The nation's major record labels have never been shy about enforcing their copyrights in court. And over the last decade, music industry lawsuits targeting individual consumers accused of illegal file sharing stirred controversy and criticism in certain quarters. At the same time, efforts by these copyright holders to wring hefty settlements out of Silicon Valley tech start-ups via litigation ' or, in some cases, to snuff them out altogether ' has gotten less attention.

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The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee confirmed its earlier ruling that Roger Miller Music and Miller's widow Mary own the renewal-term copyrights to the performer/songwriter's 1964 and post-1964 compositions, which include some of his biggest hits.

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Cases involving family name disputes have historically presented challenges for courts, as they frequently require balancing competing interests of businesses and individuals. A particularly interesting permutation of such disputes involves well-known individuals who convey certain rights in their family name in a particular field to a third party and then later seek to re-enter the same field. A trio of recent decisions on this subject features the famous clothing designer, Joseph Abboud.

High consumer interest in merchandise bearing indicia of deceased celebrity icons has spawned a constantly evolving litigation genre for determining the extent of rights of the icons' estates. The estate of reggae-music legend Bob Marley, who died in 1981, is among the most frequently litigated in the field.

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As my firm's Technology Partner, I oversee the e-discovery process for most of the large cases at Severson & Werson. In 2008, one of our clients, a major national bank, was sued by its recently acquired mortgage lending company just after the subprime mortgage financing collapse. The case hinged upon the interpretation of a term in a contract related to the valuation of certain types of subprime loans in the securitization process.

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Discussion of recent cases of importance.

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Analysis of key rulings.

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During the fall of 2009, the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida Levin College of Law conducted an extensive nationwide survey of the legal profession regarding its use of case, matter and practice management system software.