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Alaska conspiracy trial scheduled in federal court
Court Watch |
2012/05/08 11:17
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Three Alaska men are scheduled to go on trial Monday in Anchorage on charges of plotting to kill government employees.
Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox of Fairbanks, Coleman Barney of North Pole and Lonnie Vernon of Salcha were arrested 14 months ago and also face weapons charges.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the arrests followed an FBI investigation of Cox that began in 2010.
Cox has described himself as a sovereign citizen.
The FBI classifies the sovereign citizen movement as domestic terrorism movement known for clogging the court system with fraudulent liens and lawsuits.
Cox ran for state House in the Republican primary in 2008. In 2009 he started a gun rights organization, the Second Amendment Taskforce, which staged large rallies in Fairbanks.
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Chinese court seeking to mediate iPad dispute
Court Watch |
2012/04/29 09:04
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A Chinese court is mediating between Apple Inc. and the Chinese company challenging its right to use the iPad trademark, seeking to get the companies to settle an awkward standoff over the issue.
The Guangdong High Court in southern China, is seeking to arrange a settlement, said Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer for Proview Electronics Co. The court on Feb. 29 began hearing Apple's appeal of lower court ruling that favored Proview in the trademark dispute.
"It is likely that we will settle out of court. The Guangdong High Court is helping to arrange it and the court also expects to do so," Ma said Monday.
China has sought to showcase its determination to protect trademarks and other intellectual property, but with hundreds of thousands employed in the assembly of Apple's iPhones and iPads is unlikely to want to disrupt the company's production and marketing in China.
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Court: Online bookseller owes New Mexico sales tax
Court Watch |
2012/04/21 09:42
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A nationally known online bookseller must pay more than a half million dollars in taxes for books, music and movies bought by customers in New Mexico, the state Court of Appeals has ruled in a dispute over the state's power to tax corporate chains and Internet shopping.
The court's decision came Wednesday in a case involving an out-of-state online business, Barnes&nobles.com, LLC, which was part of the corporate family of bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc.
The online retailer was assessed gross receipts taxes in 2006 of $534,563 for sales from 1998 to 2005. The company protested and a state agency hearing officer agreed with the company that it wasn't required to collect and pay the tax because it had no presence in the state or what is known as a "substantial nexus" with New Mexico.
The online retailer was organized under Delaware laws and it had no employees or offices in the state. However, a separate Barnes and Noble company operates three bookstores in New Mexico, with the first of those started in Albuquerque in 1996 and the most recent in Las Cruces in 2003. |
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Court: Judges can consider new patent evidence
Court Watch |
2012/04/18 09:53
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The Supreme Court says federal judges can review unsubmitted patent evidence when inventors challenge their rejection by the Patent and Trademark Office.
Gilbert Hyatt asked for patents relating to a "computerized display system for processing image information" in 1995. They were rejected and he sued in federal court. But Hyatt offered judges evidence of the suitability of his application that he never showed to patent officials. Patent officials asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to dismiss the case because Hyatt never showed them his evidence.
But Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the unanimous decision on Wednesday there are "no evidentiary restrictions" beyond the normal ones in these cases. Courts, however, can consider whether inventors could have shown their new evidence to patent officials, he said.
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US appeals court backs graphic cigarette labels
Court Watch |
2012/03/18 09:49
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A federal appeals court has upheld a law requiring new, bigger graphic warning labels on cigarette packs.
The lawsuit was filed in Kentucky. It's one of two suits by tobacco companies against the federal rules that would make them slap large images on cigarette packs depicting the health ravages of smoking.
The other case has so far resulted in a federal judge in Washington blocking the new requirement, arguing last month it violated free speech. That decision is being appealed by the government.
But on Monday, an appeals court in Ohio ruled 2-1 to uphold parts of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which also restricts how tobacco products may be marketed.
A lawyer for N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company did not immediately return a request for comment.
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Ohioan to plead guilty to defrauding fellow Amish
Court Watch |
2012/03/14 10:19
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An Ohio man will plead guilty in federal court to defrauding fellow Amish in 29 states out of nearly $17 million as part of a case the man's church had hoped to shield from publicity and outside involvement, the government said Tuesday.
The attorney for Monroe L. Beachy, 77, owner of A&M Investments in Sugarcreek, filed a recent notice informing federal court of his "intention to plead guilty as charged."
U.S. attorney's spokesman Mike Tobin confirmed the pending guilty plea. Beachy declined to comment Thursday, and his attorney didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.
Beachy is accused in an indictment of promising investors safe securities but moving money to riskier investments. According to the indictment, nearly 2,700 people and entities, including an Amish community loan fund, lost about $16.8 million since 2006.
The investments directed by Beachy "were not the 'safe' investments as reported to his clients or investors," the indictment said.
Beachy, bearded with a shock of white hair, is a member of an Amish church near Sugarcreek.
He is charged with one count of mail fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors stopped short of saying whether Beachy had personally profited or just made bad investments but noted he had made a living for years offering investor services to the Amish.
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Man accused in wife's death in DC to remain held
Court Watch |
2012/03/13 10:19
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A German-born man who is charged with killing his 91-year-old socialite wife and who a doctor has said was delusional will spend at least another month in a mental health hospital, a judge decided Wednesday.
A judge ordered Albrecht Muth, 47, held for another month during a mental health hearing in D.C. Superior Court.
Muth is charged in the August strangulation and beating death of his wife, Viola Drath, a German journalist. He was sent from jail to a psychiatric hospital in February for a competency screening after a doctor said Muth was delusional and claimed the Archangel Gabriel tells him what to do.
A report filed in court Tuesday said a psychologist who examined him at Saint Elizabeths Hospital had concerns about his current ability to rationally understand the proceedings against him and his ability to help his attorneys with his case. The hospital said it believes Muth's mental health is likely to improve with time and treatment, however.
Muth's lawyers and lawyers for the government agreed the hospital should be given additional time to treat him.
District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Russell Canan encouraged Muth to work with the hospital staff. Muth nodded but did not say anything during the hearing. Canan scheduled the next hearing in the case for April 25.
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