The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York refused to grant a judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial for the former business manager of musician Yngwie Malmsteen in a suit by the musician over missing income.
The Federal Circuit issued its decision in Sundance v. DeMonte, overruling the district court's holding of non-obviousness. Applying the standard set forth in KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., the court found that the patent was an obvious combination of the prior art and noted that the district court committed two errors by: 1) erroneously allowing a patent attorney, who was not skilled in the relevant technology, to testify regarding obviousness; and 2) vacating the jury verdict of obviousness and granting judgment as a matter of law on non-obviousness, based on its erroneous interpretation of the prior art.
Was Marilyn Monroe domiciled in New York and not California when she died in 1962? If it was California, the company succeeding to her rights might have publicity rights after her death, if that state's statute extending publicity rights back from when the statute originally took effect was constitutional. The new California statute is retroactive as well as prospective. Monroe, of course, never heard of publicity rights, which were enacted in California in 1984. If it was New York, there are no publicity rights, only privacy rights, which ended with her death.
In the intersection between trademark rights and the First Amendment, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's grant of summary judgment finding that the First Amendment protected the look of a video game's virtual strip joint, as well as the use of the Pig Pen name.
The battered economy appears to have caught up with e-commerce, by the way the U.S. Census Bureau's estimated retail sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 look.
The polished and plugged-in e-commerce attorney, though well aware of options for enterprises he or she advises, may not think readily of using social media tools a marketing-savvy client may employ for business. But those tools are available to everyone, and using them may bring a big boon. Social networking can turn virtual possibilities into very beneficial realities.
Countless Internet speakers are not effortlessly identifiable, and hence, novel litigation, technical and administrative-law tactics are advantageous for successfully curbing Internet defamation.
This article attempts to provide a practical understanding of derivative works and their importance in structuring business ' including e-commerce ' transactions involving the right to create derivative works. It also discusses several strategic considerations relating to derivative works. This area of law is of critical importance to rightsholders and business partners, and is of particular importance in the growth of up-and-coming e-commerce firms, which need flexibility with intellectual property and rights, and whose principles and counsel need a keen understanding of these issues to promote and sustain healthy expansion.
For e-commerce firms and businesses generally, the ability to maintain a turnaround will be affected by decisions made now, in the depth of the recession. Today, as they struggle to preserve cash flow and stay current on obligations to lenders, landlords and vendors, the helmspeople of too many firms have come to regret decisions they made with hope in their heart for a booming economy 'yet forgot and may still forget to plan prudently for the rebound. Ever more so than before, today's "big deal' may become the liability that leads to tomorrow's bankruptcy filing.
A look at a recent important case.
