Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation in courts around the world, with multiple rulings in the last month alone. Some commentators have noted that this legal strategy has been an effort to influence the marketplace from the courtroom [JURIST op-ed]. Earlier this week the Dutch Rechtbank's-Gravenhage [official website, in Dutch] court ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple software patent for user input and date manipulation through a "multi-touch" touch screen. Similarly, only a week ago, a UK court also ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple design patent. Ten days ago, Apple appealed a Tokyo District Court ruling [JURIST report] which dismissed the company's claim that Samsung had infringed on its patents. At the beginning of the month, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] reversed an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung that prevented it from selling its Galaxy Nexus product. Likewise and only a week prior, a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] lifted an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung which banned the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 product.

This is the third time Ressam has been sentenced for his terrorism conviction. In December 2008 the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] reissued a 22-year sentence which was later rejected as too lenient [JURIST reports] by a federal appeals court. In May 2008 the US Supreme Court [official website] voted 8-1 to uphold [JURIST report] Ressam's conviction. The court reversed the judgment [JURIST report] of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and ruled that Ressam could be convicted and sentenced under a law [18 USC § 844 text] punishing the carrying of explosives while committing a felony even if the explosives were not related to the felony offense.

Campaign finance [JURIST news archive] has received significant national attention over the past year, especially in Illinois. In September the Seventh Circuit upheld [JURIST report] a state law requiring all organizations to disclose their funding sources, including groups that do not focus on elections. In March a judge for the Northern District struck down [JURIST report] two recently enacted parts of the Illinois Election Code [text] also designed to cap campaign contributions. Illinois Election Code revisions and campaign contribution restrictions were passed in 2009 as part of reform efforts following the indictment of former governor Rod Blagojevich [personal website; JURIST news archive], who was arrested [JURIST report] in December 2008 on corruption charges that included the allegation that he conspired to sell the Senate seat left vacant by US President Barack Obama.

The "Detainee Policies" show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark space where law and rights do not apply, where persons can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S. Department of Defense. It shows the excesses of the early days of war against an unknown "enemy" and how these policies matured and evolved, ultimately deriving into the permanent state of exception that the United States now finds itself in, a decade later.

The US government has struggled to deal with the release of confidential files on Wikileaks. Army Col. Denise Lind in June ordered [JURIST report] the prosecution in the case against Pfc. Bradley Manning [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] to submit to her a number of files that were allegedly withheld from the defense during discovery. Manning is accused of transferring more than 700,000 confidential documents and video clips to Wikileaks, the largest intelligence leak is US history. Manning's defense has argued the leaks did not hurt US national security, but the US Army has responded that Manning's actions indirectly aided al Qaeda. Manning was formally charged [JURIST report] in February with 22 counts, including aiding the enemy, under the Espionage Act. In April 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing the Guantanamo Files [JURIST report], a collection of more than 700 classified documents relating to the evidence and treatment of almost all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay between 2002 and 2008. In December 2010, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized [JURIST report] actions by governments and corporations worldwide to cut off funding to WikiLeaks, saying it could violate the website's rights to free expression.

Courts around the world continue to grapple with legal issues surrounding surrogacy. In August a judge for Australia's Queensland District Court defined the term "conception" [JURIST report] as the act of getting pregnant. The definition was crucial because the Queensland Surrogacy Act of 2010 [text, PDF] requires that surrogacy arrangements be signed "before the child is conceived." In May, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, issued two rulings [JURIST report] expanding the rights of nonbiological gay and lesbian parents. In one case, the court ruled [opinion, PDF] 7-0 that a lesbian can assert parental rights over the biological child of her partner, reversing a lower court decision [JURIST report]. In a separate case, the court ruled [opinion, PDF] 4-3 that a lesbian could seek child support from her former partner.

Combating corruption within the judicial system is important in order to strengthen judicial credibility and independence. Thus, the establishment of internal and external mechanisms of accountability for judges, prosecutors and the court staff is imperative. Any such mechanisms should be developed with the full participation and consent of the actors concerned.

Last year Knaul's report focused on the need for gender equality in criminal justice systems [JURIST report]. Knaul said that "[g]iven the historical and pervasive discrimination against women throughout the world, we have to look at how women are represented and treated in the criminal justice system." Knaul stressed the necessity of integrating gender perspective into judicial procedures to allow women's perspectives to challenge the "traditional notions of judging and judicial authority." The report included a number of recommendations to states on how to improve gender equality in their criminal justice systems, including identifying judicial regions most affected by gender-based discrimination, encouraging women to apply for high level criminal justice positions, and providing training geared on gender equality and women's rights.

Microsoft had to display a screen enabling all Windows users to easily choose their preferred web browser. This gave consumers a real choice to use the product that best suited their needs. However, when Microsoft launched Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in February 2011, the choice screen was no longer displayed. Microsoft has acknowledged this. This means that those users have not seen the choice screen in the period from February 2011 to July 2012.

The EU and Microsoft have been engaged in several legal battles in recent years. In June an EU court upheld several fines against Microsoft [JURIST report] for failing to comply with an EC order. Microsoft appealed the $1.3 billion fine in May 2011, arguing [JURIST report] that the fine was excessive and that the law was unclear. In March 2011 Microsoft filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the EC over alleged anticompetitive practices by Google [corporate website], which is under investigation [JURIST report] by the EC for allegations of manipulation of search results to highlight Google's own products and services. In October 2007 Microsoft said it would take the necessary steps [JURIST report] to comply with a 2004 EC antitrust ruling [text]. The software company agreed to allow open source software developers to access and use interoperability information, reduce the royalties for a worldwide license, and make agreements between third party developers and Microsoft enforceable before the High Court in London.

well knowing his fiduciary responsibilities to Goldman Sachs, brazenly disclosed material non-public information to Mr. Rajaratnam at the very time, September and October 2008, when our financial institutions were in immense distress and most in need of stability, repose, and trust.

Rajaratnam, Gupta's co-conspirator, began his 11-year prison sentence at a Massachusetts military base last December after he was sentenced [JURIST reports] a month earlier. Along with his prison sentence, he was given a $92.8 million fine, the largest ever imposed on an individual for insider training. He was convicted [JURIST report] of 14 counts of insider trading. Goldman-Sachs settled for $550 million [JURIST report] with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] in 2010 after the SEC filed suit [JURIST report] against the company for securities fraud.

We have not yet achieved a world free from torture, but we believe that this goal is achievable, that rights and duties need to be taken seriously, and that supervisory organs with independent experts are an essential component to achieving that goal.

Torture is a worldwide problem that the UN and human rights groups have been working to abolish. Earlier this month, Amnesty International [advocacy website] reported that Rwanda has been subjecting its citizens [JURIST report] to unlawful detention, enforced disappearances and torture. Also this month, the British government announced that it would allow three Kenyans to sue for torture [JURIST report] they suffered in the 1950s while in detention under the British Colonial Administration. Two days earlier a Turkish court sentenced [JURIST report] two prison guards and a prison director to life in prison for the torture and killing of an anti-government activist. The UN last month also called on Georgia to investigate torture in its prisons [JURIST report] after a video of the alleged torture and rape of prisoners in its capital became public.