Features

Seven Commercial Real Estate Investment Strategies for 2023
With the year starting out amid uncertainty and no small amount of pessimism, there are certain strategies that promise to play well amid the environment. Read on to find out what will work in 2023.
Columns & Departments
IP News
Patent Infringement and Trade Dress In the Ninth Circuit
Columns & Departments
Bit Parts
Breach-of-Contract Claim Can Continue Over Refusal to Exercise Option to Retain Anti-Vaccination Actress California Court Rules on Intersection Between Anti-SLAPP Law and Movie Trailer
Features

Duties of and Risks to Directors and Officers of Insolvent Enterprises
Traditionally, the bankruptcy risk for D&Os has been fairly low. Several recent developments have, however, shifted the landscape somewhat and altered the risk profile.
Features
Online Extra: In 'Landmark' Win for Talc Plaintiffs, Third Circuit Dismisses Johnson & Johnson Unit's Bankruptcy
On Jan. 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a bankruptcy judge's decision, concluding that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary LTL Management was not in financial distress at the time it filed its Chapter 11 case in 2021.
Features

Is Trademark Protection Going to the Dogs?
The Ninth Circuit held in VIP Prods. LLC v. Jack Daniel's Properties that VIP's "Bad Spaniels" dog toy mimicking the appearance of a Jack Daniels whisky bottle was protected expression under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court granted cert in November 2022 to consider the principal question whether humorous use of another's mark on a commercial product should be assessed under Rogers or the traditional multipart test of likelihood of confusion.
Features

Court Declines to Block Retroactive Application of HSTPA
The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act amended the Rent Stabilization Law and, among other draconian changes, severely curtailed landlords' incentives to modernize and otherwise improve rent regulated apartments by limiting the ability to recover the costs of individual apartment improvements (IAIs) to vacant apartments.
Features

Development Issues for Tenants to Consider In Build to Suit Leases
There are several issues and terms to consider related to the development process that differentiate build to suit leases from a standard commercial lease that are important for the tenant to understand to effectively manage costs and effectively protect itself from delays in the development schedule.
Features
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Denies Chapter 15 Recognition to a Case on the Isle of Man
Cases interpreting Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code after it was enacted in 2005 often addressed basic issues, such as whether a foreign debtor must have property in the U.S to file a case there. But even when there's no property in the U.S., there's an easy remedy: the foreign administrator can deposit a retainer payment with its U.S. law firm.
Features

What Rights Does Commercial Subtenant Have In Security Deposit When Landlord Files for Bankruptcy?
Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code, which governs the disposition of executory contracts, has specific provisions regarding the disposition of commercial real estate leases in bankruptcy, including the rights of a tenant to remain in possession of the leased premises when the landlord files a bankruptcy case and rejects the lease. But what rights does a tenant have with regard to the security deposit delivered by the tenant to the landlord?
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- 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 ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.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 ›