In the 10 weeks since the chief judge of WDTX stunned the patent litigation bar by ordering that new patent infringement lawsuits filed in Waco be evenly divided among the district’s 11 federal trial judges instead of assigned solely to Judge Alan Albright, new cases have dropped significantly. New research shows the WDTX is still getting the most new patent lawsuits. Judge Albright still got five times more new cases than any other Western District judge. But IP law experts say the raw data is deceiving and that more data points are needed, including two nine-digit-dollar verdicts during the past three weeks.
David Cole to Move from V&E to Kirkland
Cole, a nationally recognized expert on tax controversies and tax litigation, is expected to join K&E in October. His lateral hiring is the latest in a variety of moves by firms to beef up their energy practices. Mark Curriden has the details.
Austin Jury Hits Meta with $174M Patent Infringement Verdict
A federal jury in Austin slapped Facebook and Instagram and its parent, Meta Platforms with a $174.5 million verdict Wednesday, finding that the social media giant infringed on patented technology developed by messaging app maker Voxer. The case is a win for law firms Quinn Emanual and Mann Tindel Thompson.
Federal Judge: Securities Class Action Against Apache Over ‘Alpine High’ to Move Forward
Lawyers for Houston-based Apache Corp. failed to convince a federal judge to toss out a proposed securities class action claiming that company leaders misled investors about an announcement in 2016 of “transformational discovery” of a West Texas shale play called Alpine High. A magistrate in Houston has recommended that the case move forward because the plaintiffs’ complaint is sufficiently detailed and specific in its allegations that company officials knew the information they made public in 2016 was “materially false.”
Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Social Media Law Against Facebook, Twitter
A federal appeals court panel, in a 2-1 decision Friday, upheld the Texas law that prohibited large social media companies, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, from deleting a user’s comments and content even if the media platforms believe the content is harmful or extreme. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled the 2021 law, known as HB 20, “chills no speech whatsoever. To the extent it chills anything, it chills censorship.” The dissent said the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word.
Bankruptcy Judge ‘Conditionally Approves’ Brazos Disclosure Agreement After Intense Hearing
Over the objection of a single power generator and distributor, U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones of Houston gave “conditional approval” of a multibillion-dollar preliminary settlement agreement – aka a “disclosure statement” – in the Brazos Electric Power Cooperative bankruptcy case. The 74-minute hearing was intense at times because of an exchange with a lawyer for South Texas Electric Coop, but Judge Jones said Brazos’ “very complicated” 172-page proposed agreement “strikes a very nice balance.”
Brazos Electric Bankruptcy Heads to Finish Line
Brazos Electric Power Cooperative is expected to file a final plan within days with a Houston judge that will map the Central Texas power supplier’s road out of bankruptcy and toward financial stability, according to lawyers involved in the litigation. The proposed plan reduces the amount that Waco-based Brazos owes ERCOT by hundreds of millions of dollars, requires Brazos to sell three of its power plants, creates a fund for low-income residents struggling with high electric bills and raises more than $1.5 billion in financing, according to court documents filed in the case.
Cineworld Hires Kirkland, Jackson Walker, Alix Partners for Chapter 11
The UK-based movie theater chain has filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas. The case has been assigned to Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston.
Fifth Circuit Judge Joins Gibson Dunn
Federal appellate judges almost never resign; and they never ever go back to practicing law. Gregg Costa, the Houston federal prosecutor who sent billionaire financial fraudster Allen Stanford to prison in 2012 and then was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Obama, is doing both. Costa is giving up his black robe and the lifetime job security of a federal judgeship to join the Houston office of Gibson Dunn as co-lead of the firm’s global litigation and trial practice.
Costa is moving his Houston office seven blocks. His new Gibson Dunn office at is about one-tenth the size of his 3,000-square-foot suite at the federal courthouse, but he is getting a bit of a compensation boost. The Texas Lawbook talked with Costa exclusively and has the details.
Texas Supreme Court Accepts ERCOT’s Appeal over Immunity
The Supreme Court of Texas agreed late Friday to hear the two cases brought by electric power companies against the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that involved billions of dollars individually and could impact tens of billions of dollars at stake in thousands of lawsuits related to Winter Storm Uri. The two cases, which are unrelated to each other, are likely to be argued jointly because the same questions are at the heart of both matters: Is ERCOT a division of state government and is it immune from civil lawsuits?