The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled as a matter of first impression that license negotiations related to reasonable royalties and damages are not privileged.

The tobacco industry got some bad news from the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, as the justices refused to grant certiorari in five so-called Engle progeny cases facing R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris in Florida, where more than 7,000 individual smoker suits are pending in state and federal court.

Edward Avery has pleaded guilty to charges that he sexually abused a 10-year-old boy and conspired with church officials to conceal his history of abuse from Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia parishioners. Whether he agreed to cooperate against two co-defendants who are set to go to trial Monday was not disclosed.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struggled to fit new reproductive technology into old Social Security definitions as it heard arguments over whether a child conceived in vitro after the death of the father is entitled to survivor benefits.

After trading barbs in the press over patent license demands in recent weeks, Yahoo made good on its threats Monday by filing suit against Facebook, accusing it of infringing 10 Yahoo patents through core features of its website, including its news feed, privacy controls and pay-per-click advertisements.