Commercial Law

Features

While high-profile targeted cyberattacks received great attention in 2013, data breaches due to human error continue to be a regular occurrence. The good news, such as it is, is that today, more attention is focused on combatting cyber threats than ever before.

Features

The amount of data a company generates grows with each passing day. It is important to develop strategies to reduce the amount of data subject to discovery obligations while staying current with legal and technology trends. A strong partnership with a vendor and law firm using sophisticated data review and collection techniques is essential to navigating the discovery minefield in a cost-effective way that is also defensible and fully documented.

Features

Forum-selection clauses are commonly used in agreements for e-commerce websites. These clauses represent a very important risk management provision. On Dec. 3, 2013, in a 9-0 decision written by Justice Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a very significant ruling relating to the proper procedures for enforcing forum-selection clauses. In this article, we will discuss these procedures.

Features

Consumer advocates reacted with dismay to reports that the FCC plans to allow Internet service providers to charge companies a toll for faster access, while FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the proposed rules as consistent with the underlying goals of net neutrality.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on April 22 voted, 6-2, to uphold Michigan's ban on state affirmative action programs, finding that the court has no authority to set aside the measure approved by voters.

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In the March 2014 issue, in their article titled 'Blurred Lines,' the authors discussed a number of decisions from various jurisdictions concerning the applicability of the attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine in the context of an insurer's claims investigation. Among those decisions was <i>National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. v. TransCanada Energy USA, Inc.</i>

Features

Today's book publishing agreements typically include a grant of e-book rights from an author to a publisher. But contracts from the pre-e-book era have been contested as to whether the older agreements give the author or the publisher the e-book rights in the author's works. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has decided that the phrase "now known or hereafter invented" granted the e-book rights to the publisher.

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One of the challenges commonly facing franchise lawyers is that there are several definitions of the term "franchise." Regardless of whether the parties intend to establish a franchise relationship, if the relationship legally is deemed a "franchise," certain federal and state laws may apply. However, the definition of "franchise" often varies from statute to statute, and it may be difficult to determine whether a particular statute applies.