Clause & Effect
Net-Profit Rights/Movies Based on TV Shows<br>Insurance/Contract-Breach Exclusion<br>Insurance/Copyright-Infringement Coverage
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The NLRB in 2007
Paul Snitzer
&
Christopher Durham
In 2007, the National Labor Relations Board ('NLRB'), a majority of which was composed of appointees of President Bush, issued a series of important and, in some cases, unanticipated decisions. To the labor community, the decisions represented a significant roll-back of well-established employee rights, while to the management community, they represented hard-won but less-than-revolutionary changes in some settled rules.
Features
IP News
Matt Berkowitz
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Employees' Inventions: Who Owns What Rights?
Julie Holloway
What rights does an employer have in an employee's patent? The short answer is, it depends. The employer may have a right of assignment — that is, a right to outright ownership of the patent. Another possibility is a so-called 'shop right,' in which the employee owns the patent, but the employer has a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the invention in its business. There is also a distinct possibility that the employer has no rights whatsoever in the patent.
Business Crimes Hotline
ALM Staff
&
Law Journal Newsletters
Recent litigation of interest to you and your practice.
Potential Criminal Liability for Subprime Lending Practices
Mark D. Seltzer
&
David M. Ryan
In light of the complex and opaque nature of the subprime mortgage market, government investigators are probing the valuation and disclosure decisions made by market participants at multiple levels. It is not yet clear what charges prosecutors will assert to prove fraud claims against dishonest subprime market participants.
Features
'Loss' in the Air Will Not Do
Evan A. Jenness
Sky-high loss enhancements are increasingly scrutinized in a post-<i>Booker</i> world. Drawing on civil securities law, recent decisions in several circuits endorse an approach holding a defendant responsible for only the portion of victims' losses that was proximately caused by the offense. Some courts' critical analyses bode well for future sentencings.
Features
The Far-Reaching Effects of Inequitable Conduct
Michael Epstein
The Federal Circuit recently held that an applicant's failure to disclose material notes to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can result in a finding of inequitable conduct that may render a patent, and even related patents, unenforceable.
Features
FRCP 26(f): Use a Map, Ask for Directions or Fly Blind?
Eric Sedwick
In the quickly evolving world of e-discovery, the time to figure out and understand the organization's ESI is speeding by. The FRCP amendments and the courts that enforce them (both Federal and State) no longer provide a grace period where attorneys and litigants can 'fly blind' regarding ESI and figure things out as they go. If corporate counsel or supporting outside counsel is unsure of how to identify, preserve or collect ESI for a pending matter or in the overall course of conducting business, the time to ask for directions is now.
Boston Duck v. Super Duck: Court Rules That Sponsored Linking Can Ruffle Feathers
Kiran Belur
In <i>Boston Duck Tours, LP v. Super Duck Tours</i>, the District Court of Massachusetts ruled that sponsored linking qualifies as 'use in commerce' for purposes of trademark infringement under the Lanham Act. Although the court ultimately found no likely consumer confusion in this case, in holding that sponsored linking falls within the purview of the Lanham Act, the court joins a growing number of circuits and districts that have failed to take a cue from well-settled, and clearly analogous, offline trademark principles.
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