SUPREME COURT

In a land where lawsuits are one of the most important costs of doing business, the US Supreme Court can have a big impact on profitability. For years, the court declined to hear many of the cases that most profoundly affected corporate America. But now it seems to have developed a fascination with business cases, and that trend is expected to accelerate following the September 2005 appointment as chief justice of John Roberts, who spent most of his career on corporate litigation. In the current court term, 44 per cent of the cases involve business - up from 30 per cent in the previous two terms, according to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a law firm expert in Supreme Court litigation. This week the court issued its first important business ruling of the year, making it easier for companies to challenge patents in US courts. It is poised to rule in cases involving intellectual property, competition policy, global warming and "punitive damages", which are imposed to punish and deter wrongdoing rather than to compensate the victim. But the experience of the past five years shows that more rulings by the Supreme Court do not necessarily mean more clarity in the business world. Their impact is complicated by the rarefied institution's attempts to balance two competing imperatives: as much unanimity as possible among the nine justices along with enough breadth in their opinions to cover a wide range of future legal questions.