Amgen pled guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding its anemia drug, Aranesp, in U.S. district court on Tuesday, and agreed to pay a total of $150 million in criminal fines and forfeiture. According to the government, the biotechnology company promoted Aranesp for uses that were not approved by the FDA in order to take market share from Johnson & Johnson's anemia drug, Procrit.

Despite the efforts of Lyndhurst, N.J.'s lawyers at Carella Byrne, the Third Circuit joined other appellate courts around the country that have rejected suits against online travel sites for ducking municipal hotel occupancy taxes.

In what plaintiffs lawyers at Korein Tillery and Baron & Budd described as a watershed ruling in U.S. litigation against the agrochemical company Syngenta, a federal judge in Illinois ruled last Wednesday that Swiss parent company Syngenta AG must stand alongside its American subsidiary to face claims that the companies fouled water supplies across the midwest.

We know the Brits think litigation costs are out of control in the United States, but some feel the same about litigation on their own soil. Legal Week, our sibling publication in London, has a report on an unusual ruling from a U.K. judge ordering Allen & Overy to estimate its future costs to defend BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in a patent dispute with U.S. technology company Visto Corporation.

After three years and an earlier failed settlement, the patent battle between Spansion and Samsung over flash memory chips is finally over.