The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a judgment entered in favor of a group of franchisees who sued for breach of contract when the franchisor charged them royalties and fees that the parties negotiated specifically to exclude from their franchise agreements.
Arbitration provider JAMS is staying neutral, sort of, on an entertainment litigator's claim that it favors big studios in arbitrations and mediations. The claim, made by Bird Marella partner Ronald Nessim in a law review this summer, is essentially that JAMS has a lock on studio business, with the overwhelming majority of studio contracts reviewed by Nessim naming JAMS as the dispute resolution provider.
DJ Logic" Loses Trademark Suit
Second Circuit Affirms Jury Instruction That Cited Only Part of Copyright Act's List of Fair Use Factors
Ticket Sales of Just $180 Don't Bar Statutory Damages of $7,000 Per Song Infringed
Because 'information that an individual shares through social networking websites like Facebook may be copied and disseminated by another,' the expectation that such information is private, in the traditional sense of the word, is not a reasonable one.
The world of free online video games is a big business, including for some law firms. The games derive much of their revenue from a tiny sliver of users who pay real-world money for virtual currency to hasten their advancement or refill their pretend coffers. Plaintiffs in the string of suits claim that the games run afoul of various states' laws by running thinly veiled gambling enterprises.
In the last few years, every college football fan became familiar with "Johnny Football," "The Honey Badger," and "Famous Jameis." These recognizable names are not only associated with Heisman-quality talent, but also with the new world of student athlete trademark registrations.
The issue of damages remains a hot topic at the Federal Circuit, with patentees being continuously reminded that damages must be apportioned to account for the value of patented features, as opposed to unpatented features, of an accused product. However, the vast majority of these cases involve apportionment in the context of reasonable royalties. Very little has been said about apportionment in a lost profits analysis.
Billions of people use the Internet for work-related purposes. According to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, the fastest growing demographic for Internet workers is people aged 45 to 54. This is the same age group that is most likely to engage in workplace injury litigation.
Businesses regularly lose precious data, sometimes even "the crown jewels," through trade secret theft by departing employees, unscrupulous contractors and others. Although trade secret theft is estimated to cause billions of dollars in damage every year, no federal civil claim for trade secret misappropriation currently exists. State laws govern these assets, and they are inconsistently applied. Relief may be in sight.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently announced that two major piracy websites, Popcorn Time and YTS, were shuttered following pro-MPAA court rulings in Canada and New Zealand.
