Features
Can Law Firms Be Lean?
For those who have had some exposure to <i>Total Quality Management</i>, the reference to <i>Lean</i> or <i>Lean Six Sigma</i> might be familiar. Total Quality Management (TQM), famed for advancing Japanese firms to remarkable achievement in product quality, was also pursued in the service industry.
Features
Establishing Copyright Damages When Party Moves for Summary Judgment
Section 504(b) of the Copyright Act allows a copyright owner to obtain both the owner's actual damages as well as an infringer's profits attributable to the infringed work that weren't included in the actual damages award. What are the burdens of proof when a copyright infringement plaintiff seeks this recovery after a pre-trial summary judgment motion has been filed? How does an expert's report work into this?
California Tightens Privacy Protection
Recently, the California legislature passed three laws that significantly alter the privacy landscape and impose a new set of responsibilities that arguably apply to any company doing business in the state.
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Expanding Defenses To Inducing Infringement
On Oct. 25, 2013, the Federal Circuit, by a vote of six-to-five, denied rehearing <i>en banc</i> in <i>Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc.,</i> (<i>Commil II</i>). That decision left intact the panel's holding, in a case of first impression, that an alleged indirect infringer's "good-faith belief of invalidity may negate the requisite intent for induced infringement."
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Checking in on the New gTLD Objection Processes
ICANN has been busy reviewing applications for new generic top-level domain name registries (new gTLDs), and the first four new gTLDs were delegated to the Root Zone on Oct. 23, 2013.
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Avoiding False-Marking Claims with Global Brands
For about a week last month, my Internet browser thought I was in Canada. And, like a friend who returns with an accent after a week-long vacation in London, this was more a source of curiosity than frustration. I first realized the quirk upon a visit to Google. Instead of finding myself at the familiar .com, I was redirected to a .ca site. With 's and 's littered across the page, the intellectual property nerd in me was buzzing. How was I to interpret these symbols?
Evidentiary Requirements To Recover Lost Future Royalties
When franchisors enter into long-term franchise agreements, they expect to receive a steady stream of royalties for the duration of the agreement. However, if the relationship sours and the agreement is terminated prior to expiration, the franchisor faces the prospect of losing the anticipated stream of royalties for the remaining term of the agreement. More and more often, franchisors are turning to the courts to attempt to recover those lost future royalties.
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DJ Dropped from Dispute Over Use of Beastie Boys Music
After the Beastie Boys sued over the unlicensed use of several of the rap group's tracks in a remix on the soundtrack to a promotional video, defendant energy-drink maker Monster Energy Co. tried to shift the blame onto an unsuspecting disc jockey. That tactic didn't sit well with Southern District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who dismissed the DJ from the litigation.
Features
SEC Proposes Much-Anticipated Crowdfunding Rules
On Oct. 23, the SEC finally proposed rules to implement the crowdfunding provisions of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012.
Features
Protecting Digital Database Content
The Fourth Circuit's ruling in <i>Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. v. American Home Realty Network, Inc.</i> is an important court decision relating to e-commerce and protecting digital database content. The ruling relates to a multiple-listing copyrighted database of real estate listings.
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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 ›