Commercial Law

Features

2016 is in full swing and we will soon be conducting the 2016 Mattern & Associates Cost Recovery Survey. We've been conducting this bi-annual survey since 2004 and, during that time, it has become an industry resource for tracking the cost recovery practices of law firms across size and geography.

Features

On Feb. 5, 2016, in <i>TriVascular, Inc. v. Samuels, </i> the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the written decision of the PTABin an <i>Inter Partes</i> Review. In particular, the court affirmed the Board's conclusion that the '575 patent was not invalid as being obvious over the prior art of record despite the Board's initial institution of the IPR based on obviousness grounds.

Features

The producers of the movie <i>The Hurt Locker</i> had a First Amendment right to fictionalize the experience of a U.S. Army explosives technician in the Iraq war, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled.

Features

Fame, they say, is fleeting ' but the brands and value they create are not. Little wonder the adopted names of certain stars become not only brands in the popular imagination, but also legally defended rights and trademarks.

Features

Is financing or leasing drones a flight of fancy or a real business opportunity for lenders and lessors? In this article, we show that, properly structured, opportunities for financing and leasing commercial drones exist today, but will grow rapidly in the foreseeable future for lenders and lessors ("financiers") as the drone industry produces ever more sophisticated equipment and services.

Features

The character of a franchise prospect seems relevant. Franchisors want trustworthy participants in the franchise system. A credit report and a criminal history search seem reasonable to screen out undesirables. Roughly one in four adults has some criminal history that would show up on a search, and some of these crimes have since been decriminalized. Using searches of criminal histories and credit reports can also be racially discriminatory.

Features

For the second time in three years, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to consider important questions under the Copyright Act at the behest of Supap Kirtsaeng, a tenacious Thai math professor. In 2013, the Supreme Court handed Kirtsaeng an important victory in a litigation brought against him by a major publisher, holding that a copyrighted work published and purchased abroad may be resold in the United States without the permission of the copyright holder.

Features

Under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), a secured party can perfect its lien on certain of a debtor's assets by the filing of a UCC-1 financing statement. However, Section 9-509 of the UCC provides that a party may file such a financing statement only if the debtor authorizes the filing: either expressly in an authenticated record or, more commonly, by executing a security agreement.