Features
<i>BREAKING NEWS</i>U.S. Supreme Court Says Employers Don't Have to Pay for Birth Control on Religious Grounds
A divided U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 ruled the contraceptive mandate in the federal health care law violated the religious freedom rights of corporate owners who objected to providing the coverage in employee insurance plans.
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Supreme Court Won't Block Same-Sex Marriages in Oregon
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 4 refused to block same-sex marriages in Oregon pending an appeal of a federal court decision striking down that state's ban.
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Disability Funding of Pension Contributions
Although pension plans are thought of primarily as a source of cash income for the elderly, they typically serve other functions as well. For example, they usually contain early retirement features and often provide pensions to workers who lose their jobs because of disability. The high proportion of pension plans with disability retirement features is dramatized in data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual survey -- none of these programs had provisions to make up employee contributions and employer matches where the employee becomes disabled during their employment years.
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CA AG Releases Web Privacy Guidelines
Online companies in California should ' but are not required to ' clearly explain on their sites how they respond to a browser's do-not-track signals, according to privacy practice guidelines released on May 20 by Attorney General Kamala Harris.
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Does Proposed Resale Royalty for Visual Art Conflict With Copyright Act?
In the entertainment industry, there are many buyers and sellers of visual art works. This article considers proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress calling for a resale royalty for art creators.
Features
The New Math
The employer mandate under the ACA, which requires large employers to provide health insurance for their full-time employees or pay a penalty, is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2015. Regulations released by the IRS set forth the final rules that an employer must use to determine whether it is a large employer subject to the mandate. With just over six months to go, the time is ripe for employers to determine whether they will be considered large employers and if so, to determine appropriate next steps.
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Intent to Use
Bona fide intent was given new meaning by the TTAB. <i>Lincoln National Corporation v. Anderson,</i> exemplifies an apparent trend of the TTAB requiring greater proof of an applicant's "intent" as a jurisdictional prerequisite for filing an application or face a finding that the application is void <i>ab initio.</i> This is the paradigm of the "ticking time bomb" trademark nightmare with a very long fuse.
Features
FCC Punts on Net Neutrality
Criticized from the right and the left, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last month tried to chart a middle path on net neutrality ' and pleased no one.
Features
EU Data Protection Reforms Update
Corporate Counsel would do well to familiarize themselves with the ongoing process of reforms to the EU data protection rules due to their eventual compliance impact and because they constitute more than a simple upgrade to the existing rules.
Features
The ITC Is Dead, Long Live the ITC
In the last decade, the ITC has been an increasingly popular forum for litigating IP rights, largely because it offers a quick and forceful remedy in the form of an exclusion order, which can exclude infringing products from the U.S. market. In recent months, several important decisions have caused some to question the continuing vitality of the ITC as forum.
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