‘Facilities’ Charges Not Authorized by ICAs

Venue Transfer Ordered in Patent Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 22, 2013
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Norfolk U.S. District Court grants defendants’ motions to transfer venue of these four patent infringement actions to a California federal court. All four of these cases are patent infringement actions brought by the same plaintiff regarding the same technology. This particular matter is before the court on defendants LG Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics [...]

Contest Ends Over Telecom Software Patents

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 22, 2013
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Leonie Brinkema, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendant, an Irish company with U.S. headquarters in Reston, on all patent infringement claims asserted by plaintiff, an Israeli company that sells software portfolios to telecommunications companies, and summary judgment for plaintiff on defendant’s counterclaims for inequitable conduct. Although there remain disputed issues of material fact [...]

Banking Practices ‘Bad Faith’ Claim Survives

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 15, 2013
Tags: Contract, Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Plaintiff company, who is suing defendant bank for refusing to honor a Debt Settlement Agreement settling $9 million in debts for $3 million, may sue for breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing by acting in bad faith and against usual and prudent business and banking practices in determining that plaintiff’s [...]

Pretrial Injunction Ordered in Trade Secret Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Intellectual Property, Judge Mosby G. Perrow III, Lynchburg Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Lynchburg Circuit Court grants a preliminary injunction to prevent defendant’s use or disclosure of trade secrets or confidential and/or proprietary information defendant may have obtained from his prior employment with plaintiff, before he went to work for a competitor. Under Virginia law, in order to establish misappropriation of trade secrets under Va. Code § [...]

Fraud Claim Survives in Modular Home Suit

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Contract, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Loudoun County Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

A plaintiff who alleges shoddy craftsmanship, structural deficiencies and an absence of oversight in the installation of a modular home may pursue her fraud claim against a single defendant, but her other claims are barred by the economic loss rule, says a Loudoun County Circuit Court. Plaintiff alleges that on May 5, 2011, she entered [...]

Bond Principal ‘Necessary Party’ for Bond Claim

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Contract, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Michael F. Devine, Virginia Circuit Courts

Although plaintiff Johnson Controls Inc., who provided materials to defendant Norair Engineering for a construction project on which Norair was a subcontractor, named Norair as a defendant in plaintiff’s suit to enforce a mechanic’s lien, plaintiff failed to name Norair as a defendant in the specific count to enforce the substituted bond, and because Norair [...]

Malpractice Suit Against Bankruptcy Lawyer Dismissed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Contract, Fauquier County Circuit Court, Judge Jeffrey W. Parker, Virginia Circuit Courts

A former client’s legal malpractice action against his bankruptcy lawyer is time-barred because the alleged act – persuading the client to sell his home to the lawyer, who later sold it at a profit – occurred after termination of the representation on July 7, 2005, and the Fauquier County Circuit Court dismisses the suit. Plaintiff’s [...]

Court Sets Test for Prior ‘Written Demand’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 14, 2013
Tags: Corporate, Judge John R. Doyle III, Norfolk Circuit Court, Virginia Circuit Courts

Looking to case law on a similar corporate statute in North Carolina, a Norfolk Circuit Court sets a multi-part test for a minority shareholder’s “written demands” to a corporation required before filing a derivative action, and finds plaintiff met the test for all his claims except his claim that defendants usurped corporate opportunities by developing [...]

Contract Assignee May Sue for Breach

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 3, 2013
Tags: Contract, Judge Glen E. Conrad, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Charlottesville U.S. District Court says plaintiff building contractor, who was assigned a contract for construction of an office for an auto body shop in Culpeper, may sue defendant North Carolina company, for breach of contract based on alleged faulty workmanship that resulted in water damage and mold problems that required the contractor to compensate [...]