Intellectual Property

This article walks through where intellectual property ownership gaps come from, how they surface in diligence and why they are so often tied to the way founder equity is structured.

A notorious fraudster, a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album in a hand-carved silver box, a decentralized autonomous organization, and the Wu-Tang Clan — all drawn together in a lawsuit that quietly marks a first in American intellectual property law.

The underlying story is a classic one of an artist whose works weren’t published or recognized for their importance until after the artist’s death. The legal angle in the case revolves around whether the artist’s estate or the former landlords own the common-law copyrights in the works the artist created.

A sneaker with three stripes of color and a July 11 release date shows what trademark law still can’t see: borrowed meaning.

Federal Circuit: Claims that Cover a Scientific Impossibility are Invalid for Lack of EnablementFederal Circuit: License Granting Exclusive Right to Sub-License and Assert Patents Qualifies As a Grant of All Substantial Rights

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which works under the umbrella of the Librarian of Congress, sets statutory-license royalty terms and rates. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently issued two notable decisions about the CRB.

This article surveys the contours of puffery across federal and state advertising law, examines where courts and the National Advertising Division (a unit of BBB National Programs, which provides a self-regulatory forum for advertising disputes) have drawn the line, and identifies practical takeaways for practitioners whose clients want to puff — but not too much.

Today’s challenging financial markets are leading private equity firms to hold on to portfolio companies for increasingly longer periods. New value-creation strategies are therefore needed to address delayed exit timelines. Firms should consider approaches that may not have made economic sense under shorter exit timelines but can access hidden value over these longer horizons.