Patent Infringement: Successful Litigation Stays the "Course"
In Sacramento Drilling Inc. v National Casualty Co., the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon addressed an amended motion to compel arbitration brought by defendant National Casualty Co. seeking to limit arbitration...more
In a recent decision, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied a retailer’s motion to compel individual arbitration of a claim brought in a putative class action lawsuit. The complaint alleges that...more
Recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Spizzirri, 601 U.S. 472 (2024) and Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, 144 S. Ct. 1186 (2024) provide important guidance for companies utilizing arbitration clauses in their...more
With its recent decision in Coinbase Inc. v. Suski, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when parties have agreed to two separate contracts, one sending arbitrability disputes to arbitration and the other sending arbitrability...more
When parties are battling over whether a court should compel a putative class action to arbitration, the outcome often turns on who decides the “gateway” arbitrability issues of whether a valid arbitration agreement exists...more
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the denial of a motion to compel arbitration filed by the plaintiff in the matter. The court noted that arbitration “can be waived in a variety of circumstances, including...more
The Court of Appeals of Maryland recently held that the question of arbitrability was for a court, not an arbitrator, to decide where the plaintiffs alleged that the defendants had fraudulently induced them to enter...more
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin’s statement has reverberated for centuries in a variety of circumstances, and has enjoyed widespread use among attorneys, in particular. This especially...more
In Rummel Klepper & Kahl, LLP v. Delaware River & Bay Authority, C.A. No. 2020-0458-PAF (Del. Ch. Jan. 3, 2022), the Court of Chancery considered Defendant’s motion to dismiss and to compel arbitration. The Plaintiff and...more
The Federal Circuit recently held that an arbitrator, not a federal district court, should decide whether a dispute arising from a technology license is subject to mandatory arbitration. See ROHM Semiconductor USA, LLC v....more
As Dominic Toretto says: “Ask any racer, any real racer, it doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning’s winning.” “Fast and Furious” is the tenth highest-grossing film series ever, with a combined gross of over...more
This litigation involved 21 parties spread across six different arbitrations in front of six different arbitrators. The litigation arose out of a dispute between two doctors, their business entities, and captive insurers (the...more
In a case where both the plaintiffs and the defendant agreed the matter should be arbitrated, the Southern District of Ohio refused to compel arbitration and denied the plaintiffs’ motion for the appointment of arbitrators....more
The First Circuit vacated an order compelling arbitration after finding that the arbitrator selection clause was unconscionable. The court nevertheless remanded the case to the district court to determine if the selection...more
PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd. sought a judgment that its dispute with Universal Life Insurance Co. was subject to litigation, not arbitration. In response, Universal Life moved to compel arbitration, and PB Life sought a...more
On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc. to decide a question that has divided the federal circuit courts and state supreme courts: “whether a provision...more
Many contracts have provisions that state that disputes relating to the agreement will be resolved in arbitration. But often questions arise as to whether a particular dispute should be decided in arbitration or in court. ...more
Construction disputes often involve voluminous amounts of discovery, including documents in the hand of third parties. And if the case is subject to arbitration, it is likely that there will be a dispute about whether the...more
As this blog has previously discussed, the availability of class arbitration has been significantly restricted after a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, we have also noted that express preclusion of class...more
In July 2018, our Construction Alert addressed the question of who decides the arbitrability of a dispute when your contract includes an arbitration clause. Is it a court or the arbitrator? How did the “wholly groundless”...more
Can arbitrators determine what issues they have the power to decide? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, they can, provided there is “clear and unmistakable evidence” the parties intended to delegate threshold questions to...more
Arbitration clauses are commonplace in corporate transactions, including those in the product liability arena. Whether the agreement concerns the distribution of a product to a seller or the sale of a product to a consumer,...more
In January 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision confirming the broad power of arbitrators and the strict enforcement of arbitration agreements. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court in...more
Taking the time to include a well-crafted arbitration agreement in your employment contracts sometimes feels like a moot point, but a recent unanimous U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales,...more
Archer & White Sales, Inc. (“Archer”) sued Henry Schein, Inc. (“Schein”) in federal court seeking both monetary and injunctive relief....more