Legal Aid lawyers claiming the government violated their rights by secretly recording attorney-client communications with 9/11 detainees won a major battle in June when a federal judge permitted the bulk of the action to proceed.
The case is unusual in that it centers on the rights and privileges of lawyers operating behind the attorney-client shield, rather than on the rights of the clients.
A major challenge law firms face today is the continued aging of their partnerships. One of the principal reasons for this is that 'baby boomers' are approaching retirement. While this is a problem for all businesses and professions in the United States, it is particularly serious for law firms because it poses a threat to their future survival. While many senior partners are both physically and mentally able to continue practicing, firms are beginning to recognize that succession planning, for both client and management responsibilities, has become essential if the firms are to continue in existence.
The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (the Act) was signed into law on May 17, 2006 by President Bush. The new law affects a wide variety of taxpayers, including individuals and corporations. It contains $90 billion in tax benefits that retroactively extend a number of existing tax credits and provide several new tax breaks. It also contains $20 billion in new revenue-raising legislation, thereby resulting in $70 billion in net tax cuts. This article discusses some key provisions contained in the Act that will affect attorneys, their firms and their employees.
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
In its ongoing efforts to improve the examination of software patents and resolve continued concerns over their quality, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ('PTO') has partnered with IBM, Open Source Development Labs ('OSDL'), and the open source community to try and achieve this goal. Among the proposals is the idea of establishing a searchable database containing an index of open source computer code. This database should make it easier for software code developers and patent examiners to locate relevant prior art.
The good news is your firm has a contributory retirement plan and you are a participant. The bad news is that to manage your money, control much of your retirement destiny and thus the future financial welfare of you and your family, your firm has placed this responsibility in the hands of someone who is almost certainly clueless about such matters.
That person is you.
It has been judicially noted that '[t]he Court must avoid excessive rigidity when applying the law in the Internet context because emerging technologies require a flexible approach.' Edina Realty Inc. v. TheMLSonline.com, D. Minn., No. 04-4371, March 20, 2006, citing Brookfield Commc'ns, Inc. v. W. Coast Entm't Corp., 174 F.3d 1036, 1054 (9th Cir. 1999) (4 ECLR 384, May 5, 1999). Recently, conflicts involving one of the emerging Internet technologies, namely sponsored online key word advertising, have yielded, not only judicial flexibility, but also a fair amount of ambiguity in applying the laws of trademark infringement in Internet advertising contexts. Two recent federal district court decisions on the issue ' Edina Realty v. TheMLSonline.com, D. Minn., No. 04-4371, March 20, 2006; and Merck & Co. Inc. v. Mediplan Health Consulting Inc. d/b/a RXNorth.com, S.D.N.Y., No. 05 Civ 36550, March 30, 2006 ' illustrate the current legal muddle in their diametrically opposite conclusions on the threshold question at the heart of each analysis: Does the purchase and use of key word search terms constitute 'use' of a trademark under the Lanham Act?
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finally has opined on the scope of waiver of privilege in patent infringement litigation when an accused infringer relies on an attorney opinion to defend against a charge of willful infringement. In re EchoStar Commc'ns Corp., 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11162 (Fed. Cir., May 1, 2006).
How a federal judge in Trenton, NJ, rules in a patent infringement case could decide the future of online dispute resolution.
The case pits Cybersettle, the White Plains, NY, leader in the field, against National Arbitration Forum (NAF), a Minnesota-based company hired to administer New Jersey's No Fault Automobile Insurance Personal Injury Protection (PIP). At the end of May, U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper heard arguments on cross motions for summary judgment on the scope of Cybersettle's 2001 patent, No. 6,330,551, for a 'computerized dispute resolution system and method.'
Bloggers cannot be hit with libel suits on the basis of anonymous postings on their Web sites because federal law grants them immunity by explicitly stating that they cannot be treated as the 'publisher' of such comments, a federal judge has ruled.
