Snow is melting, seed catalogs are arriving, and eyes have turned to Spring Training. Some baseball fans are also turning their attention to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to follow the recent developments in U.S. v. Clemens. The indictment charges player Clemens with six counts: three counts of making false statements to Congress, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of Congress.
An ex-physician in New York recently won the right to pursue a claim against his insurer despite the fact that he did not make a claim for disability benefits until after his license to practice medicine had been revoked because of his repeated medical mistakes.
The rise of reality TV may have hurt the market for writers and actors, but it has provided an additional income stream for a select group of entertainment attorneys. One reason: union rules governing wages, breaks and time worked don't apply to reality shows. As a result, media companies can hire people who are happy, at least initially, to be on TV for little pay.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah decided that a production company breached the repayment terms of a promissory note for a $3 million loan to support prints and ads for a nationwide theatrical film release.
Celebrities have often used claims of unfair competition by false association or false endorsement under '43(a) of the federal Lanham Act as a basis for recourse against the unauthorized use of aspects of their identities and personas. The potency of a celebrity association claim was recently reinforced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
In at least one area dealing with e-commerce law designed to protect consumer interests, the United States ' typically a leader in e-commerce ' has caught up with European law with the recently passed Restore Online Shoppes' Confidence Act ("ROSCA").
In the three years since Bi-Economy and Panasia were decided, courts in a number of subsequent cases have been called upon to apply the reasoning of Bi-Economy and Panasia, reaching, at times, markedly differing outcomes. Although these subsequent decisions have shed some light on the question of how much has changed in the law of extra-contractual damages in New York, a number of important questions remain unsettled.
A case lost, repealed or rejected because of experts is far more common than it should be, and is often caused by attorneys hiring inappropriate or underqualified experts to testify for e-commerce and other types of enterprises, or by hiring no experts.
For entrepreneurs, the movie The Social Network teaches one clear lesson (for which the movie ticket, even with popcorn and parking, will be far less expensive than a real-world fight with one's partners): The failure to properly document the ownership of a new company leaves the door open for all involved to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to sort the mess out later.
During the past two years, the collection of personal information through a consumer's online activities has expanded to unprecedented levels. This is due, in part, to a proliferation of new devices through which consumers disclose personal information, and also to increasingly sophisticated behavioral analytics. In response, regulators and legislators are beginning to consider more closely whether comprehensive federal data-privacy legislation is appropriate. This article explores these unfolding developments and the challenges they present to regulators, consumers and the online business community.
