by Lee Gesmer | Sep 27, 2006 | Miscellaneous
This interview, which can be accessed here, provides some fascinating observations on emerging markets and their impact on the world economy. Ms. Woodall notes that emerging markets now represent one-half of world output and world energy consumption. She states:
The integration of China, India and other emerging economies are providing the biggest economic boost in world history, bigger than the industrial revolution. The first decade of 21st century will see the fastest growth ever in average world income.
An extensive series of articles from the September 16, 2006 issue of The Economist, titled A Survey of the World Economy and focusing on emerging markets, can be accessed from this page (lengthy PDF file).
by Lee Gesmer | Sep 26, 2006 | Courts, Litigation
Courts. Judge Jack B. Weinstein is a legend in the federal judicial system. A district court judge from 1967 to 1993, he has been on “senior status” (but with a full case load) for the last 13 years. Yesterday, this 85 year old judge issued one of the longest decisions ever published: the 540 page decision certifying a class action in Schwab v. Philip Morris USA, a case alleging that smokers were defrauded into believing that “light” cigarettes were less dangerous than regular cigarettes.
A link to this exhaustive and carefully reasoned decision, which may be the most significant by Judge Weinstein in his forty years on the bench, is here. Proponents of “early retirement” should take a look.
by Lee Gesmer | Sep 22, 2006 | What Were They Thinking
What were they thinking? David Fish at Collins Law, passed on this case: Acree et al v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Complaint in pdf format)
This class action lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart claims that music CDs it sells do not contain explicit language when in fact some of them do. Quoting from the suit:
Wal-Mart violated its practice and policy by allowing CDs to be sold that contained explicit content but that did not contain an ‘explicit content’ or ‘parental advisory’ warning label. This worked to dupe the very consumers who have come to trust and rely on Wal-Mart as a ‘family friendly’ store.
The case was filed in state court in Chicago. Too bad the plaintiffs didn’t file it in PRC, Massachusetts. That would have led to some amusing courtroom scenes.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on the merits of this one, but I’m confident that the attorneys who filed this suit have the best interests of the injured class in mind and do not, I repeat do not, have attorney’s fees in mind.
by Lee Gesmer | Sep 21, 2006 | Patents, Technology
Patents. Over the last 20 years the conventional wisdom has been that patents are inimical to software innovation in the U.S. Many prominent software developers and industry luminaries have argued this position.
Here is a link to a paper by Professor Robert Merges of the University of California Law School at Berkeley arguing the contrary view: that software patents have had a negligible impact, if any, on innovation in the industry. Here is the abstract:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, people in the software industry often said that the coming of patents would spell doom, particularly for small companies. The entry of new firms – the seabed of growth in the industry – would dry up, and only large, bureaucratic and decidedly non-innovative firms would remain. This paper concludes that these predictions were wrong. New firm entry remains robust, despite the presence of patents (and, in some cases, perhaps because of them). Successful incumbent firms have adjusted to the advent of patents by learning to put a reasonable amount of effort into the acquisition of patents and the building of patent portfolios. Patent data on incumbent firms shows that several well-accepted measures of “patent effort” correlate closely with indicators of market success such as revenue and employee growth. Whatever the effect of patents on the software industry, this paper concludes, they have not killed it.
Here is a link to the paper.
by Lee Gesmer | Sep 19, 2006 | Miscellaneous
Low Brow Lawyer Gossip!
Yes, it astounds me that there can even be such a thing. When I graduated from law school all those many years ago, if you had been able to explain to me what the Internet would be, and what a blog would be, and told me that someday there would be a blog devoted solely to lawyer gossip (things like what law students have been selected as Supreme Court clerks, lawyer weddings, lawyer sex, lawyers coming out of the closet, summer associate faux pas, interview faux pas, judges’ vacation haunts, rich lawyers, ugly lawyers, obnoxious lawyers, and more, seemingly ad infinitum … ), I would have thought you were barking, drooling mad.
Sadly, I would have been wrong. There is such a thing, at a blog called Above The Law, A Legal Tabloid. Jump at your own risk.
