A lawyer in Toronto has filed what has been called a novel “mass copyright infringement” class action, which contends that lawyers enjoy copyright in the court documents they create.  Superior Court Justice Paul Perell’s February 21 decision certifies a $51 million-plus national class action, but leaves a number of potentially contentious issues to be determined on an individual, rather than class basis.

The class action, which breaks new ground in Canada, was launched in 2010 by prominent Toronto immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman.  He alleges that Thomson’s Westlaw Litigator service infringed his copyright and moral rights, and those of lawyers, by reproducing in various downloadable formats, and making available for a fee online, more than 100,000 pleadings, court motions, and affidavits, the defendant has copied from court files across Canada.  There are 12,000 to 13,000 lawyers’ names, and about 6,500 firm names, on the court documents in Litigator. Read more…

A federal class action lawsuit brought last year by a consortium of farmers against the agricultural and chemical company Monsanto was dismissed on February 27, 2012 by federal district court judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York.

The plaintiffs, none of whom use Monsanto’s products, are seeking to have the company’s agricultural patents invalidated.  They said they were concerned that Monsanto would sue them if the company’s patented strains of soybeans, corn or alfalfa, which make up a majority of American crops, appeared in their fields.  In January, oral arguments in the case brought hundreds of farmers and advocates to Lower Manhattan to protest the power wielded by Monsanto in American agriculture. Read more…

Oregon resident, Paul Gustafson, and several other end-users of automobile wire harnesses have filed class actions in Michigan against American Furukawa Inc., Delphi Automotive LLP, Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Lear Corp., Leoni AG, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., S-Y Systems Technologies GMBH, Yazaki Corp., and Yazaki North America Inc.

The class actions arise out of an alleged long-running conspiracy from at least January 1, 2000, through at least January 1, 2010, among the Defendants and their co-conspirators, with the purpose and effect of rigging bids for and fixing, raising, maintaining and stabilizing prices of automotive wire harnesses and related products sold indirectly to the Plaintiff and other indirect purchasers throughout the United States. Read more…