Features
Second Circuit Reinstates Antitrust Claim Against Online Music Providers
A federal appeals court has reinstated an antitrust suit alleging price fixing by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other producers, licensors and distributors of music on the Internet.
Features
Five Steps to Managing Social Media Risks
On the one hand, companies want to capture the attention of potential customers roaming the social media space. On the other hand, conversations in the blogosphere are largely uncontrollable, and raise a myriad of risks. Social media can cause serious losses if not handled correctly.
Features
Third Circuit Tackles Teen 'Sexting' As Child Pornography
As the nation's first case involving criminal prosecutions of teenagers for "sexting" made its way to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, all three judges seemed skeptical of the prosecutor's claim that child pornography laws are violated when a teen transmits a nude image of herself.
Features
Registering Marks As Top-Level Domain Names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") plans to issue generic top-level domain names ("gTLDs") beyond the current 21 top-level domain names ("TLDs") such as .com and .net. For the first time, trademark owners may use their marks as gTLDs; for example, .nike. The application process is complex, and trademark owners have no guarantee that they will secure gTLDs for their marks. e-Commerce providers, however, can use trademark-law strategy to gain advantages during the application process.
Features
e-Getting Your Back
Science tells us that most of an iceberg is hidden beneath the surface of the ocean. e-Commerce law tells us the same thing about Web-site development: The "Web front" that shoppers see can be dwarfed by the hidden, or invisible, "back office" ' the contracts, negotiations and software that make e-commerce Web sites possible. Yet it is that back office that can be the difference between a profitable site and one, like a true iceberg, that is merely adrift and fraught with potential hazards.
Features
Selected Privilege Issues for Franchise Counsel
As recent litigation has demonstrated, the use of new communications devices with new capabilities is having an effect on how attorneys and their clients communicate, and, therefore, is raising issues in attorney-client privilege.
Features
Interpreting FTC's New Endorsement Guidelines
This series examines changes to the Federal Trade Commission guidelines for product endorsements and testimonials. The revised new guidelines took effect Dec. 1, 2009.
Features
Examining the 'Harmless Errors' Provision for Copyright Termination Notices
Record labels fear the ticking clock that will allow recording artists to terminate post-1977 sound-recording assignments beginning in 2013. That's because '203 of the U.S. Copyright Act provides for a grantor's recapture of assigned copyrights during a five-year period beginning 35 years after publication or 40 years from the assigning of a work. The termination right applies beyond sound-recording copyrights. Pre-1978 copyright assignments may be recaptured under 17 U.S.C. '304(c) during a five-year period that begins 56 years after the copyright in an assigned work was initially procured
Features
Best Practices for Transitioning to Word 2007
In the arena of technology, it is hard to forget those traumatic events when the whole world seemed to change on a dime. Nowhere is this felt as extremely as in the legal industry where document production requirements are time critical. How do you help your staff transition to Word 2007 so that they may reach the same productivity levels as before? This article provides some tips to lessen the anxiety and drama potentially associated with this migration.
Features
'Voodoo Information': Authenticating Web Pages In Federal Court
During the life of any case, there will likely be valuable information obtained from the Internet that will be used at deposition or trial. Commonly, the proponent of online evidence will present a screen shot of the Web page, which was either downloaded as a .pdf or printed directly from the Web site. The process is like taking a photograph of the image as it appears on the monitor. In general, this captures not only the look, but also the download date and the URL. If proper steps are not taken to admit the evidence, the value of this information may be lost.
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- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Risks of “Baseball Arbitration” in Resolving Real Estate Disputes“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›