Former professional tennis player Renata Marcinkowska claims she came up with the idea for a half clay, half grass court long before IMG Worldwide sponsored "The Battle of the Surfaces" between Nadal and Federer in 2007.

In a ruling that brought back bad memories of the myriad embarrassments provoked by the previous administration's Justice Department, Washington, D.C., federal district court judge John Bates tossed out claims by six spurned Justice Department candidates against five former Justice officials--but he made it clear he disapproved of the officials' alleged conduct.

A novel tactic by a recently-founded business that purports to defend tech companies against patent trolls has set the IP bar abuzz: The company just bought the license to a patent--in the middle of infringement litigation. And it's telling defendants that if they pay its membership fee, they can get out of the case.

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.