Third-party litigation funding may be the new, new thing, but there are some unforeseen kinks. In a patent case against Facebook, a federal judge has ordered the plaintiff to turn over documents to Facebook's lawyers, ruling that if litigation funders saw the documents, they're not protected by privilege.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge sanctioned hedge fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt on Friday, finding that he traded on non-public information as a named plaintiff in a shareholder class action that sought to block a merger between telecom companies Occam Networks and Calix Inc.