Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Features
Before the Supreme Court's April 30, 2007 decision in <i>KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc. et al.</i>, 127 S.Ct. 1727 (2007) virtually all patent attorneys were on the edge of their seats. The decision was a clear indication that the Supreme Court disfavored the current state of the law that had been developed by the Federal Circuit for determining whether a patent is invalid for obviousness under 35 U.S.C. §103. The Supreme Court pointed to numerous errors in the Federal Circuit decision and characterized as 'rigid,' 'formalistic,' 'narrow,' 'constricted,' and 'flaw[ed]' the Federal Circuit's requirement that there be proof the claimed combination of elements was arrived at due to a teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine features from prior art references. <i>Id.</i> at 1739, 1741-42. Instead, the Supreme Court imposed a more flexible approach that sought to emphasize its earlier decisions on obviousness over tests the Federal Circuit had developed to apply the law set forth in those decisions.
Features
The trend among states to create a single legally recognizable form for advance directives and for the appointment of the health care guardian to make decisions is certainly a step in the right direction for many patients. Often, individuals do not have an advance directive, and health-care providers have the sometimes challenging task of determining who is the most appropriate decision-maker from among the patient's family or friends. Additionally, when an individual is in a life-threatening situation or becomes terminally ill and unable to communicate his or her own preferences, health-care providers, family and friends must decide whether or not to engage in life sustaining acts that may have been contrary to the individual's wishes. Completion of an advance directive may eliminate some of the confusion and stress that families and health-care providers face when trying to make these difficult health-care decisions.
Features
Author Carol A. Wittenberg, who has served on the Major League Baseball/Players' Association salary arbitration panel for the past eight years, as well as mediating and arbitrating numerous financial disputes in the securities industry, explains the different methods of arbitration that work--and do not work--in the volatile securities industry.
Features
One of the biggest areas of conflict after a lease is signed is the allocation of construction responsibility between the landlord and the tenant, but many of these problems are easily avoided by careful drafting and use of terminology at both the letter of intent and lease negotiation phases. Often, especially in the letter of intent, parties use terms that each thinks is perfectly clear, but actually mean different things to each of them. Below are some suggestions for how to handle these issues effectively.
Features
When a supervisor is identified in a lawsuit as the alleged harasser, the employer may still avoid liability, under certain circumstances, as long as the harassment did not result in a 'tangible employment action.' To this end, most, if not all, employers are intimately familiar with the U.S. Supreme Court's <i>Faragher</i> and <i>Ellerth</i> decisions issued in 1998. Yet during the past eight years since the decisions, employers have faced the brunt of scrutiny from courts evaluating the application of this affirmative defense.
Features
Like most government agencies, however, the EEOC faces significant obstacles. Its budget is rigorously scrutinized each year. Staffing is down and the backlog of individual discrimination charges is up. Concerned members of Congress have petitioned key House appropriators for funding increases to boost the organization's frontline staffing. In light of all of this, newly appointed EEOC chair Naomi Earp has her work cut out for her. As Earp succinctly stated, '[o]ur challenge in 2007 is to make the most effective and efficient use of agency resources.' In other words, the EEOC must get more bang for its buck to remain effective. Enter the agency's new Systemic Discrimination Initiative. This two-part article discusses how EEOC plans to implement the Initiative.
Features
The Work Letter (sometimes referred to as a 'Construction Agreement' or 'Work Agreement') is the portion of a lease, usually an exhibit, setting forth the provisions relating to the build-out of the tenant improvements to be made to the space leased. Often dealing with very large expenditures, the Work Letter is an extremely important part of the Lease. However, perhaps because of the varying types of build-outs, with differing parties responsible, it is a document that often breeds considerable confusion. This two-part article discusses the three common types of office space build-out arrangements to which landlords and tenants might agree, how they differ, and how those differences are to be addressed in drafting the Work Letter.
Features
Sometimes the hardest part of a leasing relationship is getting started ' establishing if there will be contingencies, when they will expire, when the space will be delivered, and when the rent will commence. Often the transition is smooth, and everything falls into place. In other situations, however, coordinating the requirements, obligations, and schedules of both landlord and tenant feels like an in-air refueling of a jetfighter.
Features
While all retail leases pose an array of issues to the landlords and tenants involved, retail leases relating to restaurants pose certain other issues that must be addressed in order to avoid surprise costs, liabilities, and delays. This article addresses several of those issues that relate to restaurant leases in a shopping center setting (either in a food court or as an outparcel location), including trash removal, pest and rodent control, parking, and exclusive uses.
