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Features
Contracts often include a fee-shifting provision based on who ultimately prevails in a lawsuit. The idea, of course, is both to deter marginal litigation and, in all circumstances, to provide the prevailing party with compensation for the substantial fees and expenses that often attend litigation.
Columns & Departments
Rare Franchisee Judicial Victory Sets Dangerous Precedent for Franchisors
Features
The Fourth Circuit, recently held in a split decision that a lender's unrecorded lien primed an earlier unrecorded federal tax lien on a Chapter 11 debtor's real property. The case reassures secured lenders unaware of a borrower's preexisting tax lien, however, as it protects them against the government's nondisclosure.
While international franchising always brings a host of issues and complications, importation of franchise concepts into Russia highlights some critical issues and some lessons for international franchising in a broader context.
Features
On Dec. 5, 2014, a divided Federal Circuit panel held that claims directed to systems and methods of generating a composite Web page combining certain visual elements of a "host" website with content of a third-party merchant were "necessarily rooted in computer technology in order to overcome a problem specifically arising in the realm of computer networks," and, therefore, were patent-eligible. However, the court cautioned that not all claims addressing Internet-centric challenges are patent-eligible.
Features
Priority of use is a hallmark of trademark law. Over the years, lower courts have recognized a doctrine called "tacking," under which a trademark owner may "clothe a new mark with the priority position of an older mark." The key to the tacking doctrine is that the new trademark must "create the same, continuing commercial impression" as the old mark. In <i>Hana Financial</i>, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the question and settled the circuit split, holding that tacking is a question for the jury.
Features
It is a basic tenet of professional responsibility that lawyers obtain sufficient proficiency to ensure competent representation of their clients. The challenge in today's world of Big Data and corporate globalization and outsourcing of IT infrastructure is that the level of technological proficiency required is not always clear. Understanding your obligations and establishing defensible processes will be necessary to fully demonstrate competence in discovery should an issue arise.
It is a defense that has become perfunctory in restrictive covenant litigation ' "my former employer is barred from enforcing the restrictive covenant because it committed a prior breach of the agreement!" When such a defense is raised, an injunction hearing that should focus on the former employee's wrongful post-employment conduct instead often digresses into a hearing at which an argument about what compensation agreement existed and whether the former employer breached that agreement takes place instead.
Columns & Departments
In This Facebook Threats Case, No Wait for High Court <br>Judge Gives Go-Ahead To Facebook Privacy Suit<br>Appeals Court: No Privacy for Facebook Photo In Slip-and-Fall Case
Features
As the regulatory state continues to grow with every passing year, businesses' obligations to provide information to, and file reports/forms with, local, state, and federal governmental agencies increases. Each filing also represents justification to the IRS to audit a business (to the extent that justification is needed).
