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Ranking Parallel Petitions Before the PTAB: A Survey
Get PDFTo understand the trends in recent ranking practice, this article an-alyzes a subset of ranked parallel petitions that received an institution decision before or on February 20, 2020. Using a search filter in Docket Navigator to locate multiple petitions challenging the same pa-tent, the authors identified 39 occurrences of ranked parallel petitions that challenge the same claims of the same patents, as well as 2 occur-rences of ranked parallel petitions that challenge different claims of the same patent
The Characterization of Pre-insolvency Proceedings in Private International Law
No full textThe decade since the fnancial crisis has witnessed a proliferation of various ‘light touch’ fnancial restructuring techniques in the form of so-called pre-insolvency proceedings. These proceedings inhabit a space on the spectrum of insolvency and restructuring law, somewhere between a pure contractual workout, the domain of contract law, and a formal insolvency or rehabilitation proceeding, the domain of insolvency law. While, to date, international insolvency instruments have tended to defne insolvency proceedings quite expansively, discussion of the cross-border implications of pre-insolvency proceedings has barely begun. The question is whether pre-insolvency proceedings should qualify as proceedings related to insolvency for the purpose of private international law characterization. The risk is overinclusivity of cross-border insolvency law, which, where it is based on universality and unity, might defeat contractual expectations. This article argues, however, that we should be slow to exclude pre-insolvency proceedings from cross-border insolvency law: these proceedings are initiated in the zone of insolvency, their efectiveness depends on a statutory mandate and not purely on private ordering, they interact and intersect with formal proceedings, and can beneft from the unique system developed by cross-border insolvency law. We suggest, though, that modifed universalism (the leading norm of cross-border insolvency) and international insolvency instruments, should, and are able to, adjust to the peculiarities of preinsolvency proceedings to address concerns about inclusivity and accommodate preinsolvency proceedings adequately
Alt Labor? Why We Still Need Traditional Labor
No full textWith union density falling to alarmingly low levels and dropping, many have largely written off traditional business unionism and have turned to so-called alt-labor forms of worker empowerment, particularly worker centers. But traditional unions continue to provide valuable service to the workers they represent and to society as a whole. The union wage premium may not be as strong as it once was but it still remains and workers represented by unions are far more likely to have health and retirement benefits than their unrepresented counterparts. Moreover, it is through traditional transactional business unionism, that workers find protection from disagreeable working conditions and arbitrary management actions. And unions are legally required to be democratically run. Worker centers, on the other hand, while doing a laudable job of obtaining justice for low wage workers, particularly with respect to wage theft, generally do not provide sustainable continuing representation of workers with their employers, are not accountable to the workers they represent, are financially dependent on unstable foundation funding, and, even with respect to wage claims, often have to limit their intake so as not to exceed their capacity. Moreover, while some groups thought of as alt-labor, such as the Fight for Fifteen, have succeeded at the state and local level in securing worker-protective legislation, particularly increases in the minimum wage, union-represented workers are far more likely to be aware of and take advantage of statutory workplace rights. This article urges that we not abandon traditional business unionism and suggests a few ways forward that may help restore traditional labor unions’ roles in representing workers in the United States
