Federal Reporter, Second Series

Polovchak v. Meese, 774 F.2d 731 (7th Cir. 1985), was a federal court case involving a 12-year-old who did not want to leave the United States and to return with his parents to the Ukrainian SSR.

Estate of Rockefeller v. Commissioner, 762 F.2d 264 (2d Cir. 1985), was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that section 162(a) of the Internal Revenue Code only allows deductions against income for expenses that occur while carrying on a trade or business.

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. v. Redd Horne, Inc., 749 F.2d 154 (3rd Circuit, 1984) was a copyright infringement case of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit over the playing video cassettes in-store of a video sale and rental store. The appeals court affirmed the decision of the district court to grant the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and enjoin defendants from exhibiting plaintiffs' copyrighted motion pictures.

Selle v. Gibb, 741 F.2d 896 (7th Cir. 1984) was a landmark ruling on the doctrine of striking similarities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that while copying must be proved by access and substantial similarity, where evidence of access does not exist, striking similarities may raise an inference of copying by showing that the work could not have been the result of independent creation, coincidence, or common source. Striking similarity alone is not enough to infer access. The similarity must preclude independent creation in order to infer access.

Selig v. United States, 740 F.2d 572 (7th Cir. 1984), is a case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit related to the amortization of intangible property.

Bushey v. New York State Civil Serv. Comm'n, 733 F.2d 220, 224 (2d Cir. 1984) is a US labor law case from the Second Circuit applying the test for affirmative action from United Steelworkers v. Weber.

Miller v. Commissioner, 733 F.2d 399 (6th Cir. 1984) was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that taxpayers are allowed to claim deductions for economic detriments which are a loss and not compensated for by insurance or otherwise regardless whether the property was insured or not.

Roche Products, Inc. v. Bolar Pharmaceutical Co., 733 F.2d 858 (Fed. Cir. 1984), was a court case in the United States related to the manufacturing of generic pharmaceuticals.

Rajender v. University of Minnesota was a landmark class action lawsuit dealing with sexual discrimination at an American university. The case was filed on September 5, 1973, by Shyamala Rajender, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Rajender accused the university of engaging in employment discrimination on the basis of sex and national origin after she was turned down for a tenure-track position despite being recommended for the position by several university committees. The suit was certified as a class action by the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota on February 13, 1978. After eleven weeks of trial, the suit was settled in 1980 by a consent decree.

National Gay Task Force v. Board of Education of the City of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 729 F.2d 1270 (10th Cir. 1984), was a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that upheld in part, and struck down in part, a law allowing schools to fire teachers for public homosexual conduct. It was the first federal appellate court decision to deny that sexual orientation is a suspect classification. It was affirmed by an equally divided vote in the United States Supreme Court.

Warner Bros. Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 720 F.2d 231 (2d Cir. 1983), the case of Superman v. The Greatest American Hero, is the third case in a Second Circuit trilogy of 20th century copyright infringement cases in which the proprietors of Superman copyrights sued other companies for publishing fictional exploits of a cape-wearing superhero. Although the plaintiffs were successful in the first two cases, Superman v. Wonderman and Superman v. Captain Marvel, they were completely unsuccessful in Superman v. The Greatest American Hero. The court (in an opinion by Circuit Judge Newman) held that "as a matter of law . . .

Mid-South Grizzlies v. NFL, 720 F.2d 772 (3d Cir. 1983), was a lawsuit filed by John F. Bassett, the owner of the World Football League's Memphis Grizzlies against the National Football League claiming that the NFL violated the antitrust laws by refusing to admit his club to their league.

Jablonski by Pahls v. United States, 712 F.2d 391 (9th Cir. 1983) is a landmark case in which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that a mental health professional's duty to predict dangerousness includes consulting a patient's prior records, and that their duty to protect includes the involuntary commitment of a dangerous individual; simply warning the foreseeable victim is insufficient.

See v. Durang (1983) was a case where the author of a play claimed that another playwright had based a second play on a draft script that the plaintiff had written, infringing on its copyright. The court refused to consider the process by which the second play had been created, but chose to simply compare the end results. The court found no infringement, coining the axiom, "Copying deleted or so disguised as to be unrecognizable is not copying."

In Kirkland v. New York State Department of Correctional Services, 711 F.2d 1117 (2d Cir. 1983), the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's approval of a settlement that determined promotional order based partly on exam results and partly on race-normed adjustments to the exam, after minority employees made a prima facie showing that the test had an adverse impact on minorities. The Court of Appeals noted that "voluntary compliance is a preferred means of achieving Title VII's goal of eliminating employment discrimination", and that requiring a full hearing on the test's job-validity before approving a settlement "would seriously undermine Title VII's preference for voluntary compliance and is not warranted,".

Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Georgia, 710 F.2d 1542 (11th Cir. 1983), is a United States federal court case in which the court found that the exhibition of a talking cat was an occupation for the purposes of municipal licensing law.

Byram v. United States, 705 F.2d 1418 (5th Cir. 1983) is a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that helps determine when a sale of land will result in a capital gain for purpose of the U.S. Federal income tax.

Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc., 704 F.2d 1009 (7th Cir. 1983), was a legal case where the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that Artic violated Midway's copyright in their arcade games Pac-Man and Galaxian. The lawsuit was part of a trend of "knock-off" video games in the early 1980s, with courts recognizing that a video game can qualify for protection as a copyrighted audiovisual work.

Druker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 697 F.2d 46 (2d Cir. 1982), is a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirming the constitutionality of the marriage penalty.

Donovan v. Bierwirth, 680 F.2d 263 (2d Cir. 1982), is a US labor law case, concerning the fiduciary duty owed to an employee benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Ferguson v. NTSB, 678 F. 2d 821 (9th Cir. 1982) is a landmark aviation ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down on June 2, 1982.

Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d Cir. 1982), is a landmark decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit interpreting the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution for the first time. It is notable for being one of the few significant court decisions to interpret the Third Amendment prohibition of quartering soldiers in homes during peacetime without the owner's consent. The dispute covered the housing of the National Guard in worker dorms while they were acting as prison workers during a strike. In a 2–1 decision by a three-judge panel, Engblom articulated three principles that apply to challenges under the Third Amendment. Firstly, national guardsmen are considered soldiers for the purposes of a Third Amendment claim.

Atari, Inc. v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp., 672 F.2d 607 (7th Cir. 1982), is one of the first legal cases applying copyright law to video games, barring sales of the game K.C. Munchkin! for its similarities to Pac-Man. Atari had licensed the commercially successful arcade game Pac-Man from Namco and Midway, to produce a version for their Atari 2600 console. Around the same time, Philips created Munchkin as a similar maze-chase game, leading Atari to sue them for copyright infringement. Relevant copyright case law was limited at the time, disputing whether video game graphics even qualified as fixed audiovisual works, as seen in traditional games.

Stern Electronics Inc. v. Kaufman, 669 F.2d 852 (2d Cir. 1982), is a legal case in which the United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit held that Omni Video Games violated the copyright and trademark of Scramble, an arcade game marketed by Stern Electronics. The lawsuit was due to a trend of "knock-off" video games in the early 1980s, leading to one of the earliest findings of copyright infringement for a video game, and the first federal appellate court to recognize a video game as a copyrighted audiovisual work. Scramble was created by Japanese video game developer Konami in 1981, and marketed in the Americas by Stern Electronics.

Flamingo Resort, Inc. v. United States, 664 F.2d 1387 (9th Cir. 1982), was a case decided before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that decided the question of when the right to receive income represented by "markers", or gambling credit lines, become "fixed" for tax purposes based on the "all events" test.

Miller v. Universal City Studios, Inc. is a case where an appeals court found that although the plaintiff apparently deserved to prevail, it reversed the jury verdict and remanded the case for retrial because it found reversible error in the trial judges' instructions to the jury. The appellate court found that the judge's jury instructions, which included the statement that the labor of research by an author is protected by copyright, had been given in error. The court noted that plaintiff, over the objection of the defense, had urged the district court judge to include this instruction.

United States v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 648 F.2d 642 (9th Cir. 1981), is a patent-antitrust case in which the United States unsuccessfully tried to persuade the court that a patent and technology licensing agreement between major competitors in the highly concentrated heavy electrical equipment market—Westinghouse, Mitsubishi Electric (Melco) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)—which had the effect of territorially dividing world markets, violated § 1 of the Sherman Act.

The case of Castañeda v. Pickard was tried in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1978. This case was filed against the Raymondville Independent School District (RISD) in Texas by Roy Castañeda, the father of two Mexican-American children. Castañeda claimed that the RISD was discriminating against his children because of their ethnicity. He argued that the classroom his children were being taught in was segregated, using a grouping system for classrooms based on criteria that were both ethnically and racially discriminating.

In re Petition for Naturalization of Horst Nemetz was a 1981 naturalization case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, involving whether a petitioner for naturalization, who admitted to committing sodomy—at that time illegal in Virginia, his state of residence—could be denied naturalization on the ground that he was not of good moral character, when the same activity was not prohibited in other U.S. states.

Bundy v. Jackson, 641 F.2d 934 (D.C. Cir. 1981), was a D.C. Circuit opinion, written by Judge Skelly Wright, that held that workplace sexual harassment could constitute employment discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980), was a landmark case in United States and international law. It set the precedent for United States federal courts to punish non-American citizens for tortious acts committed outside the United States that were in violation of public international law (the law of nations) or any treaties to which the United States is a party. It thus extends the jurisdiction of United States courts to tortious acts committed around the world. The case was decided by a panel of judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit consisting of judges Wilfred Feinberg, Irving Kaufman, and Amalya Lyle Kearse.

Pevsner v. Commissioner, 628 F.2d 467 (5th Cir. 1980) is a United States federal income tax case before the Fifth Circuit. It dealt with the issue of whether clothes purchased solely for use at work could be treated as a business expense deduction on a taxpayer's return.

Zaninovich v. Commissioner, 616 F.2d 429 (9th Cir. 1980), is a United States court case about the deductibility of advance payments for tax purposes.

Sibla v. Commissioner, 611 F.2d 1260 (9th Cir. 1980), was an important income tax case regarding 26 U.S.C.S. § 162(a).

Halperin v. Kissinger was a court case filed by Morton Halperin against National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, who approved wiretapping Halperin's home and White House office. The wiretaps continued for 21 months, from May 1969 until February 1971.

Starker v. United States, 602 F.2d 1341, is a United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision holding that a non-simultaneous (deferred) like-kind exchange can qualify for nonrecognition of gain under 26 U.S.C. § 1031. The court concluded that later-received replacement property under a single exchange agreement may still be an “exchange,” and that a 6% “growth factor” credited on the exchange balance was taxable as ordinary income.

Benner v. Oswald, 592 F.2d 174 (3d Cir. 1974), was a case about the voting rights of undergraduate students at a public American university.

Mashpee Tribe v. New Seabury Corp., 592 F.2d 575 (1st Cir. 1979), was the first litigation of the Nonintercourse Act to go to a jury. After a 40-day trial, the jury decided that the Mashpee Tribe was not a "tribe" at several of the relevant dates for the litigation, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld that determination (the panel included two judges from the landmark Joint Tribal Council of the Passamaquoddy Tribe v. Morton (1975) panel). The Mashpee, as a tribe and individually, attempted to re-litigate the issue several times without success. In 2007, the Department of the Interior granted federal recognition to the Mashpee, and the tribe and the town of Mashpee, Massachusetts entered into a settlement agreement.

Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates, 581 F.2d 751 (1978), was a copyright law case of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and an important precedent on the use of copyrighted characters for purposes of parody or satire.

Eltra Corp. v. Ringer, 579 F.2d 294 (4th Cir. 1978), was a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that determined that typefaces were not eligible for protection under U.S. copyright law. The United States Copyright Office had refused to register a typeface design owned by Eltra Corporation, who filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The district court held that the design submitted did not qualify as a "work of art" under Regulation 202.10(c) of the 1909 Copyright Act. The appellate court affirmed this decision.

SmithKline Corp. v. Eli Lilly and Co., 575 F.2d 1056 (3d Cir. 1978), is a 1978 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that first considered the price-discounting practice now termed bundling. Bundling is the setting of the total price of a purchase of several products or services from one seller at a lower level than the sum of the prices of the products or services purchased separately from several sellers. Typically, one of the bundled items (the "primary product") is available only from the seller engaging in the bundling, while the other item or items (the "secondary product") can be obtained from several sellers.

Freeman-Walter-Abele is a now outdated judicial test in United States patent law. It came from three decisions of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals—In re Freeman, 573 F.2d 1237 (C.C.P.A. 1978), In re Walter, 618 F.2d 758 (C.C.P.A. 1980); and In re Abele, 684 F.2d 902 (C.C.P.A. 1982) —which attempted to comply with then-recent decisions of the Supreme Court concerning software-related patent claims.

Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp. (1977) was a case in which puppeteers and television producers Sid and Marty Krofft alleged that the copyright in their H.R. Pufnstuf children's television program had been infringed by a series of McDonald's "McDonaldland" advertisements. The finding introduced the concepts of extrinsic and intrinsic tests to determine substantial similarity.

Wainwright Securities v. Wall Street Transcript Corp (1977) was a case in which a weekly newspaper was found to have infringed on the copyright of a publisher of reports that analyzed corporate finances, risks and opportunities. The newspaper's defense that the findings of such reports were news items was rejected, since the newspaper was found to have violated copyright through substantial similarities with the expression used in the Wainwright reports.

Gay Lib v. University of Missouri, 558 F. 2d 848 (8th Cir. 1977), was a court case in 1977 about discrimination in student group recognition at state universities, namely the University of Missouri. The case reached the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The courts determined that "the University, acting here as an instrumentality of the State, has no right to restrict speech or association 'simply because it finds the views expressed to be abhorrent'."

Robertson v. National Basketball Association, 556 F.2d 682 (2d Cir. 1977), was an antitrust lawsuit filed by American basketball player Oscar Robertson against the National Basketball Association (NBA). Filed in 1970, the lawsuit was settled in 1976 and resulted in the free agency rules now used in the NBA.

Monty Python v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (2d Cir. 1976) was a case where the British comedy group Monty Python claimed that the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) had violated their copyright and caused damage to their artistic reputation by broadcasting drastically edited versions of several of their shows. An appeals court found in favor of Monty Python, directing a ban of further broadcasts by ABC on the basis of violation of the Lanham Act, which could provide protection in the United States similar to that provided by moral rights in Europe, and gave the opinion that the group's copyright had probably also been infringed.

In United States trademark law, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World, 537 F.2d 4 (2nd Cir. 1976) established the spectrum of trademark distinctiveness in the US, breaking trademarks into classes which are accorded differing degrees of protection. Courts often speak of marks falling along the following "spectrum of distinctiveness," also known within the US as the "Abercrombie classification" or "Abercrombie factors". The lawsuit was brought by Abercrombie & Fitch Co. against Hunting World, Inc. regarding Abercrombie's trademark on the word "Safari", and resulting in Abercrombie's loss of the trademark.

Olk v. United States, 536 F.2d 876, 76-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) ¶ 9484 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 920, 97 S. Ct. 317 (1976), was a case decided before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which dealt with the question of whether tips (or "tokes") to casino dealers were taxable as income to the dealers under Internal Revenue Code section 61 or, alternatively, nontaxable gifts under Internal Revenue Code section 102(a).

Reyher v. Children's Television Workshop (2d Cir. 1976) was a case where the author and illustrator of a children's book sued a company that had published a TV skit and a magazine story with a similar title and plot, claiming copyright infringement. The story was based on an old Russian folk tale. The court found that the plot or theme was not subject to copyright, and there had been no infringement since the book and the story or skit were quite different in all other respects. The court used the "total concept and feel" standard in reaching their decision.