Features
The Moseley Decision: The Supreme Court On Trademark Dilution
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued its first decision interpreting the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (FTDA) in Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. In an opinion that corporate counsel were eagerly awaiting, the unanimous Court held that proof of actual dilution was required to succeed on a claim of trademark dilution under the FTDA. This decision effectively raises the bar for trademark owners and their counsel to prove a claim of actual dilution.
Features
The Road to SEC Compliance
The SEC recently issued new rules regulating the conduct of attorneys practicing before it. The SEC has also proposed a new rule ' open for a 60-day comment period ' that would create an 8-K public reporting requirement by the board of directors, to be triggered by a lawyer's mandatory withdrawal from the representation in the event of uncorrected client actions.
Navigating the FLSA's 'White Collar' Exemptions
Most sophisticated employers are aware that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employees be paid overtime when they have worked more than 40 hours per week. Most employers also know that the FLSA contains certain exemptions from that rule. Those exemptions include what are commonly known as the 'white collar' exemptions. The white collar exemptions apply to those employees 'employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity.' When those exemptions apply, they may save significant overtime costs and ' often more importantly ' provide employers with useful flexibility for scheduling employees. Unfortunately, many employers in various industries are classifying employees as exempt who do not qualify for the exemption.
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Hotline
Recent developments of interest to corporate counsel.
Bye Bye Billables?
The concept of value-based fees for legal services is generating a steady buzz in the legal marketplace. Debate, discussion, reports and articles abound as attorneys and their law firms try to figure out if there is a better compensation model than the billable hour.
Features
Electronic Discovery Puts General Counsel On Front Lines
This is part three of a three-part series on technology-related issues of importance to General Counsel. The increasing pressure to produce electronic data and documents in native formats puts in-house counsel on the front lines during, and even prior to, the electronic discovery phase of litigation. The basic obligations in-house counsel have prior to potential litigation include developing a corporate strategy for electronic data preservation and retrieval, implementing the plan, documenting policies and procedures in writing, and disseminating the policies and procedures to appropriate internal parties. Missteps in any of these areas can and has led to various sanctions ranging from fines to default judgments.
Features
Sarbanes-Oxley: Reflections Eight Months Later
Since it became the law on July 30, 2002, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been the subject of an endless stream of panel discussions, seminars, speeches, articles and media interpretations. It may or may not be a tsunami in the financial markets comparable to the changes brought by the regulatory scheme developed in the 1930s. But the statute and the corollary changes by stock exchanges to their listing requirements will alter the relationships between the participants in the financial markets in significant and long-term ways. This article highlights and places in context the changes wrought thus far, and concludes by noting areas in which further change is yet possible.
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HOTLINE
The Second Circuit has held that denying insurance coverage for infertility treatments that can only be performed on women does not violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). Saks v. Franklin Covey Co., 00-9598 (Jan. 15, 2003).
The Next Generation of Electronic Discovery
This is part two of a three part series on electronic issues related to litigation. Just as general counsel and their outside litigation attorneys are getting familiar with the challenges of electronic discovery, the definition of what is discoverable has begun to broaden. In most of the literature on electronic discovery, the list of places where discoverable information resides is fairly standard and includes computer hard drives, servers, CD-ROMs, floppy disks, zip disks, backup media, e-mail servers, laptops, home computers, and hand-held devices.
Taking the Fifth in Document Production
This is part two of a two part article. Clients subpoenaed by the government or private litigants rarely want to disclose their documents. They reflexively assert that it is all personal, confidential or proprietary. However, they are often surprised to learn that most documents are not protected from disclosure by the Fifth Amendment privilege. There is an entire body of case law that narrowly restricts the protection of the Fifth Amendment privilege in document production, which can be a trap for the unwary.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›