New information relating to the West/Thomson merger has been placed
on the HyperLaw Web site [www.hyperlaw.com].
A hearing before Judge Richey, United States District Court, District
of Columbia, is scheduled for September 30, 1996. The Docket sheet
for this proceeding has been posted.
Also, HyperLaw has posted the DC Circuit's opinion in the 1995
DOJ/Microsoft consent decree which concerned a similar proceeding.
Finally, HyperLaw's June 28, 1996 letter detailing further criticism
of the settlement and license agreement is posted. HyperLaw observes
that the reservation by DOJ and the State Attorneys General of the
right to contest the West pagination copyrights is of little meaning
in practical terms and is mere PR. The last Attorney General to try
this (concerning the West claims to copyrights to statutory
compilations) was the Texas AG, who was prompty tossed out of court
for lack of standing.
In short -- DOJ has served up a glass that is 90% empty, and the 10%
in the glass is watered down.
[We also note DOJ's Anne Bingaman's criticism of last weeks railroad
merger as "the most anti-competitive railroad merger in history".]
Now, it appears that DOJ has to approve the Shephard's/Reed
Elsevier/Lexis/Matthew Bender deal -- would be nice if DOJ required
Lexis and West to waive the confidentiality of the secret 1988
anti-competitive market controlling agreements of citations, opinion
texts, and statutory compilations. Or, perhaps, DOJ, with its newly
asserted rights to contest West claims would ask Judge Rosenbaum in
Minnesota to explain on the record why these aggreements were sealed
in the first instance. Judge Rosenbaum still retains jurisdiction of
that case.
ALan
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:: 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@hyperlaw.com 212-787-2812 212-496-4138(fax) ::
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:: http://www.hyperlaw.com ::
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