Robert J. Bernstein
&
Robert W. Clarida
In June 2016, in <i>VMG Salsoul v. Ciccone</i>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a 0.23 second sample from a sound recording of three horns simultaneously playing the notes of a chord wasn't copyright infringement.
Scott Graham
Attorney fee awards are a big issue in many of the copyright litigations that crop up in the entertainment industry. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has recalibrated the law of copyright fee shifting, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that it was placing too much weight on the objective reasonableness of parties' litigation positions.
Features
Marc Fagel, Monica Loseman
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Scott Campbell
In an emerging trend, chief executive officers and chief financial officers of companies settling U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) financial reporting cases are personally paying back bonuses and other incentive-based compensation, despite the absence of accusations of personal misconduct or formal SEC actions against them individually.
Features
Sandra Feldman
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect between May 1 and July 1, 2016, as well as some recent cases of interest.
Columns & Departments
In an environmental group's article 78 proceeding to review an extraordinary hardship waiver permitting expansion of a mining operation in the Long Island Pine Barrens, the environmental group appealed from Supreme Court's denial of the petition and dismissal of the proceeding. A look at the decision that followed.
Columns & Departments
The IRS released a Chief Counsel Advice holding that disgorgement, the remedy commonly used to generate large monetary settlements in white-collar enforcement actions with the Securities SEC, was not tax deductible.
Features
Gina Passarella, Christine Simmons
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Roy Strom
As law firms look to protect themselves from cash walking out the door in a low-demand market, they are increasingly looking at methods to discourage lateral departures and, perhaps more importantly, are enforcing those methods more frequently.
Dana A. Kravetz
&
Taylor Burras
The U.S. DOL announced that it will publish a Final Rule to update the regulations governing the exemption of executive, administrative, and professional employees from the minimum wage and overtime pay protections of the FLSA. Employers should take note that they may use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments to satisfy up to 10% of the new standard salary level.
Features
Zoe Tillman
&
C. Ryan Barber
A federal appeals court in Washington on June 14 upheld expansive federal regulations that require broadband internet providers to treat Internet traffic equally regardless of its source.
Kirk Sigmon
In <i>In re: Queens University at Kingston,</i> the Federal Circuit determined that there is a "patent agent privilege" that protects communications between patent agents and their clients, so long as the communications relate to the patent agent's limited authority to practice law. While this is a promising protection for patent agents and their clients, the scope of the privilege is limited and uncertain, so reliance on the privilege should be discouraged.
