LJN Newsletters

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 Marvel Worldwide v. Kirby, 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.

Who's doing what; who's going where.

There are significant penalties in store for any lawyer who does not make a financial plan for succession into retirement.

Pay Proportional to Performance is an important guiding principle underlying good compensation decisions. Individual firms will select different compensable criteria and weigh them according to their specific views. Good judgment will bring the principle alive.

This article describes some approaches for selecting partners to manage administrative and substantive areas of a law firm's practice practice.