Strong words: KPMG refused to pay its employees' legal fees because prosecutors held a 'gun to its head,' and the government thus 'violated the Constitution it is sworn to defend.' This statement from U.S District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the KPMG tax shelter case has shaken the foundations of corporate prosecutorial policy. United States v. Stein et al., 2006 WL 1735260, (S.D.N.Y. June 26, 2006).
An excellent time to provide training to a client organization is when the client asks for guidance on IP strategy. In many cases, a client develops an IP strategy due to the desire to approach a specific business need in a planned and proactive manner. This specific business need can be, for example, a new invention, a new competitor, or a new development with another company.
When drafting an assignment or litigating a case for a client who owns a patent by way of an assignment, many lawyers assume that an assignment giving the assignee 'all rights, title, and interest' allows the client to completely step into the shoes of the assignor. A patent assignment that purports to convey 'all rights' of the assignor, however, does not convey the right to sue for past infringement without an express provision granting the assignee this right.
In 1980, Congress amended the patent code to require patent owners to pay periodic maintenance fees in order to keep their patents in force. In response to concerns about the financial impact on individual inventors and small businesses, a 'small entity' category was added to the law to permit certain individuals, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses to pay half of most normal U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ('PTO') fees.
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
As more people live in the virtual world ' sometimes also called the digital or synthetic world ' in one of the many so-called massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs) available online, the potential for monetary abuse and malfeasance grows.
The audience of multinational corporations required to comply with SOX and EU data-protection laws ' whether in e-commerce or bricks-and-mortar operations ' can only watch, do their best to implement anonymous whistleblower mechanisms in compliance with both SOX and EU privacy law, and wait until the contest is decided.
Australian, English and Canadian court rulings associated with defamatory Internet communications emanating from the United States may limit American speech, a specter that stands to cast a long, haunting shadow over a range of U.S.-based activities, from publishing to online auctions to discussion and criticism.
For jurisdictional purposes, Internet publications may be subject to worldwide legal difficulties. Using common law theory, foreign courts have found American Internet publishers liable for harm to readers located in foreign jurisdictions, and have subjected those publishers to foreign-liability law, even though American law holds the sender immune from liability.
Today, it seems that anyone involved in e-commerce must be online and available, all the time. You know how it is because you live it: Blackberries and Internet-enabled cell phones provide instant delivery of e-mail, wherever you may be ' whether working, or spending time with family and friends. Online etiquette seems to require that you reply instantly, regardless of your other responsibilities or non-work-related activity in which you may be engaged.
For most of us, constant connectedness is no longer just a way of life ' it's a job requirement, and the only way to survive. The quick e-mail reply can become the difference between keeping and losing a client and, ultimately, between sanity and burnout. Everyone in our world scrambles to save time ' even a few minutes here and there ' to satisfy client expectations. Only after those obligations are met, if ever, can we perhaps hoard a few minutes for ourselves.
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
