Economists rarely agree on anything. But, if the Fed's recent actions are any guide, most believe the U.S. is already in a recession (defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth). This downward economic outlook for the country will soon begin impacting corporate budget discussions, forcing every department ' including legal and the law firms that serve them ' to re-examine their expenses. When companies are struggling to grow the top line, every cost gets scrutinized. Legal expenses are no exception, especially given the sharp increase in spending and dollars going towards e-discovery.
The default settings of software applications can impact your productivity and accuracy. Taking the time to address those that are annoying or counter-intuitive place the control for formatting your documents back in your hands.
As the courts are clarifying the new FRCP, good e-discovery specialists must diligently review the options, configurations and protocols of e-discovery products to ensure that the proper options are selected to match these new rules. One of the products available for ESI acquisition is Legal Access Ware PreDiscovery ('LAW').
This article discusses the business issues and challenges that are driving the need for lessors to reassess their IT strategy and approach. The focus of this discussion is on the factors management should consider as it examines the company's IT strategy for core leasing operations, <i>i.e.</i>, front-end and back-end systems.
The Ninth Circuit recently examined an antitrust issue with significant relevance to the equipment leasing industry. In <i>Newcal v. IKON Office Solution</i>, competitors of a copier equipment provider, IKON Office Solution, alleged that defendant IKON used 'fraudulent practices' to secure and lengthen its customer contracts, thus reducing the ability of competing copier equipment providers to contest for 'aftermarket' business.'
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The owner of a commercially successful patent may have competing desires. On one hand, the patent owner wants to protect the patent and secure its maximum benefit; on the other hand, the patent owner wants to avoid enforcement litigation with competitors because it is expensive and puts the patent at risk.
The doctrine of equivalents is a rule of equity adopted more than 150 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prosecution history estoppel is a rule of equity that controls access to the doctrine. In May 2002, the Court was called upon to revisit the doctrine and the estoppel rule in <i>Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. Ltd.</i> Ultimately the Court reaffirmed the doctrine and expanded the estoppel rule, but not without inciting heated debate over the Court's rationale — especially since it included a new and controversial foreseeability test in its analysis for estoppel.
