Will the jury in Apple's blockbuster iPhone and iPad copycat trial care that Samsung "kept the shredder on" when it knew litigation was on the horizon? Barring a last-minute settlement shocker, it looks like we're going to find out. Plus, Apple asks for treble damages, upping the price tag for Samsung's alleged infringement to $7.5 billion.

A group of hedge funds and their lawyers suffered a huge blow at the tail end of 2010, when a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that they couldn't bring billions of dollars in securities claims against Porsche in the United States. The plaintiffs have appealed that ruling, and now, exactly one year later, some of the funds have followed the judge's mandate and brought their claims in Germany instead.

As co-defendants caved to Soverain and signed hefty licensing agreements, the electronics retailer Newegg stood its ground--even when the judge admitted evidence of Soverain's lucrative licenses with Amazon and The Gap. The jury didn't give Newegg a pass, but its verdict may limit Soverain's licensing power.

The Kirkland team gained important ground for Apple in the escalating smartphone patent wars when they convinced an ITC judge that HTC had infringed two of their client's patents.

Gregory Girard, who owns the patent underlying the Patent Troll Tracker brouhaha that transfixed the IP bar last fall, was arrested earlier this month in Manchester, Mass., after he was discovered to have a cache of about 20 firearms, plus a stockpile of ammunition and grenades. He told police he was readying himself for Armageddon.

New trend alert: Bond insurers are mad and they're not going to take it anymore. Following MBIA's suit last month against Merrill Lynch, Ambac is going after JPMorgan for breaching an investment agreement.

Olav Refvik, the former head of Morgan Stanley's global oil trading business, sought $30 million in damages related to bonuses he claimed he was owed.

You'd think after last week's big defense win that the company would be hot to argue to another jury in Marshall, Texas. But Google and the Acacia subsidiary IP Innovations have agreed to drop claims against each other in a case involving patents on Google's search engine and Google Earth.

Joe Mullin takes a closer look at Google's defense victory last month in the Eastern District of Texas, where it defeated claims by two entrepreneurs seeking $600 million.