Compliance and Ethics reporting to the GC: At Raytheon, the Chief Ethics Officer and the Chief Compliance Officer both report directly to Jay B. Stephens, the General Counsel. Stephens reports directly to the CEO and to Raytheon’s Board of Directors. These facts came from an interview of Stephens in Met. Corp. Counsel, Aug. 2005 at 33, which also mentioned that the Audit Committee of the Board gets a quarterly report of issues, and it can “initiat[e] its own investigation using independent counsel.”
Legal “Blawgs”. A blog by a paralegal specializes in a single lawsuit, that of SCO Group against IBM. Many people respect its coverage and analysis Corp. Counsel, Vol. 12, Nov. 2005 at 36)
Patent Litigation Insurance. An interesting study of insurance for patent litigation in the Nordic countries cited a study in Denmark. “Reducing the case cost of a lawsuit to 7,000 [Euros] would increase the patent portfolio value of Danes in Europe by 10%.” Economic consequence (sic) of legal expense insurance for patents – Survey for the Danish Patent Office, June 2001 Such a jump in value would also make patent lawyers in-house more valuable.
Patent trials to juries and to the bench. Kimberly Moore, who teaches patent law at George Mason University School of Law, recently studied a group of patent lawsuits. Moore found that when an individual sues a company in a bench trial, each side has an equal chance of winning. When an individual plaintiff’s patent trial goes before a jury, however, the individual is significantly more likely to win. Law departments need to realize the extent of jury bias, and try harder to avoid jury trials, Moore says. Corp. Legal Times, Vol. 7, Nov. 2005 at 34 (See my post of May 4, 2005 about Massachusetts data.)