North Carolina Federal Court Dismisses Suit by Sellers Against Lawyers for Music Company Purchaser<br>Sixth Circuit Has Jurisdiction over Declaratory Claim for Song Authorship
Prince, the flamboyant pop star with 10 platinum albums, should pay nearly $4 million in damages for welshing on his promise to promote a perfume named after his latest CD, a special referee in Manhattan concluded after conducting a four-day inquest on damages.
Arbitrators' Findings Upheld in Legal Malpractice Dispute over Talent Agencies Act Controversy<br>Contingency Fee Agreement Applies to Potter Guide Post-Trial Settlement
As part of day-to-day operations, companies regularly enter into intellectual property assignments or "work-for-hire" arrangements with employees and contractors, often pursuant to form agreements that are not tailored to the particular engagement. However, decisions such as the recent opinion by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in <i>Marvel Worldwide v. Kirby</i>, highlight the importance of carefully drafting provisions governing the transfer of rights in new works of authorship.
In the context of alleged unauthorized uses of an individual's personal indicia, inconsistency ' in how different courts determine whether there are viable claims under state right of publicity laws or for false endorsement or association under the federal Lanham Act ' makes it difficult for attorneys who view content through a First Amendment lens when counseling entertainment production companies.
This second installment of a two-part series discusses in detail those provisions of Dodd-Frank, among many others, which may have the most immediate and greatest impact on U.S. equipment leasing and finance companies.
If you are the owner of a property that is being licensed into a potential motion picture franchise, how do you contractually protect the rights to your existing character or property so that the movies and related items being created do not damage your preexisting property? This article examines the approaches customarily utilized.
With 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.
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Insiders (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.
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
While 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.
