Publications

Physician participation in the implementation of the death penalty is a highly contentious issue, spawning voluminous professional and academic debate. Society has long provided a role for physicians in the execution process, but as the death penalty has become more and more medicalized, the appropriate contours of such participation have come under increasing scrutiny. Should […]

Registered nurses were not supervisors ineligible to vote in a union election because they did not exercise independent judgment, did not supervise patient care and had a limited role in evaluating and reprimanding lower-level employees, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently held.

Brand development is the process of creating in consumers’ minds an image, an awareness, and a preference for a product or service. A franchisor typically invests enormous sums in its trademark or service mark and accompanying system, which guide the public to a particular product and service experience and assist franchisees with delivering that experience. […]

In Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 1396 (2008), the United States Supreme Court held, in a 6-3 decision, that parties seeking to enforce an arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) cannot contractually expand the scope of a court’s review of the award beyond the limited standards of review […]

Catherine P. Baatz, an associate at Wiggin and Dana, gave this presentation on “News for Senior Living Communities: Legal Update.”

Franchisors that own intellectual property (patents, copyrights, or trademarks)for use as part of the franchise system have long been confronted with an unfortunate and misguided presumption that their intellectual property rights automatically gave them market power — an essential element of many antitrust claims — in the system’s patented, copyrighted, or trademarked products and services. […]

Over the past months we have been receiving an increasing number of questions about the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOA”) on nonprofit organizations. We have therefore prepared the enclosed guide “Governance and Nonprofit Corporations: Requirements and Expectations in a Post-Sarbanes-Oxley World. We hope this Primer, which reviews the relevant provisions and principles of SOA […]

The patenting of inventions resulting from research collaborations between individuals,between two or more companies,and between universities and companies all stand to gain from the support provided by both Houses of Congress for the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement (“CREATE “)Act.

An employee who suffered from occasional bouts of pain and dizziness due to ovarian cysts could not be considered disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because her condition did not substantially limit a major life activity, according to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Ofori-Tenkorang v. American Int’l Group, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“Section 1981”), which prohibits race-based discrimination against “persons within the jurisdiction of the United States” in the making and enforcement of contracts, does not extend […]

Most large business entities are organised as corporations, which can be either privately or publicly held. Public corporations can be listed on a stock exchange. The two major US stock exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system (NASDAQ).

Creating a potential split among the Circuit Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held, in Whittington v. Nordam Group, Inc., that a five year age difference between a laid-off employee and a similarly situated colleague who survived the downsizing was not so insignificant as to preclude a finding that the employer […]

Every attorney has an ethical duty of candor to the court. That duty stems not only from the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, but also from the attorney’s role as “an officer of the court” who, in Judge Benjamin Cardozo’s words, is therefore “like the court itself, an instrument or agency to advance the ends […]

Largely because of its class action feature, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has become increasingly popular with plaintiffs’ attorneys. Indeed, more than 150 class actions seeking damages under the FLSA have been filed over the last three years, and, between 2000 and 2003, the number of class actions swelled by 70 percent. Not surprisingly, […]

The need to periodically review, and update, the requirements for admission to the patent bar is readily apparent, particularly in this time of rapid technological change and case law evolution that effectively widens the swath of patentable subject matter. Accordingly, the time is now ripe for the United States Patent Office (herein “PTO” or “Patent […]

The feature piece for this issue of Infrastructure focuses on the developing law in the battle between the rights of artists to control their works and the ability of Internet users to access content. Litigation, including the Internet provider subpoena case discussed in the issue, will help frame the reach and scope of the 1998 […]

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. v. Campbell marks anew the constitutional limits on punitive damages. The six-Justice majority (Scalia, Thomas, and Ginsburg each dissented separately) reversed and remanded the Utah Supreme Court’s decision reinstating a $145 million punitive damage verdict,which the trial court had reduced to $25 million. […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that the public and the press have a First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings, and that courts can restrict access only when there is a compelling governmental interest and the restriction is narrowly tailored to serve it. See, e.g., Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court, […]

On March 7, 2005, The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Volvo Trucks North America, Inc. v. Reeder-Simco GMC, Inc., to review whether a truck manufacturer’s offering of unequal price concessions to dealers engaged in bidding on different resale contracts constituted unlawful price discrimination in violation […]

The advent of Electronic Case Filing (“ECF”) in federal criminal cases is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, ECF has dramatically increased access to court documents and allows interested parties as well as the public to obtain information about a pending case in an efficient and expeditious manner. On the other hand, ECF, which […]

I’m pleased to continue as NYIPLA Historian at the behest of our new President, Marylee Jenkins. Our previous ?ve columns have focused on patent reform, and our Association’s role through the years in molding reform. This column will continue in that vein.

Connecticut’s Supreme Court has refused to recognize a claim for defamation based on an employee’s “self-publication” of a former employer’s allegedly defamatory explanation for a discharge decision.

On June 23, 2006, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously invalidated the SEC’s recent attempt to regulate hedge funds by requiring them to register as investment advisers. See Registration Under the Advisers Act of Certain Hedge Fund Advisers, 69 Fed. Reg. 72,054 (Dec. 10, 2004) […]

Before a company may site and construct a generating unit, transmission line or substation, it must comply with procedures established by overlapping elaborate regulatory schemes. It is natural to assume that after following the letter of the law (perhaps over a period of years) and proving that the project’s economic benefits outweigh its environmental impacts […]

In the 9th edition of the TerraLex Intellectual Property Newsletter, we discussed the consequences of improperly claiming small entity status as articulated by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Ulead Systems, Inc. v. Lex Computer Management Corp. (351 F.3d 1120 (Fed. Cir December 9, 2003)). We also noted that ambiguities in the […]

Business method patents have generated considerable public controversy in the last couple of years. This controversy has resulted from substantial coverage in the popular press of the grant of certain “high profile” business method patents, such as Amazon.com’s “one click” method patent. Congress, the Courts, and the Patent Office have each played a role in […]

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has issued a series of remarkable opinions in United States v. Stein – a case reported to involve the largest tax fraud prosecution ever brought by the United States Government. Judge Kaplan’s latest decision, the third in the series (“Stein III”), orders the dismissal of charges against thirteen defendants […]

Edward Wood Dunham is Editor-in-Chief of the Franchise Law Journal. This column expresses Mr. Dunham’s personal opinions and does not reflect the viewpoint of the ABA Forum on Franchising or the Franchise Law Journal. In the legendary director John Ford’s “last great film,”1 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, James Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, a […]

Historically, the federal courts have been far from uniform in their views regarding the circumstances under which employers may be held liable for sexually harassing conduct committed by their supervisory personnel. In June of 1998, however, the United States Supreme Court issued two decisions, Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 and Burlington […]

If it’s true that an area of law can develop by fits and starts by truly momentous cases, or through a slow but steady accretion of sensible decisions, franchising’s development in 2002 was more the latter. Most of the reported decisions in 2002 were of the solid, common-sense type that a lawyer on either side […]