Law Commons^™

Total Return Meltdown: The Case For Treating Total Return Swaps As Disguised Secured Transactions, Colin P. Marks

Faculty Articles

Archegos Capital Management, at its height, had $35 billion in assets. But in the spring of 2021, in part through its use of total return swaps, Archegos sparked a $30 billion dollar sell-off that left many of the world's largest banks footing the bill. Mitsubishi UFJ Group estimated a loss of $300 million; UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, lost $861 million; Morgan Stanley lost $911 million; Japan's Nomura lost $2.85 billion; but the biggest hit came to Credit Suisse Group AG, which lost $5.5 billion. Archegos itself lost $20 billion over two days. The unique characteristics of total return swaps and …

Opening The Door To Business Methods: State Street Bank & Trust Co. V. Signature Financial Group, Inc. (Note), Colin P. Marks

Faculty Articles

Business method patents require further litigation to answer many lingering questions. The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc. eliminated the "business method" exception. The business method exception used a skeptical approach asking "why should a patent be granted." The skepticism inherent in this approach may explain why the doctrine was recognized for so many years.

Since the time of Hotel Security Checking Co. v. Lorraine Co., advances in the field of science and the advent of computers have forced courts to constantly …