Features

Where Does Judge Gorsuch Fall on IP?
<b><i>The SCOTUS Nominee's Opinions Don't Appear to Favor Alleged Intellectual Property Infringers or Owners</b></i><br>Over the 10 years that he has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Gorsuch's decisions in intellectual property disputes have reflected a close attention to statutory text and a preference for narrow results that hew closely to precedent.
Features

Data Breaches by Employees<br><b><i><font="-1">How to Keep Your Company Out of the Headlines</b></i></font>
The more we understand about how data breach incidents originate and propagate, the more likely we are to shift focus from outsider hackers to insider (employee) threats. Insider threats can be malicious, but often they are accidental.
Features

Do Your Employment Practices Violate Antitrust Law? They Might!
Did you know that your employment practices could violate antitrust law? This is the message to be gleaned from joint guidance recently issued by the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division. The Agencies issued this guidance to remind employers that, like any other market, the job market is subject to antitrust laws.
Features

Beware the W-2 Phishing Scam
In 2016, numerous businesses fell victim to a surge of phishing scams involving W-2 forms. In response, the IRS sent a broad consumer alert regarding these schemes after seeing an approximate 400% surge in phishing and malware attacks during the 2016 season. As the tax filing season ramps up for 2017, we have already seen a number of successful attempts to obtain W-2 forms from unsuspecting employees.
Features

Cybersecurity Insurance<br><b><i><font="-1">Untangling the Mystery</b></i></font>
High-profile breaches have encouraged many businesses to proactively assess their cyber liabilities, and implement prevention and response plans. Fortunately, there are more technology options available to protect businesses than ever before, and both the U.S. government and private industry have made great strides in understanding and combating some of the most common cyber threats.
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FinTech Pressure on Equipment Finance Companies Serving SMB Markets<br><b><i><font="-1">Challenges and Opportunities</b></i></font>
This article discusses the initial impact of FinTechs and resulting opportunities and challenges, including strategies for recovering non-performing loans and leases within the fast-paced FinTech business model.
Features

Implications of U.S. Supreme Court Justices' Comments During 'Slants' Trademark Dispute Oral Arguments
Nearly 70 years after it became law, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in January on whether §2(a) of the Lanham Act violates the First Amendment. The case, <i>Lee v. Tam,</i> focuses on the provision that forbids registration of trademarks that "disparage" people, institutions, beliefs or national symbols.
Features

Paul McCartney's Suit over Songs' Recapture Rights
Paul McCartney has long wanted to reclaim ownership of his share of the copyrights to "Love Me Do," "Ticket to Ride" and numerous other Beatles hits he co-wrote with John Lennon. But the unfavorable December 2016 decision by a British judge in a copyright termination dispute involving the 1980's hitmakers Duran Duran raised some doubts — at least in the minds of Sony/ATV Music Publishing and its counsel — about whether the U.S. copyright law rights can supersede valid contracts assigning away musical rights and also prevent Paul McCartney from exercising his termination rights.
Features

The Continuing Evolution of the False Claims Act
The number of lawsuits brought under the False Claims Act continues to increase. In these cases, the United States government is the real party in interest, while individual relators (also known as "whistleblowers") may bring a complaint on behalf of the government.
Features

New Hockey Team's Trademark Dispute Nothing New
What happens in Vegas does not necessarily stay in Vegas. Such was the recent ruling by the USPTO that denied registration of the trademarks "Las Vegas Golden Knights" and "Vegas Golden Knights" to the newest NHL franchise, due to their similarity to Golden Knights of the College of Saint Rose, a mark owned by a small college in Albany, NY.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
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- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›
- What Does 2024 Hold for Cybersecurity?Our annual poll of experts on the trends and developments to watch out for in 2024 in AI, data privacy, cybersecurity, e-discovery and more.Read More ›