Technology Media and Telecom

More than 40 sanctions cases ' resulting in millions of dollars in fines ' have been decided in one year since revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ('FRCP') took effect. In contrast, only two have been recorded under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act since it was put into place in 2002. The 2006 changes to the FRCP specifically require that companies ensure all potentially relevant electronically stored information ('ESI') associated with litigation is preserved and protected, with a subset ultimately produced when required. While on the surface this may sound simple, those in the trenches on both sides ' legal and IT ' have war stories to tell of hard lessons learned. Organizations that do not take a comprehensive approach to managing ESI for discovery may fall prey to fines, sanctions and worse.

Hogan & Hartson Advises MySpace in Landmark Music Venture
Greenberg Traurig Associate Gets Green Building Council OK
IP, Media & Tech Dept. Adds to New York Practice
Retired Gibson Partner Receives Alger Award
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Gets Community Award

Those who download music to their computers now have two unlikely heroes: Janet Bond Arterton, a federal judge who sits in New Haven, CT; and Christopher David Brennan, a young Waterford, CT, resident who has reportedly downloaded songs by Billy Joel, Hootie and the Blowfish and other artists. Brennan is one of about 30,000 people sued by the music industry in recent years for allegedly taking music from the Internet without paying for it.

With review sites, blogs and commentary appearing everywhere online ' and who knows if anyone other than these sites' creators read them ' let's examine the legal implications of online commentary, everything from writing a review of a book you love on Amazon.com, to registering a domain name and creating a Web site.

There is no question that online video has become one of the hottest mediums on the Web. For example, a recent Accustream iMedia study found that user-generated video captured 22 billion page views in 2007. Importantly, the interest in online video is not limited to young viewers, but is also shared by a significant and growing audience of older, more educated, and more affluent viewers.

Few firms evaluate the long-term growth of competitive intelligence (CI) in firm business development, and even fewer have sought to build systematically on current efforts to create an intelligence function that can predict opportunities. This article seeks to illustrate how a law firm can build a robust intelligence function ' gathering both competitive and business intelligence ' that will provide the greatest strategic benefit over the short and long terms.

In the quickly evolving world of e-discovery, the time to figure out and understand the organization's ESI is speeding by. The FRCP amendments and the courts that enforce them (both Federal and State) no longer provide a grace period where attorneys and litigants can 'fly blind' regarding ESI and figure things out as they go. If corporate counsel or supporting outside counsel is unsure of how to identify, preserve or collect ESI for a pending matter or in the overall course of conducting business, the time to ask for directions is now.

In Boston Duck Tours, LP v. Super Duck Tours, LLC, the District Court of Massachusetts ruled that sponsored linking qualifies as 'use in commerce' for purposes of trademark infringement under the Lanham Act. Although the court ultimately found no likely consumer confusion in this case, in holding that sponsored linking falls within the purview of the Lanham Act, the court joins a growing number of circuits and districts that have failed to take a cue from well-settled, and clearly analogous, offline-trademark principles. Rather, these courts seem inexplicably intent on reinventing the wheel and expanding the scope of Lanham Act protection to include Web-based activities that are virtually imperceptible to consumers.