In the single generation since computer litigation support became commonplace in American firms, the role of the lawyer as the primary agent in organizing and analyzing pretrial discovery has faded from foregone conclusion to marginal factor.

Ostensibly, this shift away from lawyers personally conducting their own trial preparation became necessary because of the vastly greater scale of information now found in discovery. As electronically generated communications and documents became the mainstay of personal and corporate communications, word was that lawyers could not keep up with so much information and that computer litigation support technologies would solve the problem of analyzing so many documents.

Read the full article

Minnesotans who are called to serve as jurors in state district court now have an Internet option. They can complete a required questionnaire or request a postponement online.

Hennepin County conducted a pilot test of the online service over the past two years. About 60 percent of the more than 40,000 people summoned to jury duty during that time decided to use the online option.

The state judicial branch says the online option is part of an effort to use technology to increase efficiency and cut costs.

Read the full article

The obligation that can arise to preserve documents when litigation is contemplated holds true in patent cases. There are many types of events that will almost certainly lead to a duty to preserve, such as a breakdown of licensing negotiations and conducting litigation firm "beauty contests." There also are things that could lead to an earlier duty to preserve, such as developing licensing and litigation strategies, identifying potential targets and creating claim charts. In addition, one must consider more administrative tasks, such as litigation budgeting and setting litigation-oriented employees' goals. Finally, one must be conscious that a duty to preserve may be imposed even before the cause of action exists.

On Jan. 9, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued a surprising decision, holding that Rambus Inc.'s patents-in-suit were unenforceable against Micron Technology Inc. due to spoliation. Micron Tech. Inc. v. Rambus Inc., 255 F.R.D. 135 (D. Del. 2009). The decision was surprising because the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California reached a contrary decision two years earlier, has since upheld that decision and has awarded Rambus nearly $400 million against HynixSemiconductor Inc. Hynix Semiconductor Inc. v. Rambus Inc., 591 F. Supp. 2d 1038 (N.D. Calif. Jan. 5, 2006). However, while both courts looked at essentially the same facts, there were differences in the two cases that caused them to reach very different conclusions.

Read the full article

You have just developed, or revitalized, a now wonderful Web site. You have poured dollars and time into creating an informative and client-friendly site. Or, better still, you have developed a microsite dealing with one specialty area of your practice. Now what? How do you get visitors to come to your site?

Well, there are definite tricks of the trade that need to be applied, which follow.

• Make sure that every piece of paper with your firm's or your name on it has the Web site address on it. That includes business cards, letterhead, Microsoft PowerPoint slides, articles, client alerts, firm announcements, press releases, seminar handouts, invitations, advertisements, e-mail signatures and more.

• For those sites with press kits or speakers boards on them, take the opportunity to write a personal letter to targeted reporters and groups who might need a source or a speaker, explaining and then directing them to the exact location of your site that houses this information.

Read the full article

A California appeals court overturned a ruling for Kaleidescape, maker of DVD-copying systems, and ordered the trial court to decide if the company has breached its licensing agreement with the DVD Copy Control Association.

Kaleidescape makes a home entertainment system that can copy, store and organize content from thousands of DVDs.

The DVD CCA is the industry's exclusive licenser for Content Scramble System (CSS), the standard technology used to prevent illegal pirating.

The association accused Kaleidescape of breaching its licensing agreement by developing a product that didn't comply with CSS specifications. Specifically, the association objected to the system's ability to store and play back DVDs after the disks have been removed.

It asked the court to issue an injunction blocking Kaleidescape from selling its DVD-copying devices.

Read the full article