Both the U.S. Supreme Court and San Jose federal district court judge Ronald Whyte delivered good news to the litigious high tech company. But Whyte's came with a small dose of bad as well.

By the time Warren Buffett announced David Sokol's resignation, amid questions about Sokol's investment in Lubrizol before he suggested it as a Berkshire Hathaway takeover target, three plaintiffs firms had already filed shareholder suits criticizing the deal.

Cite as 10 C.D.O.S. 5499FRANKLIN MINT COMPANY et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v.MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS, LLP,

It looks like the logjam of litigation filed over mortgage-backed securities is beginning to break. This appears to be the first class settlement of claims by investors in these securities.

The deal, which comes before the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie filed any suit against BofA, is the best indicator to date of the potential value of buyback claims against issuers of mortgage-backed securities. The bad news for investors? Analysts say BofA's $2.8 billion payout is a bargain for the bank.

We could devote a whole blog to the litigation warhorse that is Rambus Inc., but in the interest of diversity (and our sanity), we've settled for occasional roundups as events warrant. That time, loyal readers, has come again, with a pair of recent developments that lend at least a tiny bit of clarity to Rambus's long-term prospects.

In the latest win for the National Credit Union Administration, financial institutions including Royal Bank of Scotland and Wells Fargo lost a bid to dodge claims that they duped Kansas-based U.S. Central Federal Credit Union into pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into residential mortgage-backed securities.