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Law Departments Cut Costs by Sending Patent Work Abroad
Cheap foreign labor has long been a frightening specter for some American industries. But these days, garment makers and steelworkers are not the only ones competing with lower-paid counterparts abroad. Spurred by the slow economy, many in-house legal departments are cutting costs by relying less on U.S. outside counsel and more on lawyers in India, New Zealand, South Korea, and other countries where professional salaries are lower.
Some corporations and law firms already send copying, accounting, and other back-office functions to offshore providers. But bar association rules, among other things, make sending actual legal work overseas far more complicated.
Nonetheless, law departments have found ways to use foreign employees 'sometimes local attorneys, sometimes nonlawyers ' to handle such matters as patent prosecution, legal research, and contract drafting. While no one expects the American legal profession to be shipped wholesale to the Far East, the result could be less business for U.S. patent and litigation shops, and perhaps even large general practice firms. In fact, Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based market research firm, predicts that by 2015, more than 489,000 U.S. lawyer jobs, nearly 8% of the field, will shift abroad.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?