Legislative & Judicial Updates

The long awaited decision by the Fifth Circuit regarding the NLRB’s D.R. Horton case issued this week in which the Court bypassed a number of jurisdictional issues and went straight to the heart of the matter.  In sum, the Court found that the Board’s finding that a class action waiver in conjunction with a mandatory arbitration provision regarding employment claims was not, per se, a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. 

The long running and heated debate over the extent to which software should be patentable has recently garnered significant media attention.  The debate is due, in part, to the abstract nature of software patents, the large awards handed down in infringement cases and the fact that software patents are regularly asserted by non-practicing entities (NPEs) against Fortune 500 companies and other large corporations. 

California courts have forged a shield for product manufacturers faced with liability stemming from the foreseeable but unintended use of their product in conjunction with another manufacturer’s product. Consistent with a recent decision by the California Supreme Court, a California appellate court concluded that a manufacturer is generally not liable in strict liability or negligence for harm caused by another manufacturer’s product, despite the fact that the two products are compatible to be used together.