Life Insurance and Divorce
April 22, 2004
Life Insurance is an important matter in most divorces. There are a host of issues that are not addressed in the typical negotiation. Consider the following sample insurance clause from a Property Settlement Agreement (PSA): <i>The husband shall maintain life insurance for the wife having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000. Said obligation shall be terminated if the husband's obligation to pay alimony is modified/terminated. The husband shall maintain life insurance having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000 for the benefit of the unemancipated children. Said benefit shall be reduced by $75,000 upon the emancipation of the first child and again upon the emancipation of the second child. The obligation to maintain any life insurance for the children shall terminate upon the emancipation of all Three (3) children.</i>
Arbitration Gains Acceptance as a Means of Resolving IP Disputes
April 01, 2004
Intellectual property disputes typically have been resolved through litigation rather than arbitration. Litigators have seen arbitration as a dispute resolution method geared at matters of private contract. Because intellectual property's very existence has been a product of public policies supporting invention, branding and creativity, the courts have seemed to be the more appropriate locale to handle these disagreements. In the last 20 years, however, arbitration has received increasing attention as an acceptable method of resolving intellectual property disputes.
IP News
April 01, 2004
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news and cases from around the country.
Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Fair Use Defense Survives a Showing of Likely Confusion
April 01, 2004
On Jan. 9, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether a fair use defense to trademark infringement can trump a finding of likely confusion. <i>KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, Inc.</i>, 328 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2003), <i>cert. granted</i>, 124 S. Ct. 981 (2004). The decision to grant certiorari in this case is especially interesting in light of other recent cases also from the Ninth Circuit in which certiorari was denied.
News Briefs
April 01, 2004
Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.
Personal Jurisdiction, the Internet and the Marx Brothers: Is There Life After <i>Zippo</i>?
April 01, 2004
Despite some suggestions to the contrary, the rise of the Internet as a business tool does not portend the end of limits on personal jurisdiction. The cyber-sky is not falling. Rather, the courts are finding that the Internet merely provides another vehicle (albeit an electronic one) through which a party may purposely avail itself of the privilege of conducting business in a foreign state and thus subject itself to jurisdiction in that state. In some recent cases, the federal courts have analyzed the characteristics of this relatively new and expanding technology under the Supreme Court's existing personal jurisdiction precedent. Instead of changing the personal jurisdiction standard, which is grounded in the Constitution, the courts have applied the existing personal jurisdiction standards to Internet activities.
Cases of Note
April 01, 2004
CA Court of Appeals Decision on DeCSS A Setback to Movie Industry Striking a blow to the movie industry, a California Court of Appeals has reversed a preliminary…
Net News
April 01, 2004
British Music Industry Takes Aim at Net Song Swappers The British music industry recently announced plans to issue legal warnings to the nation's most…
Can Screen Shot Use Create Libel?
April 01, 2004
A Philadelphia company is suing the <i>New York Times</i> for libel by claiming that the newspaper harmed its reputation by using an image from the company's Internet site.
CAN SPAM Act Not Up To Snuff
April 01, 2004
I'm sure by now you've noticed the difference. Your in-boxes are no longer cluttered with e-mails telling them about inexpensive sources for Viagra, Vicodin or Valium. Since the beginning of the year, you haven't seen an e-mail about online gambling, pornography or fabulous real estate deals. In short, in-boxes are now spam-free. If this seems like a pipe dream, that's because it is. Unfortunately, the reality of living with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (the CAN SPAM Act) is quite different. While the Act only went into effect at the beginning of 2004, many are already suggesting that it may be time to can it.
