Copyright lawyers are wondering how the Mark Twain Foundation is claiming a copyright on the first volume of Mark Twain's newly released autobiography despite its publication a century after the author's death, far outside the normal protection window for an unpublished work.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that a suit, alleging a distributor of made-for-TV-movies failed to pay amounts owed the films' producer, wasn't subject to an arbitration clause in the parties' distribution agreement.
Knowledge is power. The more you know about a purported expert's credentials before the deposition, the more effective you will be in laying the groundwork for a motion to exclude the witness's testimony.
An appeals court ruled last month that a state law requiring most online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases by New Yorkers is constitutional on its face, though the panel ordered the reinstatement of claims that the tax law may violate the Commerce and Due Process clauses as applied to Amazon.com and Overstock.com.
Customarily, franchise agreements delineate an owner's exclusive right to sell to a particular locality. But, as is the case when the Internet is involved, the ubiquitous tool's communications capabilities have blurred franchise-location boundaries through novel low-cost marketing opportunities for commercial enterprises. While Internet-based franchise encroachment is rampant, courts are reluctant to interfere with the contracts that gave rise to the franchise relationship.
Fresh off their November 2010 win for Vocal Duo of the Year at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Sugarland faced a far different contest in a federal courtroom in Atlanta, GA, in a fight stemming from a 2005 split with the band's founder and former member, Kristen Hall. The trial, if held following more than two years of litigation, could easily have been billed as the anatomy of a band breakup. Though fact-specific to Sugarland, Hall's suit raises issues that are relevant to all-too-common litigations over intra-band disputes.
On Oct. 21, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its opinion in Wright Development Group, LLC v. Walsh, addressing for the first time the scope of Illinois' Citizen Participation Act (CPA), the state's Anti-SLAPP statute.
Analysis of recent rulings.
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
National rulings of interest.
