Regulation

After years of discussion, Congress recently enacted federal legislation establishing a private right of action for misappropriation of trade secrets, vesting the federal courts with original jurisdiction over the litigation of such claims. After signaling his support for some time, the President signed the bill into law May 11.

Ticketing policies for sporting and other events have been receiving increased attention in both the media and legal spheres.

Compared with the rest of the world, the United States has historically been a more open framework when dealing with information. Social media has made even the most mundane and possibly personal pieces of data available to many with a press of a finger. Such an open relinquishment of private information is almost assumed and has become part of the American culture. Those who think about how easy it is to access data understand how their own data has become part of the searchable cyberspace.

New changes to rules for post-grant administrative trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) went into effect on May 2, 2016, after much public comment and gnashing of teeth. Among the plethora of rule changes that were announced, two in particular stand out as most substantive for both patent owners and their challengers.

The United States taxes its citizens and resident aliens on their worldwide income; nonresident aliens are taxed on their U.S. source income and income that is effectively connected with a trade or business in the U.S. These seemingly simple terms have spawned volumes of regulations, rulings, cases and articles, the essence of all of which is to determine who is subject to tax in the U.S., and on what. This article introduces the U.S. federal income tax issues.

On May 16, Regulation Crowdfunding came into effect. Regulation Crowdfunding is applicable to crowdfunding offerings conducted in reliance on Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.This article summarizes the practical terms of the crowdfunding rules.

Cyber attacks and IT security breaches are being constantly reported (the "Panama Papers" being the most recent spectacular example), and almost certainly represent just the tip of the iceberg. No one can doubt that cybersecurity is a very significant global issue with cybercrime a major international menace ' any statistics about these issues always make for grim reading.

In 2015, the FCC issued its Open Internet Order, applying Section 222 of the federal Communications Act to broadband Internet access services (BIAS), and in doing so took jurisdiction over privacy and data security matters for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Having taken on BIAS, the Commission needed to address the FCC's privacy and data protection regulatory scheme.