Getting Wired Is Part Of Research
April 01, 2003
Just a few years ago, attorneys and their staff did a lot of waiting - waiting for papers to be served, or rulings to come in the mail, and for librarians to research and find relevant case information. The time lag created questions and the questions resulted in more client inquiries and multiple trips to the courthouse. Then technology came to the practice of law, and, as most attorneys who are "in the know" now recognize, there are plenty of options beyond PACER in the world of online case research technology. To get off the waiting line, technology-conscious partners should make it a point to stay abreast of the latest trends in the world of online case and docket research.
Planning A Web Site With Some Punch
April 01, 2003
Law firm Web sites have largely converged toward a "standard model" that presents a few implicitly agreed-upon subjects. Consider the analogy to newspapers: Consensus has been achieved that the logical way to organize them is national news, opinion, local news, business, sports, lifestyle, etc. Within this consensus, tremendous variety in paper stock, layout, color, writing style and so forth can all thrive, but the "bone structure" is agreed upon.
The Latest Threat To E-Commerce : The PanIP Patent Litigation
April 01, 2003
As if the recent attacks on the tax-exempt status of Internet transactions were not enough for e-commerce vendors to worry about, a new problem has come to light for companies that sell goods or services via an Internet Web site. PanIP, LLC (PanIP), a company based in San Diego, has initiated lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against over 50 companies transacting business over their Internet Web sites, alleging that such activity constitutes infringement of two patents owned by PanIP.1 The patents asserted by PanIP are generally directed to "data processing systems designed to facilitate commercial, financial and educational transactions between multimedia terminals"2 and to "a system for filing applications with an institution from a plurality of remote sites, and for automatically processing said applications in response to each applicant's credit rating obtained from a credit reporting service."3
Moseley Revisited: What the Victoria's Secret Case Means
April 01, 2003
The Supreme Court's recent Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA) opinion, <i>Moseley et al. dba Victor's Little Secret v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. et al.</i>, has a number of practical consequences. It settled an issue that had split the Circuits for years: whether actual dilution or a "likelihood of dilution" must be shown to establish an FTDA violation. Dilution law seeks to prevent the diminution or whittling away of a famous trademark's value through another's commercial use of the same or a similar mark. That somewhat abstract harm suggests the less concrete "likelihood of dilution" standard would more logically apply.
