Commercial Law

  • Castle Defense

    The battle over expert testimony on patent damages harkens back to the middle ages when would-be attackers developed new strategies for laying siege to a castle, defensive counter-measures were developed to thwart those siege tactics. As plaintiffs have introduced expert testimony based on novel patent damages theories, defendants have asked courts to fulfill their gatekeeping role by preventing certain types of expert testimony from reaching the jury.

    February 28, 2015Rudy Kim and Michelle Yang

  • Time Tracker by eBillity

    For more than a decade we tracked our lawyers' time and generated bills using various iterations of Sage Timeslips, which ran on a backend server tucked away in our office. But over the last several years, we noticed Timeslips began to slow down. It reached the point that time tracking and billing, an unpleasant and time-consuming distraction at the best of times, became far more painful than it needed to be.

    February 28, 2015Josh F. Young

  • Upcoming Event

    SXSW Music Conference 2015 CLE Program

    January 31, 2015ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • The Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing Under U.S. Law

    When circumstances change, parties to an agreement often find that the agreement does not cover the exact situation they are now facing. Instead, depending on how their contract is interpreted, one of the parties may be able to take advantage of the contractual silence or ambiguity and act in a way that causes detriment to the other.

    January 31, 2015Beata Krakus

  • Court Watch

    Rare Franchisee Judicial Victory Sets Dangerous Precedent for Franchisors

    January 31, 2015Rupert Barkoff

  • Supreme Court Rules Trademark Tacking Is a Question of Fact

    Priority of use is a hallmark of trademark law. Over the years, lower courts have recognized a doctrine called "tacking," under which a trademark owner may "clothe a new mark with the priority position of an older mark." The key to the tacking doctrine is that the new trademark must "create the same, continuing commercial impression" as the old mark. In Hana Financial, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the question and settled the circuit split, holding that tacking is a question for the jury.

    January 31, 2015Rhojonda A. Debrow Cornett

  • Asymmetrical Reporting

    As the regulatory state continues to grow with every passing year, businesses' obligations to provide information to, and file reports/forms with, local, state, and federal governmental agencies increases. Each filing also represents justification to the IRS to audit a business (to the extent that justification is needed).

    January 31, 2015Joseph A. DiRuzzo, III

  • Information Security

    For the past few years, considerable public discussion about the need for law firms to address information security, or InfoSec, issues with their clients. InfoSec can hardly qualify as the next big thing. However, the Sony story has brought the issue front and center and, as we get further into 2015, we can be sure that the issue will only grow.

    January 31, 2015Leonard Deutchman