Patent reform is coming to Europe. The E.U. is establishing a new patent regime that will allow inventors to file for a single patent valid in almost all of its member states, and that will set up a new patent court with venues in London, Munich, and Paris.

The ruling spells the end of efforts by the Lehman estate and creditors to squeeze billions from Barclays for its alleged secret deals with Lehman insiders. But the news wasn't all good for Barclays: As much as $4.8 billion in disputed cash held in Lehman accounts at the time of the asset sale will return to the estate.

Now that an appellate court has reversed more than half of a $310 million judgment against Mattel, Bratz doll manufacturer MGA Entertainment, its insurers, and its former law firm are fighting over the leftovers.

Government lawyers sought Tuesday to put hundreds—if not thousands—of civil cases on hold, while regulatory agencies went dark and more than 1,000 Department of Justice lawyers across the country stayed home without pay.

Standards-essential FRAND patents were big news over the past week, as was litigation over Google's moneymaker AdWords. Plus, looking ahead to Supreme Court arguments in a case over sneakers that could leave a big footprint in patent and trademark law.

The waning days of September brought the end to a slew of big patent cases involving R.J. Reynolds, Freddie Mac, LG, and others, with Verizon alone agreeing to pay more than $500 million to put two separate infringement suits to rest.

Judge Lucy Koh on Monday decided that she couldn't issue permanent injunctions against 26 Samsung products that a federal jury found violated Apple's patents. Her order applies a heightened standard established by the Federal Circuit that requires patentholders to show a direct link between lost market-share and a specific infringing feature of a competitor's product.