Features

Director Vidal's Impact On the PTAB: Big Changes and More On the Way
Perhaps the largest impact that Director Vidal has had upon the PTAB is has been via Director Reviews. The U.S. Supreme Court mandated Director Reviews to correct procedural defects in the way that administrative patent judges are appointed to the PTAB.
Features

Time to Think Big: What Law Firm Marketing and Bus Dev Teams Can Learn from the Fortune 500
As competition intensifies, RFPs and marketing output rise, and maintaining brand consistency across changing markets, regions and diverse work settings becomes a critical concern. It's time to think big.
Features

What Law Firm Bus Dev Teams Can Learn from the Fortune 500
Marketing and business development for law firms increasingly complex. As competition intensifies, RFPs and marketing output rise, and maintaining brand consistency across changing markets, regions and diverse work settings becomes a critical concern. It's time to think big.
Features

Cyberaccountants Offer a New Line of Defense Against Digital Disruption
As cybercrime intensifies, it is revealing a skills shortfall among those who defend our financial infrastructure. It has become critically clear that we need to radically rethink the way we prepare our frontline defense to include more experts with both technical savvy and accounting expertise. In other words, we need an army of cyberaccountants.
Features

Are Law Firms Ready for the Corporate Transparency Act?
With the beginning of a new year around the corner and the introduction of new compliance obligations under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), many law firms are scrambling to determine how they will assist clients who may be subject to these additional regulations.
Features

Student Athletes Try to Form Labor Union
Does the ability to receive remuneration for being a college athlete mean that the students are deemed employees of the university? Do employment laws apply? Are labor laws enforced? Does OSHA enter the equation? What about HIPAA concerns relating to medical conditions and injuries?
Features

Is A Real Estate Instrument Filing Fee An Unauthorized Tax?
Local governments have significant leeway to charge fees for services they provide their residents. But fee revenue sources can be attractive options for those local governments needing to fill budget gaps without raising taxes.
Features

Fifth Circuit: Pre-petition Payout of Insurance Proceeds Should Be Classified As a 'Transfer of An Interest'
In upholding the bankruptcy court's determination that the payment of insurance proceeds could be such a transfer, the Fifth Circuit underscored the complex interplay between state law, bankruptcy law and the rights of creditors in bankruptcy proceedings.
Features

Like Mushrooms After A Rainstorm: Trade Secret Cases, and Lawyers, Are Growing Exponentially
In modern times, trade secrets have long been considered mainly the province of employment lawyers dealing with more mundane issues such as customer relationships. Today, it seems trade secrets lawyers are multiplying like mushrooms after a rainstorm — coming not only from the employment bar, but also from IP, particularly the patent bar.
Columns & Departments
Eminent Domain Law
Attorney's Fee Awarded On Interest Accruing During Appeal
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
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 ›
- 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 ›
- 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 ›