Features
Business Incentives in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008: A Welcome Boost for the Leasing Industry
This article explains the terms of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 that impact the leasing industry, explains how the terms in the act are likely to affect leasing companies, and explains how leasing companies can benefit from them.
Features
Termination Notice Traps: How to Avoid Common Mistakes
Often, franchisors assume there is a 'one size fits all' termination notice and that their notice will, in fact, terminate the relationship. All too often, however, a poorly drafted or ill-conceived termination notice provides ammunition for a wrongful termination claim, justification for the unenforceability of post-termination provisions, or even rescission of the franchise agreement.
Features
False Advertising: Eleventh Circuit Makes It Harder for Franchisees to Bring Cases Against Franchisors
In a battle of fast food restaurants, a local Florida Burger King franchisee sued McDonald's for false advertising, only to have the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rule that the franchisee could not show that it had standing to bring its claim, despite the fact that the franchisee directly competed against McDonald's restaurants. The ruling highlights a split in the circuit courts that may have to be resolved by the Supreme Court, as the ruling differs from the law of other circuits that generally have allowed 'direct competitors' of the advertiser to sue for false advertising as long as they allege they have been injured by the ad.
Features
A Good Deed May Go Unpunished: Parties That Voluntarily Clean Up Sites Can Sue for Cost Recovery Under CERCLA
One U.S. Supreme Court decision this past term brought welcomed news to those labeled 'potentially responsible parties' under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. In <i>United States v. Atlantic Research</i>, the Court unanimously agreed that PRPs that voluntarily clean up contaminated property may bring suit for cost recovery against other PRPs under '107 of CERCLA. The Court's opinion left certain questions unanswered and even raised one or two new questions.
Features
IP Storm Awaits Microsoft/Yahoo
If Microsoft can conquer Yahoo with its blustery takeover bid, there may still be another storm on the horizon over intellectual property. The two companies' views about what should be shared and what should be kept proprietary have been as different as Yahoo's sunny Silicon Valley and Microsoft's dreary Seattle.
Features
e-Working For a Living
No one would deny that those in the e-commerce economy 'work hard for the money,' in the words of nascent e-commerce entrepreneur and one-time disco queen Donna Summer. But is 'workin' for a living' any different for an e-commerce manager or executive than for the rest of us? To consider how dot-com employment has evolved over the past few years, I looked at a random sample of recent employment agreements to identify current practices and techniques in e-commerce employment contracting.
Features
So What Does Your Fidelity Policy Actually Cover?
Businesses purchase fidelity insurance to cover their losses from crime such as employee theft and forgery. This need is usually most pronounced for banks and other financial service firms, where employees have access to enormous amounts of money. For these policyholders, misplaced trust in a resourceful employee can result in millions of dollars disappearing from the policyholder or its clients with only a few keystrokes.
Features
To Settle or Not
Many policyholders have large deductibles or retentions in their liability policies. Insurers that agree to defend policyholders against a claim falling within the coverage of a liability policy typically also want to control the litigation strategy and/or settlement discussions. What happens when the insurer wants to settle a claim within the deductible or retention amount, making the policyholder liable for the entire settlement, but the policyholder does not want to settle?
Features
Extrinsic Evidence and Conditional Reform
In coverage litigation, insurers often treat extrinsic evidence as if it were radioactive material, and there is some justification for this instinct. Generally, consideration of extrinsic evidence connotes an ambiguity in policy language, and there are several reasons why insurers seek to avoid arguing, or even intimating, that the language at issue in an insurance policy is ambiguous.
Features
Superman Rights Are Not Part of Marital Property
The Court of Appeal of California, Second District, decided that any interests in Superman copyrights or termination rights held by Laura Siegel Larson, daughter of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, were her separate property, rather than community property of her marriage.
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