The Fourth Circuit has confirmed what many copyright holders have long hoped was true: That copyright interests can be validly transferred through electronic means, despite language in the 1976 Copyright Act requiring that...more
The universe of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), currently limited to about a dozen such as .com, .net, and .org, will expand this year, as some of the more than 1,000 potential new gTLDs are rolled out. Businesses may want...more
Prior to discussing or exchanging proprietary information with one another, companies frequently enter into non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to afford protections beyond what they would otherwise be entitled to under their...more
The Federal Circuit rejected the use of the 25 percent “rule of thumb” as a basis for establishing a reasonable royalty in the Uniloc case in 2011. Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 632 F.3d 1292 (Fed. Cir. 2011). Since...more
10/1/2013
January 2012 saw an explosion of controversy over two Internet-related bills that had been progressing through Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic...more
9/26/2013
/ Advertising ,
Calculation of Damages ,
CLS Bank ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Computer-Related Inventions ,
Copyright ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Damages ,
gTLD ,
ICANN ,
Infringement ,
Internet ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Payment Processors ,
PIPA ,
Piracy ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Royalties ,
SOPA ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Clearinghouse ,
Trademarks ,
Ultramercial v Hulu
On March 16, the most significant provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) came into force. The AIA was seen as the most extensive alteration to patent law in half a century, and was hotly debated over nearly a decade. The...more
7/11/2013
/ America Invents Act ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Cost-Shifting ,
Data Theft ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
First-to-File ,
First-to-Invent ,
Industrial Espionage ,
Patent Reform ,
Patent Trolls ,
Trade Secrets ,
USPTO
As expected, there has been great initial interest in generating the new generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, that are poised to add variety to the conventional .com, .org, and .net domains that have dominated the Internet...more
The Ninth Circuit ruled recently that the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) shielded a video-sharing website from copyright infringement liability. In UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Veoh Networks,...more
Continuing the momentum for nationwide legal reform in response to recent high-profile international trade secret thefts, a panel of leading foreign policy and business experts issued a report last month calling for...more
Patent holders, inventors, and even the courts have recently struggled with the limits of what can be patented. The patentability of software, widely accepted for decades, has lately been questioned. The scope of...more
On March 16, 2013, the most significant provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) came into force. The AIA was seen as the most extensive alteration to U.S. patent law in half a century, and was hotly debated over nearly a...more