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February 1, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
The link below is to an amici brief in pending case before the Supreme Court in which the Patent and Trademark Office rejected trademarking the name of the rock band under a provision of the Lanham Act prohibiting registration of marks that contain “disparaging” language. The brief is by the Cato Institute, joined by various […]
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January 27, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
As we’ve mentioned, the Advisory Committee has worked with Justice Alexander on potential changes to the rules. The results are now out and ready for public comment – Notice; Proposed Amendments. The deadline is short – February 16 – so please move quickly. The notice asks in particular about three of the (relatively) bigger substantive […]
January 17, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
We don’t often delve into the criminal law decisions, particularly sentencing, but I wanted to shout out to ex-Pierce Atwood-iste Tina Schneider, who landed a victory in U.S. v. Cotto-Negrón, No. 14-1670. Basically, the trial judge, (Judge Fusté) gave a two level enhancement when he didn’t give the same enhancement to the other defendants in […]
January 11, 2017 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
We took a sabbatical for a bit while I shoveled work off my desk, but with 2017 here already, let’s get back in the saddle by making some general observations about 2016. Statistics Law Court caseload statistics have been posted for 2012 through 2016. On the civil front, overall, total filings show 477 in 2012, 420 […]
November 10, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
Time for our report on the remainder of the AAAL conference. In the last sessions, we heard from a panel of the current and two preceding Chief Justices of Texas, a panel on how the Texas court engages in rulemaking, and, finally, a panel of two veteran 5th Circuit judges. The panel of Chiefs Chief […]
November 3, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
Ethics Continuing my summary of the last AAAL meeting, as appellate nerds know, Texas is the one appellate jurisdiction that has a separate and additional set of ethical rules applicable to appellate bar practice. The folks who instigated this development gave an interesting talk on how this happened. First, here’s a link to those Texas’ […]
October 11, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
The latest meeting of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers took place last week in San Antonio (yee haw!), and yours truly is here to provide a summary of relevant learning. The first session was a panel on Texas Access to Justice programs. The panel included the Dean of a new Texas law school (there […]
September 22, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
We all knew that whether you have the original Mona Lisa or a copy matters. Now we know this matters with mortgage releases, too – even if the original may not exist. Sabina v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 2016 ME 141. In Sabina, the Law Court, in a 4-2 split decision, ruled that under the […]
September 16, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
If you’ve ever fantasized about moving to the other side of the bench, a recent First Circuit decision coming out of Maine highlights what to me would be one of the worst parts of putting on the robe – having to look at child porn. U.S. v. Ross. I once had to look at (relatively) […]
September 1, 2016 / March 4, 2026 by Nolan Reichl
It takes an awful lot for the Law Court to impose fees, and even then, it is typically only a minimal spanking (e.g. treble regular costs). So you can bet that when the Court awarded $10,000 in attorney’s fees on appeal, the conduct of the attorney at issue there was pretty … special. Lincoln v. […]
