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The Intellectual Property Strategist
The USPTO Brings New Guidance to the Section 101 Quandary
Susan M. Gerber and A. Patricia Campbell
Part Two of a Two-Part Article
USPTO Attempts to Provide Greater Clarity for Patent-Eligible Subject Matter
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
IP News
Howard Shire and Christine Weller
Kapoor v. National Rifle Association of America
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
First Department Construes Open Space Requirement
Stewart E. Sterk
In Peyton v. New York City Board of Standards and Appeals, the First Department faced a difficult question: when a zoning lot includes more than one building, can open space accessible to residents of one building, but not to residents of the other buildings, count as open space within the meaning of the New York City Zoning Resolution?
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Landlord & Tenant
Tenant’s Contractor Has Lien Against Landlord’s Interest
Stipulation of Settlement Between Landlord and Tenant Did Not Release Guarantor
Landlord Bound By Rent Mistakenly Set By Temporary Receiver
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Real Property Law
Lot Owner Lacks Standing to Compel Payment of Assessments
No Foreclosure Jurisdiction Over Deceased Owners
Questions of Fact Preclude Summary Judgment on Claims of Easement By Necessity and Prescription
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Development
Zoning Board Bound By Prior Determination
Planning Board Had Rational Basis to Require Church to Record an Easement
Special Permit Denial Overturned
Restrictive Zoning Ordinance Sustained Against Multiple Challenges
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Perfecting Film Financiers’ Liens in Copyrights
Bruce Goldner
The law on how to perfect a lien in a copyright application is foggy at best. This article sketches out pitfalls of the current process for perfecting a lien on a copyright application, and potential steps that a financier may take to help perfect and protect a film investment.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Decision of Note: 6th Cir. Says No ‘Magic Words’ to ‘Elect’ Copyright Statutory Damages
Stan Soocher
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that §504 of the U.S. Copyright Act doesn’t require any “magic words incantation” for a copyright infringement plaintiff to choose a statutory damages award, that “[t]he word ‘elect’ does not by itself require formal procedures.”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
No Secondary Liability Seen Yet, By Band’s Reps, for Sexual Assault
A federal judge in Camden, NJ decided that a Christian rock band’s management, talent agent and lead singer weren’t vicariously liable for the sexual assault of a teenage fan committed by a member of the band.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
11th Circuit Says Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Belong in Federal Court
R. Robin McDonald
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected an appeal by CNN to dismiss a libel case over the cable network’s 2015 investigation of infant deaths at a Florida hospital.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
L.A. Sees Many Moves Among Entertainment Law Firms
Entertainment practices with well-known clients are in high demand in the Los Angeles legal market, leading to a spate of lateral hires among American Lawyer 200 firms in the latter part of 2018.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Actor’s Negligence Claim over Film Set Injury Preempted by California’s Workers’ Compensation Act
Nashville Federal Court Decides Record Producer Didn’t Abandon Master Recordings of 1970s George Jones Album
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Book Releases
The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Intellectual Property
The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Dealmaking
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
Common-Area Risk Abatement: Who is Responsible?
Janice G. Inman
When customers, employees and others invited to or simply passing by a leased commercial property are injured, and want compensation, who will be on the hook for the costs of bodily injury and property damage — the landlord, the tenant, the maintenance and security contractor hired by them, or some combination of these?
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
The Bankruptcy Code’s Inherent Limitations for Struggling Golf Courses
Daniel A. Lev
Part Two of a Two-Part Article
As addressed in the first part of this article last month, addressing the problems confronting golf course owners seeking financial restructuring under Chapter 11, the ability of a debtor to reject a restrictive covenant under Section 365 or to sell free and clear of a covenant under Section 363(f) is limited and the obstacles are difficult to surmount.
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
Commercial Rent Control in New York: Back Again?
David B. Saxe and Brett Dockwell
As retail vacancies have multiplied in New York City in recent years, some in the City Council have advocated for the reconsideration of commercial rent control, as set out in a proposed piece of legislation, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act This article provides a brief, nontechnical review of the bill and the legal and practical hurdles it faces if enacted.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
A New Philosophy for Managing Partners: Building Consensus Versus Managing As an Autocrat
Joel A. Rose
An Astute Lawyer-Manager Must Achieve the Appropriate Balance of Building Consensus Among the Partners
Applying management techniques to practice areas may introduce to the firm a new take on methods for enhancing profitability.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
How Bankruptcy Courts Will Treat Cases Involving Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Richard J. Mason
This article looks at some of the issues that may arise if a cryptocurrency exchange becomes a debtor in a case under the Bankruptcy Code.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Overcoming Legal Finance Misconceptions In 2019
Ari Kaplan
As the volume of litigation continues to grow and the ability to manage it as a defendant or add to it as a plaintiff grows increasingly complex, legal costs will continue to rise in 2019 — and funding advocacy on both sides will remain a lingering challenge.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
In the Courts
Dennis Mahoney
Fifth Circuit Reverses Ponzi Funds Ruling
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
The How, What and Why of a Potential PG&E Bankruptcy
John J. Rapisardi and Daniel Shamah
PG&E Corporation and its subsidiary, Pacific Gas & Electric Company announced that it expects to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on or around Jan. 29, 2019, right around the conclusion of a mandatory 15-day notice requirement under California law. Such a filing would represent the second time PG&E resorted to protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Junior Noteholders Successfully Petition for Dismissal of Involuntary Filing
H. Peter Haveles, Jr. and Eric Winston
The bankruptcy court’s ruling is a seminal decision that meaningfully circumscribes the ability of a secured noteholder under an indenture, particularly for structured debt, to force the debtor (i.e., issuer of the debt) into an involuntary bankruptcy.
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
West Village Houses: Units Ruled Not Stabilized Despite Receipt of J-51 Benefits
Jeffrey Turkel
Ever since 2009, it has been an article of faith that a building’s receipt of J-51 benefits means that all of the apartments therein automatically become rent-stabilized. If those apartments were already rent-stabilized, they become stabilized a second time. The second layer of rent stabilization has the effect of barring luxury deregulation, at least until J–51 benefits expire. In West Village Houses Renters Union v WVH Hous. Dev. Fund, Justice Barbara Jaffe held that the tenants of 32 unsold cooperative units at the West Village Houses complex were not rent-stabilized, even though their buildings had received J-51 benefits.
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Development
Town Cannot Hold Back Building Permits as Financial Security
Parkland Alienation Doctrine Does Not Preclude Dock on Open Space Easement
Landowner Failed to Exhaust Administrative Remedies
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Real Property Law
No Duty to Maintain Bulkhead
Self-Conveyance Did Not Sever Joint Tenancy
Promissory Estoppel Not Available to Avoid Statute of Frauds
Presumption of Hostility Sustains Prescriptive Easement Claim
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Landlord & Tenant
Loft Tenant Subject to Rent Stabilization
Video Surveillance a Substitute for Part-Time Lobby Attendants
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Fighting Biometric Fraud on the Blockchain
Alastair Johnson
The use of SMS verification codes as a security measure has recently been exposed as a mere stop-gap solution because of the ability of hackers to fraudulently take over phone numbers. Biometrics meanwhile is proving to be one of the best new technologies to combat fraud and identity theft.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
10 Common Mistakes When Dealing With DOJ Antitrust Criminal Prosecutors
Eric M. Meiring
Corporate counsel should be aware of the following 10 common mistakes that practitioners make when representing clients in criminal antitrust matters.
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
What to Consider When Drafting Renewal and/or Expansion Terms in Arbitration Clauses
Elizabeth Kluger Cooper and Kimberly C. Jones
Navigating through a murky arbitration clause is no easy feat. Assuming familiarity with the basics, the following is a list of considerations that should prove valuable whether representing the tenant or the landlord.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
Patent Eligibility Remains Uncertain — Especially for the Life Sciences — Even After Recent Federal Circuit Decisions and Efforts By the USPTO to Bring Clarity
Susan M. Gerber and A. Patricia Campbell
Part One of a Two-Part Article
Congress is empowered to create a patent system to promote the useful arts, and it has enacted laws to create a patent system that encourages innovation. Balancing that power, however, the courts in recent years have tried to rein in the scope of the patent right by limiting the scope of patent-eligible subject matter.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Confronting the Company: Corporate Guilty Pleas as Evidence in Criminal Trials
William F. Johnson
This article reviews the history of the admission of individual co-conspirator plea allocutions in criminal cases and discuss why the admission of a corporate guilty plea, despite the opportunity to cross-examine a corporate employee who signed the plea agreement, does not provide the type of cross-examination guaranteed by the Confrontation Clause.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Making Sense of YouTube’s Monetization Policies
Gwendolyn Seale
This article delves into YouTube’s policies for channel monetization, explores the different streams of revenue an artist or creator may be entitled to receive for their works, and offer suggestions to indie creators and more established creators, so they can meet these new thresholds.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Reports of the Demise of ‘Gifting’ Chapter 11 Plans Are An Exaggeration
Timothy W. Hoffmann and Mark G. Douglas
In Nuverra Environmental Solutions,, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware affirmed a bankruptcy court order confirming a non-consensual Chapter 11 plan that included “gifted” consideration from a senior secured creditor to fund unequal distributions to two separate classes of unsecured creditors.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Business Crimes Hotline
Colleen Snow
Changes to Yates Memo Announced
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
The Bankruptcy Code’s Inherent Limitations for Struggling Golf Courses
Daniel A. Lev
Part One of a Two-Part Article
This article describes conflicts with zoning boards and neighbors as it relates to distressed golf course properties and the methods sometimes available in the bankruptcy realm for working around the problem of restrictive covenants that run with the land.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
Use of Arbitration In Place of Inter Partes Review Proceedings
David L. Newman
An IPR might be more efficiently accomplished through arbitration than through a PTAB proceeding, so it should be considered by practitioners.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
In the Courts
Colleen Snow
Sentencing for Two Bankers in Zürcher Kantonalbank of Switzerland Case
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Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy
Case Notes
Without Contractual Consent to Inspection, Lack of Protest Doesn’t Excuse Landlord’s Trespass
Resulting Trust Found Where Commercial Property Held in Just One Partner’s Name
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Eighth Circuit Rejects Ponzi Scheme Presumption to Protect Legitimate Loan Repayments
Michael L. Cook
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the lower courts’ dismissal of a bankruptcy trustee’s $250 million fraudulent transfer suit against two banks (the Banks), rejecting the so called “Ponzi scheme presumption” that “allows a creditor to by-pass the proof requirements of a fraudulent-transfer claim by showing that the debtor operated a Ponzi scheme and transferred assets ‘in furtherance of the scheme.’”
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Bit Parts
Stan Soocher
Complaints to Amazon by TV Show Host and His Attorney Didn’t Constitute DMCA Notices
No Actual Malice by Defendants in Libel Suit over Composite Character in Film
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
IP News
Jeff Ginsberg and Hui Li
Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Does Not Invalidate Section 156 Patent Term Extension
Federal Circuit Holds Assignor Estoppel Does Not Apply in IPR Context
Federal Circuit Reverses District Court Holding of Patent Ineligibility of Computer Security Patent
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Legal Tech: Cases Highlighting Judicial Discretion in Ordering E-Discovery Sanctions
Mike Hamilton
Three cases from the summer of 2018 reinforce some of the key themes of recent e-discovery case law
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Appellate Division Complicates the Rules for Municipalities Charging Consultants’ Fees
Steven M. Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis
In a case addressing what consulting fees (in particular attorneys’ fees) can be charged to an applicant before a Zoning Board of Appeals, the Second Department in Landstein v. Town of LaGrange found that the Town had overreached its statutory authority.
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Real Property Law
Co-Tenant Obtains Partition Upon Failure of Adverse Possession Claim
Questions of Fact Remain About Violation of Covenant Requiring Use As a Catholic High School
Mortgagor’s Letter Seeking Short Sale Did Not Reset Statute of Limitations on Mortgage
Failure to Construct Facility Triggers Reverter Provision in Deed
Questions of Fact About Whether Buyers Had Made Time of the Essence
No Equitable Mortgage When Statute of Limitations Bars Written Mortgage
Cotenant Entitled to Partition with Accounting
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Landlord & Tenant
Video Surveillance an Adequate Substitute for Lobby Attendants
Yellowstone Injunction Unavailable When Tenant Could Not Establish Willingness to Cure
Landlord Prevails In Nonprimary Residence Proceeding
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Cooperatives and Condominiums
Shareholder Can Compel Board to Cooperate With Building Department
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Entertainment Law & Finance
How Will the Music Modernization Act’s Mechanical Licensing Collective Work?
Chris Castle
This article focuses on managing change for clients affected by the MMA’s government-mandated mechanical licensing collective. In my view, far from putting songwriters on a trajectory away from the government regulation that has oppressed them for generations, the collective imposes an entirely new bureaucracy with potentially significant costs that are not readily apparent.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Conducting Due Diligence Today
Ryan McConnell and Stephanie Bustamante
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to due diligence, but some methods are significantly cheaper and more aligned to the business than others.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Author and Licensee Content Rights in Agreements for TV Productions
Neil J. Rosini and Michael I. Rudell
These times are heady for creators of books and stories that may be suitable for television production. In addition to the traditional broadcast networks, a legion of pay and basic cable exhibitors and, more recently, direct-to-consumer streaming outlets are voraciously licensing product from those creators. Much press is given to the compensation aspects of the creators’ agreements with exhibitors, but attention also should be paid to the extent and duration of the exhibitor’s exclusivity in the property in which rights are being acquired,
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Abandonment Defense Stays in Copyright Suit on Filesharing
Zach Needles
Malibu Media LLC is by now well-known as a frequent filer of copyright infringement lawsuits nationwide against Web users alleged to have illegally downloaded and shared the company’s adult films. But a federal judge in Pennsylvania recently said it should be up to a jury to decide whether the company is entitled to stake a claim to those copyrights in the first place.
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