LJN Newsletters

In TecSec, Inc. v. IBM Corp., et al., the Federal Circuit explained the effect of Federal Circuit Rule 36, under which the Federal Circuit may "enter a judgment of affirmance without opinion" if certain conditions are met. Fed. Cir. R. 36. The decision highlights the impact of a Rule 36 affirmance on related issues in subsequent litigation, particularly where the Federal Circuit summarily affirms a district court decision that is based on multiple, independent grounds.

The abuse of the chargeback option has resulted in a "friendly fraud" epidemic harming not only merchants, but the very consumers the programs were designed to help.

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? These issues were recently examined in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Audio recordings of speech, musical instruments or any other sounds created before Feb. 15, 1972, are treated very differently from other recorded sounds under U.S. law. Each of the 50 states is free to apply its own rules to the protection of audio sound recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, and may continue to do so for the next 54 years. As a consequence, the scope of protection for pre-1972 sound recordings is inconsistent from state to state, often vague and sometimes difficult to discern.

In a typical scenario, the cybersquatter offers to sell the domain name to the entity associated with the particular trademark for an inflated price. This offer to sell is sometimes viewed as evincing bad faith and therefore actionable. In other instances, the offer is considered reasonable, or at least not indicative of bad faith, and therefore the trademark owner is forced to either purchase the domain or accept the consequences of the existence of a substantially similar domain name.

Covenants Against Competition Find Disfavor In Recent Cases

As social media websites have become increasingly popular, courts have continued to address the legal issues raised by social media, particularly in the area of discovery. This article focuses on recent developments in the discovery of social media content in employment discrimination cases.

This article examines the ethics of common partnership restrictive covenants, including non-compete and forfeiture-for-competition provisions, notice of withdrawal requirements, prohibitions on solicitation of partners, employees, and clients, and restrictions on using and taking documents, and suggests ways for firms to ethically protect the firm's interests.