Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Home Topics

Commercial Law

Features

<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> As 2013 Approaches, Artist Termination Right Faces Record Labels' Work-For-Hire Argument Image

<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> As 2013 Approaches, Artist Termination Right Faces Record Labels' Work-For-Hire Argument

Jay Rosenthal

It's time to start thinking about work for hire again. Technically, 2013 is the first year qualified recording artists may exercise the termination right that will result in reversion to them of the copyrights in their sound recordings from their record labels. There is no doubt about it: Whether referred to hyperbolically as a 'time bomb' or more benignly as a 'leak' in the record company's vaults, how the sound recording work-for-hire problem is resolved will have enormous financial and political impact on both record labels and recording artists.

Features

The Threshold Limit Values Controversy Image

The Threshold Limit Values Controversy

Philip E. Karmel

The establishment of safe thresholds for human exposure to toxic substances has proved to be among the most controversial issues in the environmental and occupational safety and health arena. This article discusses how the Threshold Limit Values ("TLVs") are typically used in toxic tort litigation, explores the dimensions of the controversy surrounding their use, and addresses a recent industry lawsuit.

Features

The General Reference Image

The General Reference

Chad Starkey

There is a general distrust and downright loathing of referees in the sports world. In the legal industry, however, lawyers are learning that the referee can be a powerful ally in deterring litigation and resolving cases early and successfully. While the legal profession will always have its fair share of Bobby Knights and John McEnroes, the referee appears to be gaining the upper hand.

Features

Avoiding the Adverse Effects of Causality Assessments Image

Avoiding the Adverse Effects of Causality Assessments

Andrea E.K. Thomas & Joseph K. Scully

Unfortunately, adverse drug reaction reports collected and causality assessments made in the course of post-marketing surveillance have increasingly become fodder for plaintiffs' attorneys attempting to prove causation. Courts, however, properly have precluded plaintiffs from presenting post-marketing surveillance materials, most recently refusing to allow plaintiffs to introduce company causality assessments based on adverse drug reaction reports as evidence of causation and from using these reports and assessments as bases for expert opinions on causation.

Features

TTAB Proceeding Image

TTAB Proceeding

John M. Cone

In a proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ('TTAB'), if your adversary is a foreign entity with no employees in the United States, can you compel an oral deposition of the entity in this country? 'No,' says the TTAB, through its Manual of Procedure ('TBMP'). 'Yes,' says the Fourth Circuit, relying on '24 of the Patent Act, 35 U.S.C. '24 in <i>Rosenruist-Gestao E Servicos LDA v. Virgin Enterprises Ltd.</i>, 511 F.3d 437 (4th Cir. 2007).

Features

Protection from Unwanted Flattery Image

Protection from Unwanted Flattery

Jason D. Sanders

For the last several sessions, Congress has considered the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, which would expand copyright protection to include the cut and look of fashion designs. This proposed legislation could make many imitative designs illegal and add to the current, although somewhat limited, protections for fashion available under existing U.S. trademark, patent, and copyright laws. This article discusses these currently available protections, provides suggestions for designers for utilizing them, and examines changes to the Copyright Act proposed by the Design Piracy Prohibition Act.

Features

Negotiating Confidentiality Agreements with the Government Image

Negotiating Confidentiality Agreements with the Government

Michael Kendall & Daniel Curto

In years past, a corporation could assume that, when it produced documents in response to a Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoena, there were limited risks that such documents would be disclosed to an entity outside of the investigation unless the government used them as exhibits in court proceedings. Two factors in recent years have changed that set of expectations and significantly raised the likelihood that documents produced to the government could end up in the hands of plaintiffs' lawyers, competitors, the news media, and others.

Features

Survey of Recent Developments in Criminal Antitrust Law Image

Survey of Recent Developments in Criminal Antitrust Law

David J. Laing

There have been numerous developments in U.S. criminal antitrust law over the last half-decade ' in legislation, judicial opinions, and the publicly stated enforcement policy of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). While none have been watershed events individually, in the aggregate they fundamentally impact representation of companies or individuals under investigation for antitrust violations. This article outlines the cumulative effect of these developments and indicates how representation of companies under antitrust investigation has changed over this period.

Features

Attorney Telecommuting Image

Attorney Telecommuting

Jeffrey P. Ayres

Telecommuting is all the rage in many sectors of our economy. With increasing regularity, lawyers and their firms alike are participating in this trend. Modern technology is a wonderful thing, and telecommuting permits firms (law and other types) to spread their tentacles into far-off uncharted waters. For attorneys and law firms, is telecommuting a bridge over troubled waters, or a long walk on a short pier? That is the question I address in this article.

Features

Jailed Inmates Have Parental Rights Too Image

Jailed Inmates Have Parental Rights Too

Janice G. Inman

When a man is in jail, it may be very difficult for him to keep in meaningful contact with his child unless he has the aid of concerned family members or friends. Apart from the emotional problems that may ensue for all parties if visits and phone calls are nonexistent or sporadic, the issue of meaningful contact becomes even more urgent when someone ' the child's mother, another relative or a social services agency ' wants the child freed for adoption.

Need Help?

  1. Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
  2. Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.

MOST POPULAR STORIES