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Several key rulings are discussed.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Feb. 13 promoting information-sharing between the private sector and the government in an effort to combat the rising number of security hacks and data breaches.

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While credit tenant loans represent a relatively small scope of overall financing transactions, they are a noteworthy addition to the finance realm due to their creative structures and strong performance. As various financial sources predict that the commercial real estate finance sector is expected to continue on its upward swing, there is a sense that a wider breath of financing structures will be attractive to lenders.

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The battle over expert testimony on patent damages harkens back to the middle ages when would-be attackers developed new strategies for laying siege to a castle, defensive counter-measures were developed to thwart those siege tactics. As plaintiffs have introduced expert testimony based on novel patent damages theories, defendants have asked courts to fulfill their gatekeeping role by preventing certain types of expert testimony from reaching the jury.

In bankruptcy, the debtor is entitled to reject (not perform) burdensome contracts. For franchise agreements that contain trademark licenses, the effects of rejection are decided on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes the licensees of the trademarks can continue to use the trademarks over the objection of the franchisor and sometimes not. This issue arose in the Crumbs Bake Shop case in connection with the sale of its assets.

A California federal judge rejected dueling, Hail-Mary motions by both sides in a key battle over copyrights to pre-1972 recordings.

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As pressure on pricing continues, Big Law firms are buying (or building) analytics technology and hiring pricing specialists ' people who use market data, internal firm data and economics/pricing experience to ensure that firms are smart about bidding on work.

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In 2012, DISH Network announced two novel product offerings that would result in considerable backlash from the four major broadcast television networks and set in motion a three-year, wide-ranging, multi-front battle with the networks. As the dust now begins to settle, the copyright litigation has resulted in important precedents that will help define the boundaries under the Copyright Act for the multi-channel programming distribution industry.