The Place to Network: Working ' and Networking ' for a Cause
By investing your time, skills and money in volunteer efforts, you stand to benefit your own morale, while also making and furthering contacts that can be extremely helpful to your legal career, both now and down the road.
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Law Firm Leadership: Giving Feedback
The goal of feedback is improved performance. Teams committed to giving honest, constructive, thoughtful, feedback are intelligent, self-correcting and constantly improving their individual and team performance.
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Virtual Worlds
Given the rising popularity of virtual worlds and the ability to generate real-world income from activities within the virtual realm, it is not surprising that the virtual marketplace is thriving and that trademark and copyright infringements occur on a regular basis.
Announcing the Fifth Annual MLF 50
What a year it has been and now once again, it is time for law firm marketing and communications departments to start thinking about their submissions for consideration to earn a spot on the coveted MLF 50 ' The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Communications.
Federal Circuit Puts Teeth in the 'Process' of Product-By-Process Claims
Is a "product by process" claim infringed by products that are made by other processes? After 17 years of waiting, the Federal Circuit emphatically answered the question: No; product-by-process claims are only infringed by products made using the claimed process. Although the law now appears to be clear, the strongly worded dissent questions the soundness of the ruling and warns of potentially far-reaching implications for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
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Prior Art Reference Need Not Disclose Claimed Invention's Utility
Addressing the issue of whether a comprehensive reference listing of every relevant antisense oligodeoxynucleotide in a known nucleic acid sequence anticipates claims to specific antisense sequences, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that anticipation merely requires that the oligonucleotide sequence was in the prior art, not that its usefulness was previously disclosed.
Is Patent Marking an Issue?
When choosing which claims to assert against an infringer, the traditional thought is "more is better." That is, many choose to assert any and every claim that passes the Rule 11 test. While this strategy is understandable and often the best course of action, it might not yield the best damages result.
Are Case Predictions Part of the Hypothetical Negotiation?
Because a finding of patent infringement no longer automatically results in an injunction, courts have been struggling to determine the proper calculus for calculating post-verdict damages — or "ongoing royalty rates" — when the court declines to issue an injunction.
Upcoming Changes to European Patent Examination Procedures
The new European Patent Office rules, which will be effective on April 1, 2010, will drastically restrict how a patent applicant is able to file divisional patent applications and will increase the patent applicant's obligations to provide information to the EPO during patent examination.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance ProgramsThe parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the RoughThere is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.Read More ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe 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.Read More ›
- Restrictive Covenants Meet the Telecommunications Act of 1996Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to encourage development of telecommunications technologies, and in particular, to facilitate growth of the wireless telephone industry. The statute's provisions on pre-emption of state and local regulation have been frequently litigated. Last month, however, the Court of Appeals, in <i>Chambers v. Old Stone Hill Road Associates (see infra<i>, p. 7) faced an issue of first impression: Can neighboring landowners invoke private restrictive covenants to prevent construction of a cellular telephone tower? The court upheld the restrictive covenants, recognizing that the federal statute was designed to reduce state and local regulation of cell phone facilities, not to alter rights created by private agreement.Read More ›
