Judges have suddenly taken center stage in a number of high-profile intellectual property cases playing out around the world. On Monday, Judge David Harvey of the Auckland district court in New Zealand, abruptly stepped down from the extradition case against Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom after referring the U.S. as “the enemy” in comments last week regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. In the U.S., the recently minted district judge Lucy H. Koh made a name for herself with her stunning order to remove Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet from store shelves for infringing Apple’s patents. Over the the U.K., however, Judge Colin Birss found the Galaxy Tab did not infringe Apple’s design patents and yesterday ordered Apple to post a statement on its web site acknowledging his ruling and publicly recanting its earlier accusations against Samsung. Who said IP law is dull?