At one time or another, every trademark holder must deal with infringement on the Internet. After years of chasing individual infringers, many brand owners seek relief from those who provide the means for infringement. Yet these efforts have had limited success, at least in the United States. In some jurisdictions, search engines have avoided liability for sales of trademarks as keywords, under the doctrine of non-trademark use.
Last month, we published an article discussing the patent application foreign filing license requirements for various countries, including the United States. As the issue went to press, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") issued a Federal Register Notice warning patent applicants that the exportation of information relating to technologies developed in the United States to foreign countries for purposes of preparing patent applications to be filed in the United States is subject to clearance review by the Bureau of Industry and Security ("BIS") of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Here is the update.
Failure to follow the purpose and logic of precedent risks irrational outcomes and unjust results. These risks are apparent in recent efforts to apply a "future benefits" rule in cases alleging bad faith by commercial insurers.
What is a garnishment? Part One of this two-part series explains in depth.
Now can I ship wine to out-of-state consumers? That's what people at wineries, and even retailers, have been asking e-commerce counsel since the Supreme Court decided Granholm v. Heald, which struck down wine-shipping regulations in Michigan and New York as discriminatory under the Dormant Commerce Clause. There are at least 50 answers to the question.
Who's doing what; who's moving where.
Recent high-profile cases of interest to you and your practice.
Accustomed to manning the ramparts in defense of its landlord client's form of lease, it is always a bit unsettling for a landlord's lawyer to be advised by its client that "for this national tenant, we must work from the tenant's form of lease." Suddenly, instead of engaging in the familiar determination of which of the tenant's requested lease revisions are acceptable to the landlord, the lawyer is faced with determining which essential provisions of a lease from landlord's perspective are either entirely or substantially missing from the tenant's form of lease and then negotiating to include such provisions.
Both Labor Law '240(1) and '241(6) impose a nondelegable duty on property owners to provide specified protections to workers. This duty exists regardless of whether or not the owner controlled, directed, or supervised the work. As the courts have repeatedly observed, the imposition of this duty protects workers, by placing ultimate responsibility for their safety upon owners and contractors, instead of on the workers themselves.
Substantial portions of commercial space are commonly available via sublease. In comparison with a direct lease (which customarily becomes effective upon execution and delivery by the Landlord and the Tenant), a sublease usually only becomes effective if and when the Sublandlord and Subtenant execute and deliver the Sublease and the Master Landlord executes and delivers a Consent to Sublease.
