Features
Ben Thompson
&
Robert Moorman
There are frequent battles over trademark rights in the entertainment industry. Trademark publication can be an anxious part of the federal application process, with fear of aggressive opposition and costly proceedings looming in the background. But many trademark oppositions, whether they are only threatened or actually filed, afford the applicant a discussion with an opposer that can ultimately be helpful in nonobvious ways.
Features
Catherine Alman MacDonagh
&
Frederick J. Esposito Jr.
Law firms must continuously review business and legal processes to operate and interact with less waste and costs and develop pricing models that address client needs while generating profits for the law firm. This is actually simple, but not easy to do.
Features
Stan Soocher
Composers of pre-1978 works often assigned both the initial and renewal copyright terms in their works when signing songwriter agreements with music publishers. But what happens when a grant of the copyright renewal term of a pre-1978 work has been made post-1977?
Columns & Departments
ELF Staff
Notable court filings in entertainment law.
Features
J. Mark Santiago
Planning for the downturn in a clear, methodical way by investing the existing good fortune that most firms enjoy into strengthening your technical infrastructure, trimming expenses, and rethinking how administrative services are delivered to the attorneys.
Features
Adam Shpeen, Aryeh Ethan Falk
&
Stephen Ford
Two Recent Cases Shed Light on Potential Risks to Preferred Equity Holders in Chapter 11
Preferred equity is a varied and flexible instrument, but, in practice, it typically has a limited number of common features. One feature is that it is entitled to a "liquidation preference" ahead of common stock. Whether the liquidation preference of preferred equity entitles preferred shareholders to priority over common shareholders in a Chapter 11 reorganization is a question that figured prominently in two recent high profile cases.
Features
Michael L. Cook
"Good-faith purchasers enjoy strong protection under [Bankruptcy Code] §363(m)," but the silent asset buyer ("B") with "actual and constructive knowledge of a competing interest" lacks "good faith," held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Features
Jacqueline C. Wolff
Given the massive amount of dollars being poured into ESG funds and the SEC's renewed focus on both the funds and the companies in the funds, there is no time like the present for companies to engage in an assessment of their climate risks and how these risks and the status of the companies' ESG goals are being relayed to investors.
Features
Jessie Yount
Real estate executives say the construction of the office of the future is well underway within the legal industry, despite a dip in leasing activity at the beginning of the year. However, there is a shift toward "densification," as firms take advantage of favorable market conditions and make longer-term commitments.
Features
Steven M. Silverberg
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court applied strict scrutiny to a sign regulation as it related to directional signs placed by a local congregation that held services at different locations each week. The Court took another look at the issue of strict scrutiny relating to "off-premises" signs in the case of City of Austin, Texas v. Reagan National Advertising , in which the majority concluded that strict scrutiny should not apply to determining whether the off-premises sign regulations at issue violated the First Amendment.
