Features
Best Practices for Reducing Errors in e-Discovery
e-Discovery is inherently messy and prone to mistakes. The data itself is not always what it appears, the volumes of data are often mind-boggling, and the locations in which the data is stored are not always easy to find. Add to this the fact that we have recently witnessed a lawsuit involving a major law firm and an e-discovery provider, all which revolved around e-discovery mistakes. While the lawsuit was ultimately settled, an environment of mistrust has surfaced. This mistrust, however, can easily be eliminated with a little planning and foresight.
Features
Novel Internet Statute Strategies
The Internet presents special regulatory challenges. Any effective statute, for instance, must be prepared by an entity with the authority to draft, implement and, to some extent enforce, the statute. Efficacy, of course, hinges on jurisdiction, but the Internet knows no geography and, so, users leap boundaries with a finger poke or thumb flick. These challenges require novel statutory strategies to meet the Internet's current and future status as a channel and communications domain that requires regulation at various levels of operation and use, including e-commerce.
Features
DIY-ing to e-Plan
Professional services requiring insight and judgment ' and application of sophisticated expertise on a case-by-case basis ' seemed immune to the e-commerce onslaught. After all, no one wants to trust the future welfare of one's family and affairs to a device that makes the phrase 'computer problem' a redundancy. And why would people who need to spend thousands of dollars on estate planning even think about trusting an online service just to save a few dollars ' even if only to pass on post-mortem thoughts from the grave?
Features
IP News
Recent developments you need to know.
Features
Redefining Prior Art Under Proposed Patent Reform Measures
This is the second installment of a two-part series on the proposed move from a patent system granting priority of patent rights based upon invention dates to a system in which priority is based primarily upon filing dates. The first installment discussed the history behind the current first-to-invent system and the basics of the proposed changes to the system. This installment explores the statutory bars under the proposed legislation and other changes affecting prior art.
Features
If You Want a Broad Patent Construction, Be Careful What You Ask For
In a recent case, a patent owner claimed to have invented side impact airbag sensing. The patent enabled an embodiment; that was stipulated. In opposition to a motion for summary judgment of invalidity for lack of enablement, the owner asserted that enablement of a preferred embodiment satisfied the enablement requirement of the patent law. It didn't. The case is only one of several consistent cases. You should beware, and consider the matter in both patent prosecution and litigation. If you own a patent, and wish for a broad construction, be careful what you wish for.
Features
Online Pharmacy Ordered to Pay FTC $15.8 Million
Saying they 'dispensed deception,' a federal judge in Atlanta has ordered the founders and operators of a now-defunct online pharmacy business to pay the FTC $15.8 million for fraudulent claims associated with the drugs they peddled. In his order, issued June 4, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell also found Dr. Terrill Mark Wright, a physician associated with the online pharmacies, liable for $15.4 million to compensate consumers for false advertising claims.
Features
PROTECT Act Upheld; Questions on Protected Speech Arise
The problem of child pornography on the Internet has long bedeviled Congress. But the legislature has floundered between the First Amendment's protection of speech and the self-evident evils involved in child porn's production and consumption, leaving a trail of laws invalidated by the High Court. The most recent legislative iteration ' the PROTECT Act, upheld on May 19 by the Supreme Court in <i>United States v. Williams</i> ' raises new and intriguing questions about the relation of sexual and political speech.
Features
Orphan Works Legislation: Real Time Bomb
The federal 'Orphan Works' legislation (S2913 and HR5889) creates an entirely new law favoring the 'opt in' fundamentalists who prefer as many copyright formalities as possible, thereby increasing the likelihood that works will fall ' intentionally or unintentionally ' into the public domain. Some have characterized the import of the Orphan Works legislation as creating a new rateless compulsory license, or at a minimum a 'safe harbor' for libraries (such as the Library of Congress), museums, public broadcasters and universities, as well as commercial entities.
Features
e-Commerce Docket Sheet
CDA Immunity Not Applicable To Allegedly Misleading Auction Safety Statements<br>Copying Web Site Page for Consumer Gripe Site Is Deemed Fair Use<br>Famous Trademark Parody on Goods Without Consumer Confusion No Infringement
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- 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 ›