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Ethereal Asset
In the past 10 years intellectual property lawyers have become the profession's “it” boys and girls, if not quite rock stars. Law firms want to acquire them and are willing to pay them handsomely. Law students see IP as their meal ticket. And, most importantly, corporations want to retain them, as executives have begun to realize that ' in the words of Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan ' “the economic product of the United States has become predominantly conceptual.”
Intellectual property law is the container that creates value for Greenspan's conceptual assets ' stuff like biotechnology discoveries and circuitry design that is hard to create but comparatively easy to duplicate. IP lawyers are the enforcers of this peculiar brand of law, and frequently they are also the managers of this peculiar brand of asset. IP lawyers are in the catbird seat ' highly desirable free agents as firms chase talent, and highly sought-after corporate counselors. Can the good times last forever? Or will IP practitioners mimic other stud lawyers by riding the economic waves and then gradually fading into the background (heard but not seen), becoming dutiful advisers to the real economic movers and shakers? Not that long ago, the prestige practice areas focused on corporate finance – complex deal work, leveraged buyouts, initial public offerings, and the like. Those practices have either matured (deal work) or cooled (IPOs), and such debacles as the collapse of Enron Corp. have put a brake on “creative lawyering” in those fields.
In many of the hot spots of the economy, IP lawyers have become players in the way that Joseph Flom and Martin Lipton were players in the takeover-crazed 1980s. During the explosion of biotechnology developments in the 1990s, the late IP lawyer S. Leslie Misrock of Pennie & Edmonds was viewed as a guardian angel of the industry. When Texas Instruments Incorporated started to milk hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing revenue a year from its aging patent portfolio in the early 1990s, in-house patent counsel Melvin Sharp was recognized as a corporate visionary. Today, when a company is staring at bet-the-company litigation, the subject matter is most likely to be an IP dispute, not a corporate deal gone bad.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Warehouse Liability: Know Before You Stow!
As consumers continue to shift purchasing and consumption habits in the aftermath of the pandemic, manufacturers are increasingly reliant on third-party logistics and warehousing to ensure their products timely reach the market.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.