The July 12, 2012 debut of this blog happened to cover a decision by U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land, of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, resolving a patent case preliminary injunction motion.  Subsequent entries covered decisions by other Middle District judges in other intellectual property (“IP”) matters – see blog entries of  August 8 and September 27.

Judge Land has now gained national attention in another blog, praising his application of common sense in resolving a non-IP matter before him, and featuring his order in its Daily Writing Sample.  We would be remiss if we did not call attention to the character trait praised in Judge Land, as common sense is of equal importance in achieving appropriate judicial resolution of IP cases.

A November 6, 2012 entry in the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog begins with the observation: “In today’s sample, U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus, Ga., shows that common sense and the law do, in fact, often overlap.”

That blog is talking about Judge Land’s recent opinion in Shawna Bates, a.k.a. Shawna Smith v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 4:12-CV-43 (CDL) (M.D. Ga.  Nov. 5, 2012).  There, Judge Land granted JPMorgan’s motion for summary judgment that it was not liable on plaintiff’s claim for conversion.

Judge Land’s order begins with the sentence: “Sometimes, common sense makes deciding summary judgment motions easy.”  The rest of the quoted text in the first paragraph, following through on that theme, can be seen in WSJ’s blog.