The patent aggregator Acacia Research Corporation conceded defeat on Tuesday in a quintet of cases it brought three years ago against Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony, and Lenovo.

The Justice Department's novel use of the False Claims Act to bring financial crisis-related cases has landed the government its third settlement with a bank in the period of a month. Flagstar Bancorp and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office announced on Friday that the regional had agreed to pay up to $133 million to settle civil allegations that it had improperly approved mortgage loans to be insured through a federal program. The settlement follows similar deals with Citigroup and Bank of America.

The Federal Trade Commission is fighting a two-front battle against deals in which brand pharma makers pay generics to keep their products off the market. It seems to be making political headway, but on Tuesday the FTC took a big blow in court--partly because of some questionable litigation strategy.