Litigation

Last month, we discussed the fact that the limitations period for the filing of claims under the "Vaccine Act" has kept many from recovering for vaccine-related injuries. The discussion continues herein.

Recent rulings of importance to your practice.

A Family Court order that a teenage sexual abuse victim undergo a highly intrusive "forensic medical examination" violated her Fourth Amendment rights, a Brooklyn appellate court has ruled.

Review of two key cases.

New York courts continue to hold that caveat emptor ' let the buyer beware ' represents the general rule applicable to real property transactions. Two recent appellate cases, however, illustrate continuing uncertainty about the remaining scope of the caveat emptor doctrine, while Real Property Law sections 462 and 465 limit the doctrine's significance in many residential transactions.

What happens when a U.S. company's trademark is misused on the Internet outside of the United States? Short of litigating in that country, is all hope lost in addressing the problem? With the Internet and its global reach, even minor abuses are easily found and can cause real problems for a brand owner. Given the obvious jurisdictional roadblocks that exist in litigating in the U.S. against a foreign person or entity, there are some practical tactics that could prove useful in addressing and preventing this type of problematic behavior.

Judge Denies Recusal Request in Marley Family Royalties Dispute Against UMG
UK Judgment Against U.S. Videogame Distributor Is Valid in Virginia

StarGreetz, a new Los Angeles media company that lets customers send personalized celebrity videos and marketing messages over sites like Facebook and Twitter, might sound like just another Internet start-up hoping to capitalize on the public's obsession with Hollywood and social networking. But the company isn't a couple of star-dazed programmers fiddling around in a garage: StarGreetz's founders and backers are former senior executives at Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney; its lawyers hail from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Make that former lawyers, at least in a crucial case over the origins of the StarGreetz venture. In December, a Los Angeles state court judge granted a motion by plaintiff StarClipz in a trade secrets and breach of contract suit against StarGreetz to disqualify Orrick from representing the company.