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Cooperatives & Condominiums
May 01, 2003
The latest rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Landlord & Tenant
May 01, 2003
The most recent rulings of importance to your practice.
Index
May 01, 2003
A complete listing of key cases appearing in this issue.
IP News
May 01, 2003
Highlights of the latest intellectual property cases and news from around the country.
The Reverse Doctrine of Equivalents Part 1 of 2
May 01, 2003
The ability of patents to encourage innovation by granting exclusive rights is well-recognized. However, patents can serve an antithetical role as well by, in certain circumstances, deterring, rather than encouraging, innovation.
Enforcing Reverse Engineering Prohibitions in Shrink- and Click-wrap Licenses: A Report on Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc.
May 01, 2003
The practice of "reverse engineering," whereby one company obtains the product of a competitor and works backwards "to divine the process which aided in its development or manufacture," has long been accepted as a legitimate (and sometimes wholly necessary) practice in the computer software marketplace. <i>Kewanee Oil Co. v Bicron Corp.</i>, 416 U.S. 470, 476 (1974).
Patent Infringement Damages: Riding The Wine Railway Can Be Expensive
May 01, 2003
When the plaintiff in a patent litigation contends that it has never made or sold the product protected by its patent, alarm bells should start clanging in the ears of defense counsel. For the odds are that the plaintiff is angling to take advantage of a little-used aspect of the law of patent damages that can lead to a windfall recovery for patent infringement. It is the <i>Wine Railway</i> exception to the well-known "notice" provision of the patent statute. Created by the Supreme Court in <i>Wine Railway Appliance Co. v. Enterprise Railway Equipment Co.</i>, 297 U.S. 387 (1936), the exception can lead to catastrophic and unforeseen patent damage awards. Such damages are unforeseen (and, some would argue, unfair and undeserved) because they arise without any notice of infringement, actual or constructive.
Service With A Smile: Cutting Client Services Means Cutting Profits
May 01, 2003
Faced with the most difficult economic conditions in years, many law firms are looking for ways to maintain a competitive edge ' without negatively impacting cost structures. Investing in client service is a strategy that reaps both long- and short-term benefits.
The Attorney, Unemployed
May 01, 2003
Ask Lee Feldshon, a 33-year-old entertainment lawyer who lives in New York. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1994, worked at New York's White &amp; Case and several other well-established law firms in the 1990s, then landed a job as director of legal affairs for Madison Square Garden in 2001. He got laid off in 2002.
Understanding The Rights and Obligations Of Your Military Reservist Employees Part 1 of 2
May 01, 2003
With the recent conflict in Iraq and the country's ongoing focus on homeland security, many employers find themselves confronting for the first time a significant body of employment rights and obligations imposed by the Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). As of April 1, 2003, the Department of Labor estimated that 220,000 reservists and National Guard members were on active duty, and that roughly 280,000 reservists and Guard members had been called up since September 11, 2001, surpassing the total number called to active duty for the first Persian Gulf War.

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    Most experienced intellectual property attorneys understand the significant role surveys play in trademark infringement and other Lanham Act cases, but relatively few are likely to have considered the use of such research in patent infringement matters. That could soon change in light of the recent admission of a survey into evidence in <i>Applera Corporation, et al. v. MJ Research, Inc., et al.</i>, No. 3:98cv1201 (D. Conn. Aug. 26, 2005). The survey evidence, which showed that 96% of the defendant's customers used its products to perform a patented process, was admitted as evidence in support of a claim of inducement to infringe. The court admitted the survey into evidence over various objections by the defendant, who had argued that the inducement claim could not be proven without the survey.
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  • In the Spotlight
    On May 9, 2003, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that Bayer Corporation, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, had been sentenced and ordered to pay a criminal fine of $5,590,800 stemming from its earlier plea of guilty to violating the Federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act by failing to list with the FDA its drug product, Cipro, that was privately labeled for an HMO. Such listing is required under the federal Food, Drug &amp; Cosmetic Act. The Federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act, Pub. L. 100-293, enacted on April 22, 1988, as modified on August 26, 1992 by the Prescription Drug Amendments (PDA) Pub. L. 102-353, 106 Stat. 941, amended sections 301, 303, 503, and 801 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, codified at 21 U.S.C. '' 331, 333, 353, 381, to establish requirements for distributing prescription drug samples.
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