LJN Newsletters

In CyberSource v. Retail Decisions, a panel of the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's summary judgment ruling that the asserted patent claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101, and held that purely mental processes are unpatentable abstract ideas. The court decided that merely limiting an unpatentable mental process to a computer-readable medium for execution on a processor, in a so-called Beauregard claim, did not satisfy § 101.

The America Invents Act, passed by Congress on Sept. 9, 2011, and signed into law on Sept. 16, 2011, imposes sweeping changes to U.S. patent law. This article focuses on how the new patent laws will require patent practitioners to change the way they practice and advise their clients.

Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.

Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.

Two relatively recent court decisions addressing the common franchise issue of encroachment re-confirm the importance of carefully drafting each provision in a franchise agreement and shed some additional light on how courts will view and address encroachment claims going forward.

A look at a recent key ruling.

Ruings from neighboring states.

There are many ways in which federal and sister-state laws will affect the rights of same-sex couples married in accordance with New York's new Marriage Equality Act (DRL ' 10-A). Here, discussion continues on what some of those laws mean to New York same-sex married couples and how certain problems created by them may be lessened by careful planning.