President Trump's first 11 months in office brought significant changes to labor and employment law. Immediate changes to the leadership and agendas for the DOL, the EEOC and the NLRB) have already occurred, along with reversals of policy and positions taken in court.
In a case of first impression, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana has decided that the newsworthiness and public interest exceptions to Indiana's right-of-publicity statute do apply to online fantasy sports companies that use college athletes' names and likenesses.
Companies try to protect their reputations from executives who have "gone wild" by including moral turpitude clauses as a basis to terminate executives for cause under their employment agreements. Similarly, in the context of employment disputes, companies try to protect themselves through the use of non-disclosure, non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements.
Mergers and Acquisitions
A few recent decisions from the Delaware Court of Chancery provide useful information to corporate executives who are involved in the sale or purchase of businesses, or who are involved in joint ventures in which the sales price or the post-closing profit distribution is based on certain milestones being reached.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that the Fox TV show Empire didn't violate federal Lanham Act or California trademark rights of the urban music record label Empire Distribution.
Written opinions of counsel are gaining renewed interest as a valuable tool to limit liability for willful patent infringement. A patent opinion that is competently written by a registered patent attorney sets forth the factual and legal basis for finding a patent not infringed, invalid, and/or unenforceable. However, to be effective, the timing of the rendered patent opinion may be critical.
Part One of a Two-Part Article
As of August 2017, the seminal case in New Jersey deciding the issue of the appropriate legal standard for a divorced parent seeking to relocate outside of the state is Bisbing v. Bisbing. This case is an important example that can be used to explore this topic throughout the country.
Part One of a Two-Part Article
A company that finds itself the target of a federal fraud investigation often faces the fraught question of whether it may, or even must, disclose the existence of that investigation to third parties, such as its investors, shareholders, major creditors, or insurers. The question can be even more complicated if that investigation is being pursued under the False Claims Act and arises as the result of a sealed qui tam complaint.
Just a few days after the Florida Supreme Court ruled the state's common law doesn't provide pre-1972 sound recordings with rights to public performance royalties, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on whether remasterings inject pre-1972 sound recordings with federal copyright protection.
Where the borrower's default is not in dispute, the First Department appears to have recognized that there is little reason to delay the inevitable foreclosure. Discussion of a case in point.
