Features
FTC, Federal Court Views on Fraud In Crowdfunding
In a release this summer, the FTC announced it had brought and settled its first case involving crowd-funding. The defendant raised more than $122,000 through Kickstarter to produce a Monopoly-like board game geared toward H.P. Lovecraft fans. According to the FTC's complaint, defendant used the Kickstarter proceeds to pay for personal expenses, including his move to Oregon. The settlement order should serve as a reminder that strong legal remedies at both the state and federal level are available to defrauded contributors.
Features
<i>Versata v. SAP </i>: Definitions Are Now the Name of the Game
<i>Versata Development Group v. SAP America</i> was a closely watched case since it was the first appeal to the Federal Circuit of a Covered Business Methods review by the PTAB under Section 18 of the America Invents Act. This article addresses the court's reasoning regarding the definitions of a covered business method patent, and how that reasoning is at odds with norms of statutory construction, technological innovation, and claim drafting.
Features
Behind the SEC's Recent Crackdown on Compliance Officials
On June 18, 2015, SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher wrote in a statement placed on the SEC website that the SEC was sending a "troubling message": Chief compliance officers (CCOs) should not take ownership of their firms' compliance policies and procedures, lest they be held accountable for conduct that is not really their responsibility.
Features
A Practical Primer On Production Format Requests
The electronic format that electronically stored information is produced in is a necessary component of e-discovery. This article offers a primer on production format issues by diagramming a template request in order to explain both the technical meaning and practical significance of the terms.
Features
Understanding Bias in Workers' Comp Medical Exams
The reality of workers' compensation life is that "bias" is rampant in the system ' especially when it comes to medical proof presented in litigated matters. This inherent bias should be scrutinized in full context.
Features
FATCA's Due Diligence Expansion
In 2010, Congress enacted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in order to target U.S. taxpayers using offshore accounts to hide monies overseas. Although Congress' purpose and intent in passing FATCA was met, it has been achieved at a cost of imposing heavy burdens on those already compliant.
Features
Cybersecurity Data Sharing Now Available To Law Firms
Law firms now have access to a platform that allows them to share data on cybersecurity threats anonymously.
Features
e-Mail Risk Mitigation For Law Firms
Each day, attorneys create and handle documents that require strict confidentiality to avoid loss of evidentiary privileges. In today's digital workplace, many of these files are exchanged via e-mail. While e-mail allows for convenience, speed and portability, each attorney using e-mail must ask before sending: "Am I putting my client's confidentiality needs and expectations, as well as my ethical obligations, at risk?"
Features
Online Impersonation Continues, With Varying Consequences
Online impersonation is defined in the New York Code provisions that prohibit the practice, as the act of impersonating another "under an assumed character with intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another." The foremost case brought under this law, <i>People v. Golb</i>, in many ways epitomizes the bizarre and highly esoteric reasons why someone chooses to impersonate another in the first place.
Features
Recent Challenges To the FTC's Data Regulation Authority
Early on in 2015, pundits were already predicting that the extent and number of data breaches from 2014 would severely pale in comparison to those that would occur in 2015. Inevitably, people across the country, victims, media, members of government, and even litigious-minded attorneys, are scrambling to determine what legal recourse exists to not only retroactively seek retribution, but also proactively enforce data security methods ' a task that is still at its nascent stages of development.
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