On February 4th, the election technology company Smartmatic USA filed a lawsuit in New York state court, alleging that Fox News, three on-air Fox personalities, and former president Trump’s erstwhile lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell defamed it by broadcasting false statements that Smartmatic was part of a conspiracy to…

The Third Circuit recently decided one of the most significant cookie cases in recent memory. In a unanimous decision, the court affirmed a lower court finding that Pocky are not deserving of trade dress protection because their shape is functional, rather than indicative of their source. The court rejected a…

In a decision with potentially significant repercussions for commercial contracts governed by New York law, a judge in the Southern District of New York appears to have opened the door to using force majeure clauses more broadly to excuse performance as a result of the pandemic. On December 16, Judge…

On December 9, 2020, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a jury verdict awarding an employee more than $760,000 in compensatory damages resulting from her employer’s retaliation against her for filing a qui tam action against the employer and one of its key customers. The decision in…

Bankruptcy is a matter of federal law. Tortious interference with contract is a matter of state law. So where does that leave a tortious interference claim related to a bankruptcy petition? The New York Court of Appeals shed some light on that thorny issue just before Thanksgiving last week, giving…