Grabbing Customers' Copyrights
March 29, 2011
What's at issue is control, obviously, and the great lengths to which some will go to maintain, it even as they benefit from the wide-open, free-flowing viral information torrent of the Internet. These copyright acquisitions are not primarily motivated by the desire to exploit the works and make money, but rather by the desire to stop the public circulation of texts and images the new owners do not like.
Downstream Liability in Trade Secret Litigation After Silvaco
March 29, 2011
Last year, for the first time, the issue of downstream liability surfaced in the law of trade secret misappropriation. In 2010, a California appellate court held in <i>Silvaco Data Sys. v. Intel Corp.</i> that a software licensee did not know or acquire the secret source code the manufacturer used to make the product and, as a matter of law, it could not be liable for trade secret misappropriation.
Claims Risks
March 29, 2011
As in-house counsel continue to juggle their roles between corporate gatekeepers and confidants, they face a host of emerging risks.
Parameters of the Witness No Contact Rule
March 29, 2011
This article articulates some of the common issues that a lawyer should consider under Model Rule 4.2, but the manner in which Model Rule 4.2 is applied across different jurisdictions may vary.
Reviving the Not'Quite Dead
March 29, 2011
Congress passed the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act ("ROSCA") to great public acclaim late last year. But was the new law necessary? Dictionary.com defines restore in several parts, but all refer to bringing back something "lost" or "dead." Looking at recent online business statistics, though, how can anyone reasonably believe that online shopping was "lost" or "dead," much less in need of the "restoration" desired by the new law's authors?
Assumption of Liabilities
March 28, 2011
A buyer purchases certain assets and assumes certain liabilities of a seller under an asset purchase agreement. However, after the transaction closes, the buyer files for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and eventually rejects the asset purchase agreement. From a deal lawyer's perspective, the issue is: What impact does the bankruptcy filing and the contract rejection have on the carefully drafted, thoroughly negotiated asset purchase agreement?
Assumption of Liabilities
March 22, 2011
What impact does a bankruptcy filing and a contract rejection have on a carefully drafted, thoroughly negotiated asset purchase agreement? A look at a recent ruling.
'Tangible Property' Defined in the Computer Age
March 22, 2011
Companies are looking to insure against claims raised by users viewing or otherwise accessing a company's Internet Web sites and advertisements for damage to hardware, data, information, and other computer components.
