award reduction prior to the court-imposed deadline of December 7, 2018. The amount of $78 million represents the $39 million for compensatory damages, and the equivalent $39 million for punitives, which the …
Category: technology
CannabIP: DEA Schedules CBD – but with Big Caveat
On September 27, 2018, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) scheduled EPIDIOLEX® as a Schedule V regulated drug under the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). In doing so, the DEA has expressly scheduled a drug wholly-containing cannabis compounds as an active ingredient. Epidiolex was recently approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for market as a …
Monsanto Motion for New Trial Conditionally Denied and JNOV Denied
As a follow-up to our previous posting on the blockbuster glyphosate trial in which a plaintiff suffering from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was awarded $289 million by a San Francisco jury, the judge, on October 22, 2018, has conditionally denied Monsanto’s motion for new trial and denied its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). This decision …
Monsanto Files Motions for Relief After Blockbuster Glyphosate Jury Verdict
Monsanto Co. is fighting back against the $289 million jury verdict for its glyphosate product, ROUNDUP®. On September 19, 2018, Monsanto filed two post-trial motions for relief with the Superior Court of California: motion for new trial and motion notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) in attempts to overturn the verdict against its $6.6 billion product, where …
Monsanto Hit with $289M Glyphosate Jury Verdict
On August 10, 2018, a California state jury for the first time found Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide, ROUNDUP®, was the cause of cancer, finding the weed killer caused a plaintiff’s terminal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and delivered to Monsanto a liability bill in the amount of $289 million. Although this blog does not normally analyze trial court decisions, …
Software Removing Metadata Not Enough Showing to “Conceal or Induce” Copyright Infringement
Technology is meant to make things easier or improve conditions in society. However, sometimes technology, in the form of software, can sometimes do errant things that can create issues later. So is the case with Stevens v. CoreLogic, Inc.,[1] decided by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 20, 2018. The Ninth …
Second Circuit Will Not Yet Hear Embedded Tweet Appeal
In a somewhat unsurprising move, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied an interlocutory appeal (28 U.S.C. §1292) requested by publisher defendants in Heavy, Inc. v. Goldman.[1] The order can be found here 18-910_goldman-CA2_intapp_dend. As discussed in an earlier posting on this blog, the district court case, Goldman v. Breitbart News Network, LLC, held …
IP & Nonhumans: Lessons of Naruto the Monkey on AI
A particular copyright case, although not dealing directly with technology, has fingerprints that lead to one area of technology that shares some legal issues with animals: artificial intelligence. On April 23, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued Naruto v. Slater,[1] in a ruling that was not entirely unexpected since the parties …
Geoblocking Required to Avoid Copyright Liability, per D.C. Circuit
Geoblocking is the practice of digitally embedding territorial access restrictions into content distributed across the Internet. At a time when the European Union is legislating anti-geoblocking regulations, it appears the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. In Spanski Ents., Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A.,[1] on March 2, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the …
Embedded Tweet Can Be Copyright Infringement, According to NY Court
On February 15, 2018, a federal judge sitting in the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that could have profound ramifications for the average Internet user. In the case, Goldman v. Breitbart News Network LLC,[1] Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that the linking party responsible for a tweet with an embedded photo had committed …