Features
Avoiding the Excess Layers
Several courts have recently held that an insured bears the burden of demonstrating proper exhaustion of underlying policies, including where multiple policies are involved in a settlement. These decisions have prevented insureds from accessing millions of dollars in excess coverage based on the unambiguous exhaustion language included in the operative excess policies.
Henkel (Almost) 10 Years Later
The meaning of "anti-assignment" clauses has been hotly disputed since 2003, when the California Supreme Court interpreted the clause in a manner that restricted the transfer of coverage rights in certain corporate transactions. This article examines how other courts have resolved the anti-assignment issue in the last decade.
Features
The 'Unfinished Business' of Failed Law Firms
Recently, two New York federal district courts reached conflicting decisions in the Coudert Brothers LLP and Thelen LLP bankruptcy cases with respect to a law firm's purported ownership interest in future profits from its former clients' matters pending on the date of the law firm's dissolution, or "unfinished business.
Features
Traditional Cost Recovery
The firestorm of publicity regarding clients pushing back and refusing to pay for certain fees, and especially soft costs, begs the question: Is the traditional cost recovery model dying or perhaps already dead? The answer is no.
Fourteen Profitability Techniques Other Than More Hours and Higher Rates
This article describes 14 approaches to enhancing profitability other than working more hours and charging higher hourly rates.
IP News
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Policing Trademark Rights and the Problem Posed By Bullying
Overly aggressive enforcement of trademark rights by high-profile brand owners can lead to consumer backlash when such enforcement is perceived as "trademark bullying" of the "little guy." Such enforcement efforts have grown increasingly hazardous during the era of Internet blogging and social networking.
Seventh Circuit Protects Trademark Licensees in Bankruptcy Court
The Seventh Circuit has now adopted the conflicting view that ' 365(n) of the Bankruptcy Code does not affect trademark licenses in one way or another and that <i>Lubrizol Enterprises, Inc. v. Richmond Metal Finishers, Inc.</i> was incorrectly decided.
Features
Your Genes Are Not Patent Eligible, But Your 'Isolated' Genes Are
In a closely followed case involving the patentability of DNA sequences of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which account for most forms of inherited breast and ovarian cancer, the Federal Circuit largely followed its prior 2011 ruling and again held that isolated DNA sequences are patent-eligible subject matter.
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