Features
If You Want a Broad Patent Construction, Be Careful What You Ask For
In a recent case, a patent owner claimed to have invented side impact airbag sensing. The patent enabled an embodiment; that was stipulated. In opposition to a motion for summary judgment of invalidity for lack of enablement, the owner asserted that enablement of a preferred embodiment satisfied the enablement requirement of the patent law. It didn't. The case is only one of several consistent cases. You should beware, and consider the matter in both patent prosecution and litigation. If you own a patent, and wish for a broad construction, be careful what you wish for.
Features
Movers & Shakers
Brian Short, a real estate finance attorney, has joined Texas law firm Winstead PC as a shareholder. He will be located in the firm's Dallas office, working with the Real Estate Structured Finance Practice Group in the Business & Transactions Department. Short returns to Winstead after a short tenure at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP, where he was a partner in the firm's capital financial markets, commercial lending and real estate development and finance groups.…
The Leasing Hotline
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
Landlord Liability For Tenants Trading In Counterfeit Goods
In addition to targeting counterfeiters, copyright and trademark holders have started going after commercial landlords whose tenants deal in fake merchandise. It is felt that this new strategy is needed in part because the counterfeiting retailers possess very few assets that can be seized and liquidated to compensate the copyright or trademark holder.
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In the Spotlight
During lease negotiations with an anchor or other national tenant, it is customary for the tenant to slap on a laundry list of prohibited or 'noxious' uses and to require the landlord to subject the shopping center to the restrictions contained therein. However, before the landlord concedes several other historically noxious uses, the owner of a modern-day lifestyle center or mixed-use center, particularly one still under development, should look carefully at these standard restrictions and consider softening the restrictions to allow certain types of uses which are finding their way into upscale and first-class shopping centers.
Features
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The purpose of a 'cure period' provision is to allow the tenant an opportunity to cure a default under the lease before further action can be taken unilaterally by the landlord. However, what happens if the landlord attempts to terminate the lease before the tenant has cured the default and before the end of the cure period? Is this early notification invalid or does it become effective immediately upon the expiration of the cure period without cure?
Engagement Letters: Preventive Medicine
Establishing a successful relationship between a law firm and its clients requires clear communication, and what better time to start than when the relationship begins? In addition to helping avoid misunderstandings on billings, a well-drafted engagement letter provides an early opportunity to confirm both the client's and the firm's expectations on a number of other matters as well.
Did 'Roommates.com' Nix Consumer-Generated Content?
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act essentially gives Internet service providers immunity from liability for publishing false or defamatory material as long as that material was provided by another party. In <i>Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com LLC</i>, an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed an earlier ruling that a commercial roommate-matching service may be liable for violations of the Fair Housing Act because of the manner in which the site elicits information from prospective roommates.
Features
Online Pharmacy Ordered to Pay FTC $15.8 Million
Saying they 'dispensed deception,' a federal judge in Atlanta has ordered the founders and operators of a now-defunct online pharmacy business to pay the FTC $15.8 million for fraudulent claims associated with the drugs they peddled. In his order, issued June 4, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell also found Dr. Terrill Mark Wright, a physician associated with the online pharmacies, liable for $15.4 million to compensate consumers for false advertising claims.
Features
Quarterly State Compliance Review
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect during the last three months. It also looks at some recent decisions of interest, including two decisions from the Delaware Supreme Court involving challenged stock options.
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