Features
Unusual Challenges to Content in Film, TV Productions
Two recent court rulings ' one involving the movie <i>The Hangover: Part II</i> and the other the TV series <i>South Park</i> ' considered unusual issues in challenged uses of content in entertainment productions.
Features
Retired Players' Antitrust Claim Against NFL Is Dismissed
A federal judge dismissed an antitrust action brought on behalf of retired professional football players who accused the National Football League of monopolizing the market for DVDs, videos and films featuring the plaintiffs' names and likenesses.
Features
'Dora' Litigator Gets Contingency Fees, but Less of Client's Future Earnings
In 2007, the television network Nickelodeon handpicked Caitlin Sanchez, then 12-years-old, to voice the wildly popular cartoon character "Dora the Explorer." But Sanchez's stint playing a cheery preschooler wound up introducing her into a very adult world of litigation.
Features
DMX Can Obtain Its Music Through Direct Licenses
After performing-rights organizations ASCAP and BMI lost royalty rate challenges against background music provider DMX Inc. in 2010, they turned to a pair of former U.S. solicitors general to handle their appeals. But all that appellate firepower wasn't enough to turn their fortunes around.
Features
<b><i>BREAKING NEWS:</b></i> Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law
In a stunning victory for the Obama administration, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 upheld the centerpiece of the nation's new health care law ' the so-called individual mandate to buy insurance ' as a constitutional exercise of Congress' taxing authority.
Features
Crayon Shinchan
The naughty five-year-old Japanese comic-book character Crayon Shinchan would tell foreign trademark owners that although foreign trademarks ultimately receive legal protection in China, pragmatic owners must be mindful of the time and costs involved.
Features
An Analysis of Kappos v. Hyatt
Although the Supreme Court's decision in <i>Kappos v. Hyatt</i> addressed the Patent Act specifically, the decision may have implications for cases brought in district courts to challenge decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The <i>Kappos</i> decision may also encourage defendants to continue pushing against the "clear and convincing evidence" standard for obviousness challenges based on prior art not considered by the PTO during examination.
Features
Invoking the Spousal Privilege
There are two aspects to the law in New York ' one prohibiting prosecutors or others from compelling one spouse to testify against the other, and the other permitting a spouse to preclude the testimony even of a willing witness spouse. It is this second potion of the law that we will be concerned with.
Features
Hedge Fund Valuation in Connection with Equitable Distribution
Hedge fund valuation presents several challenges in the field of business valuation for the purposes of equitable distribution.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›
- What Does 2024 Hold for Cybersecurity?Our annual poll of experts on the trends and developments to watch out for in 2024 in AI, data privacy, cybersecurity, e-discovery and more.Read More ›