LJN Newsletters

A recent article in a legal publication stated, "there's a growing realization that money spent on branding campaigns hasn't paid off," referring in particular to the branding efforts of some large law firms. If this is true, what should your firm do about it? Should your firm jump on or off the "branding bandwagon"? How did branding become so prevalent?

There are several schools of thought in the broader law marketing community about how lawyers can ' and should ' market effectively. In fact, entire courses are taught to provide lawyers with a consistent framework for marketing. These are all well and good, but it is important to remember that lawyers have different personalities and, with that, different styles of marketing.

CA Court of Appeals Decision on DeCSS A Setback to Movie Industry Striking a blow to the movie industry, a California Court of Appeals has reversed a preliminary…

I'm sure by now you've noticed the difference. Your in-boxes are no longer cluttered with e-mails telling them about inexpensive sources for Viagra, Vicodin or Valium. Since the beginning of the year, you haven't seen an e-mail about online gambling, pornography or fabulous real estate deals. In short, in-boxes are now spam-free. If this seems like a pipe dream, that's because it is. Unfortunately, the reality of living with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (the CAN SPAM Act) is quite different. While the Act only went into effect at the beginning of 2004, many are already suggesting that it may be time to can it.

British Music Industry Takes Aim at Net Song Swappers The British music industry recently announced plans to issue legal warnings to the nation's most…

Despite some suggestions to the contrary, the rise of the Internet as a business tool does not portend the end of limits on personal jurisdiction. The cyber-sky is not falling. Rather, the courts are finding that the Internet merely provides another vehicle (albeit an electronic one) through which a party may purposely avail itself of the privilege of conducting business in a foreign state and thus subject itself to jurisdiction in that state. In some recent cases, the federal courts have analyzed the characteristics of this relatively new and expanding technology under the Supreme Court's existing personal jurisdiction precedent. Instead of changing the personal jurisdiction standard, which is grounded in the Constitution, the courts have applied the existing personal jurisdiction standards to Internet activities.

A Philadelphia company is suing the New York Times for libel by claiming that the newspaper harmed its reputation by using an image from the company's Internet site.

The latest on what's happening in the courts.