In The News Today – July 28, 2014

“It’s good to see the right of access enforced for both media and for others, and it’s especially good to see the right of access enforced in a bankruptcy case involving asbestos,” said Kirk Hartley, writer of the popular Global Tort blog and founder of the LSP Group law firm. He’s speaking of last week’s ruling by a federal judge that a “bankruptcy judge should not have closed the courtroom to Legal Newsline during last summer’s bankruptcy estimation trial of Garlock Sealing Technologies.” (Legal Newsline)

A Georgia law “aimed at combating so-called ‘patent trolls’ (House Bill 809), went into effect this month. The new law defines and prohibits those patent assertion entities or non-practicing entities that purchase groups of patents without an intent to market or develop a product and then target other businesses with lawsuits. It is modeled off legislation passed in Vermont last year. (Washington Examiner)