A dozen Am Law firms failed to convince a federal judge in San Francisco to throw out claims that many of the world's leading consumer electronics companies conspired to fix prices for CD, DVD and Blu Ray recordable and rewritable drives.

On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether Monsanto can claim patent protection for later-generation seed grown from its patented line of genetically modified soybean seed. The case has implications for other self-replicating technologies such as stem cells and vaccines.