For years, the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit have dismissed state law claims by small inventors on the grounds that federal patent law preempts state laws offering patent-like protections. Recently, David Wawrzynski, a man who claims he invented the idea for Heinz’s new “Dip & Squeeze®” ketchup packet, filed state law claims against…

The Supreme Court recently revisited the scope of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause–this time, in the land-use permitting context. In this Case Note, the author argues that the Court in Koontz v. St. Johns properly prioritized the right at issue over the means by which the government might infringe upon it and…

In this Case Note, the author examines the D.C. Circuit’s decision in United States v. Duvall, a case that illustrates the difficulty the D.C. Circuit has had in interpreting the Supreme Court’s plurality decision in Freeman v. United States. The author analyzes the Supreme Court’s method for interpreting plurality decisions, the Marks rule, and…