In <i>Johnson &amp; Johnston Assocs. v. R.E. Service Co.</i>, 285 F.3d 1046 (Fed. Cir. 2002) the Federal Circuit turned at least one aspect of patent drafting practice on its ear. Before <i>Johnson</i>, generally accepted patent drafting techniques encouraged the disclosure of alternative subject matter in the specification, particularly for claimed elements of the invention, in order to possibly broaden the scope of the claims of the resultant patent. Post Johnson, such practices may clearly backfire as the court held that subject matter disclosed in a patent's specification, but not claimed, is dedicated to the public. Although Johnson may well have a major impact on claim drafting techniques, this case will likely have a greater impact on techniques used for drafting the patent specification.

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A New York federal court has denied, in part, a famous Internet service provider's motion to dismiss a complaint filed by a proprietor who alleged breach of contract and tortious interference against the ISP.

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No lawyer ' even the most ethical ' would want a prosecutor to see or hear his client communications. Indeed, the most sacred ethic is that of confidentiality.

A number of Internet companies and the American Civil Liberties Union have joined forces to protect the identity of a person who claimed in a political online chat room that a state court judge behaved unethically.

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The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that the family of a young woman killed by an obsessed stalker has grounds under state law to sue the Internet data broker he hired to locate his victim.

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Houston plaintiffs' lawyer W. Mark Lanier has been on an eBay binge lately, buying industrial manuals, magazine advertisements, ashtrays, floor tiles, roof shingles, a sealed pack of Kent cigarettes from the 1950s, fire-protection cloth and even spray-on artificial snow for making a humdrum Christmas tree more festive.

U.S. states lost $2.8 billion last year in uncollected Internet sales taxes, much lower than previous estimates, according to a study released by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

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This column will tell you everything you need to know to do business online and use computers in your business. An impossibility? You're right. But humor me as I cram in as much as I can.