Features
Supreme Court Rules on Copyright Restoration for Foreign Works
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution did not bar Congress from extending copyright protection to previously free foreign works, such as Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf.
Features
<b>Counsel Concerns</b>Singer Toni Basil's Malpractice Suit Was Filed Too Late
Singer Toni Basil's legal malpractice suit against the attorney and firm who, she argued, did not adequately protect her rights to her 1980s pop standard "Mickey," must be dismissed as time barred, a New York appellate court ruled.
Features
Recourse Strategies In the New Age of .XXX Domain Names
As the dust settled following the close of Landrush, however, the last (and potentially most contentious) leg of the launch commenced. General availability began on Dec. 6, and .XXX domains are being allocated on a first come basis. Now is the time for trademark, domain name and brand owners to purchase .XXX domains to proactively race to stake a claim in their brand if only as a defensive measure to prevent other domain owners from registering/using their name in a .XXX context. It's a showdown at the .XXX corral.
Misrepresentation Claim over Song in DVD Is Dismissed
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri dismissed an unusual "misrepresentation-by-implication" claim brought under the Lanham Act. In the case, the plaintiffs' composition "I Am the Greatest" had been included in the defendants' DVD AND1' Mixtape' X.
Features
Unsettled Issues Are Raised By Bid to Terminate Copyright Grants in Village People Songs
To complement our recent article on the termination of rights under copyright in sound recordings, we focus here on termination of rights under copyright in musical compositions ' and particularly on the pending lawsuit in California in which rights in some iconic songs made famous by the Village People are in dispute.
Technology Can Cap Internet Facilitators' Liability
Advances in Internet technology have increased facilitators' capacity to ameliorate Internet bad acts automatically. Failure to employ such technology may result in more liability for Internet facilitators for preventing bad acts online.
UGC Campaigns and Right of Publicity
It is rights-of-publicity claims, because they are treated as property rather than as personal rights, and not other types of privacy claims, which are merely personal, that some courts have excluded from Communications Decency Act (CDA) immunity as a form of intellectual property.
An e-Cheapskate's Guide to Contracts
When confronted by contract after contract, day after day, which ones should an e-commerce executive actually read, so that she can spend some time running the business requiring all those contracts, and maybe even make some money?
The Balance Sheet
This article is the second installment in an ongoing series focusing on accounting and financial matters for corporate counsel.
e-Discovery Evolved: 2011 DIY Discovery Trends
By now, most corporations and law firms understand the complexities and realities of eDiscovery, and many organizations are re-examining their e-discovery processes and tools to gain efficiencies and reduce costs across the Electronic Data Reference Model (EDRM). With more options than ever before, litigation support professionals, lawyers and IT staff are grappling with these questions: Can my organization better manage costs and increase control over discovery by bringing e-discovery tools in-house or in-firm? Which components of the…
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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 ›
- 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 ›