West-Thomson Update Transcript etc.

New material has been posted on HyperLaw's Web site in the last two days relating to US v. Thomson and Matthew Bender and HyperLaw v. West.

Included are:

Transcript of September 30, 1996 Hearing in US v. Thomson and related newspaper article.

HyperLaw's Motion for Summary Judgment re West copyright claims to the text of judicial opinions etc.

What's missing from the Internet and the Federal Register? The Comment letters that were filed with DOJ on or before September 3, 1996, and DOJ's Response filed September 23, 1996. These have yet to appear in the Federal Register [unless they showed up in the last day], and DOJ has not bothered to place these documents on their own WEB site, as they did with the proposed settlement last June. The Tunney Act is clear that these must be filed before the judgment is final. DOJ feels it is ok to publish the comments and its response after the court hearing and one hour prior to the judge's order. We think the Tunney Act requires a decent interval between publication of this and other material, and the court's consideration and ruling.

Today, Judge Friedman ordered additional briefing in US v. Thomson with the briefs of HyperLaw and Lexis due October 16, 1996 and the responses of the Government and Thomson due October 23, 1996.

Thereafter, it is anyone's guess what Judge Friedman will do, but a reading of the transcript shows that the Court is fully aware of the deficiencies of the government's position -- as evidenced by his harsh words concerning the requirement that those signing the vaunted License Agreement must agree not to sue West re its copyrights. After the Judge brought up this issue three times, Thomson suddenly placed this back on the bargaining table and gave it up, hoping the judge would then rule immediately, which he did not.

Alan

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


:: Alan D. Sugarman       Federal Appeals on Disc tm CD-ROM  ::

:: President              Opinions of US Courts of Appeals   ::

::                        1993 to Date - All Circuits        :: 

:: HyperLaw, Inc.         Registered Trademark               :: 

:: P.O. Box 1176          DO NOT SHORT CIRCUIT YOUR CLIENTS  ::

:: New York, NY 10023    	                             ::

:: sugarman[_at_]hyperlaw.com   212-787-2812   212-496-4138(fax)  ::

::                                                           ::

::              http://www.hyperlaw.com                      ::

::                                                           ::

::                ///    ///    ///    [R]                   ::

::               ///    ///    ///                           ::

::              ///    ///    ///                            ::

::       ////////////////    ///                             ::

::      ////////////////    ///                              ::

::           ///    ///    ///                               ::

::          ///    ///    ///////////                        ::

::         ///    ///    ///////////                         ::

::                                                           ::

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::