File Early and File Often: A Pending Application is the Best Approach to Capturing Your Competitor's Product
January 01, 2004
Your client has invented a platform technology that creates a new product, industry or way of doing business. Early in the development of the new platform, a detailed patent application is prepared, filed and prosecuted to allowance. Before allowance, a well-funded competitor begins using the patented technology. When the patent issues, a cease and desist letter is sent. The competitor denies infringement and a lawsuit is filed.
Entrepreneurial Trends in University Tech Transfer
January 01, 2004
Research universities have long engaged in technology transfer ' most since the 1980s or earlier. Academic researchers are a source of significant innovation. Universities have the right (and in some cases the obligation) to patent and exploit such inventions, and patenting university technology is well accepted by most universities and their stakeholders. The recipe was supposed to be simple: patent a handful of inventions from university labs, license them for a comfortable royalty, and sit back and enjoy the revenue.
Forfeiture Provision of Voluntary Stock Not Illegal
January 01, 2004
New York's highest court has issued an important decision interpreting Section 193 of the New York Labor Law, which prohibits employers from making deductions from an employee's wages except in limited circumstances.
Disparate Impact and Disparate Treatment Analysis
January 01, 2004
The United States Supreme Court rebuked a Ninth Circuit panel for misapplying disparate impact analysis in the context of a disparate treatment case when the lower court ruled that a recovered drug addict could not be denied reemployment under the terms of the employer's no-rehire rule. In doing so, the Supreme Court determined that, in fact, a no-rehire rule is a "quintessential legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for refusing an employee who was terminated because of misconduct."
Alleged Employee Wrongdoing
January 01, 2004
On Dec. 4, 2003, President Bush signed into the law the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT), Pub. L. No. 108-159, 117 Stat. 1952 (2003), amending 15 U.S.C. § 1681a, <i>et. seq.</i>, and reauthorizing and amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
