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Features
It is becoming increasingly common for franchise companies to acquire their competitors. Predictably, the franchisees of the acquired system often will feel threatened and take legal action.
The first two installments discussed how 7-Eleven, Inc. ("7-Eleven" or the "Company") planned for and developed a new franchise agreement to offer to all of its 3400 franchised stores in the United States. In this final article, we will critique the results by analyzing the final terms and discussing the principal issue that was not resolved to all parties' satisfaction. We will also discuss two important issues that must be resolved in any such undertaking and the Company's approach to them, as well as provide recommendations for future efforts of this nature.
Features
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Companies involved with technologies that use components located both within and outside the United States will be interested in a recent decision in the patent infringement action brought by NTP, Inc. ("NTP") against Research In Motion, Ltd. ("RIM"). In August 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit distinguished between infringement of "system" and "method" patent claims in "out of country" situations. The Federal Circuit held that if a component is located outside the United States, a <i>system claim</i> would be infringed if there is beneficial use of the patented system in the United States, while a <i>method claim</i> would not be infringed.
Ambush marketing," a term coined by Jerry Wexler, manager of global marketing efforts for American Express in the 1980s, refers to the marketing activities of companies that manage to associate themselves, or their products or services, with high-profile events without paying to become an "official sponsor.
On Sept. 7, 2005, the Federal Circuit issued a hard-hitting decision for mavens of the agricultural sciences. The ruling touches on the patentability of a large portion of naturally occurring, protein encoding nucleotide sequences, referred to as "expressed sequence tags" or "ESTs."
Features
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
If you own a shopping center, a regional mall or a strip of stores in an office building, you very likely anticipate the more frequent business problems: Tenants don't pay their rent on time or don't pay the rent at all; tenants alter their premises, install signs or assign their leases without your consent; tenants use the wrong parking spaces or the wrong dumpsters. Generally, these common problems are an expected part of owning retail property. Upcoming Spotlight columns will discuss some of these problems. But for now, we address something unanticipated ...
The fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks reminded us that the mortal damage to the World Trade Center and adjacent buildings represented a level of destruction never experienced previously in the United States. Among other well-documented effects, the collapse of these structures gave rise to both hindsight and foresight among those who design, build, own and insure buildings. The disaster illustrated that even the tallest and apparently strongest of buildings are vulnerable, and even the deepest insurance reserves can be pumped dry. (The recent destruction caused by a natural disaster — Hurricane Katrina — further underscores this vulnerability.)
