Publications
Show me the Money! Maximizing Monetary Recovery in Franchise Cases I. Introduction Show Me The Money! Is this the famous Rod Tidwell clarion call from the film Jerry Maguire or a shrill plea from your client after having just filed your latest franchise case? If it is the latter and you have no counseling your […]
Hillary Clinton's use of private email servers, the plundering of 500 million Yahoo! accounts, the Aadhaar case and Snowden's disclosures on NSA spying are developments that dramatically demonstrate that while technology is growing by leaps and bounds, the law unfortunately has not kept pace. Technology now has a profound impact on every sphere of the […]
Abstract: By most accounts, the December 2012 Doha Round negotiations achieved little. The continued failure of member governments to reach consensus increases the risk of a catastrophic rise in global emissions. The current impasse is due in no small measure to the expressed concern of the United States that a climate change treaty will end […]
Checking corruption in India is a Herculean endeavour by any reckoning, and the higher courts have done a noble job of exposing some of the most egregious attempts to rob the exchequer. In the process, they have broken new ground in jurisprudence that could make it easier to catch the bad guys. “Judges must know […]
This article was first published on December 29, 2008. Archaic printing press laws are antithetical to creativity in these times. The question is: was the legal shield of copyright invented to be used to discourage other creators or to provide publishers with control over subsequent creators? India can lead the world by crafting a new […]
The adoption controversy that erupted last year drew attention to the many ills that clog the wheels of adoption in India. But merely punishing the guilty will not ensure sweeping changes. At the very outset, the need for change must recognise the disparities that exist, as for instance, the procedural differences between in-country vs inter-country […]
At present, in legal parlance, both opinion and exit polls are treated equally, for the Constitution as per rights framed under Article 21 does not allow either to be banned. But while the continued legal protection of opinion polls remains unassailable, to extend this exalted status to exit polls, when in certain instances of extended […]
M.S. Swaminathan, et al. (eds.)
Co-author
Social media sites such as Yelp and Facebook provide consumers with a platform to share their opinions about businesses that sell goods or services to the public. While businesses rely on this kind of digital word-of-mouth to boost sales and positive brand awareness, unflattering online reviews are inevitable and have the potential to cause considerable […]
Wiggin and Dana partners, Mark Heaphy and Tamia Simonis, are the contributing authors of the chapter on USA outsourcing for the ICLG Outsourcing 2016 guide. For further information, please
Introduction Customer reviews are ubiquitous in today's commercial environment. Whether the business is Amazon.com or the doctor's office down the street, consumers are accustomed to rating and reviewing goods and services online and having access to reviews from other consumers to help inform their purchasing decisions. Ratings are important because consumers sometimes have limited opportunities […]
Facebook paid $22 billion (Rs.1,472.79 crore) – or, almost 2.5 times Facebook’s 2013 gross revenues – to buy WhatsApp, a company with net loss of over $138 million at the time. Why? One obvious reason, of course, was to stave off potential competition and start its way towards becoming a social media conglomerate. Less talked […]
1. Introduction This chapter provides a window into the world of intellectual property (IP) licensing, using patents and US law as a case study. While there exist many other types of IP licensing – including trademark, copyright, software, mass media, and character licensing – the rules for which differ in important respects, a discussion of […]
As an emerging company goes to market with new offerings, it will need to determine the terms and risk profile on which it will sell its services and products. Many companies develop terms of use (generally for products or services provided or sold through the web) or contract templates. A company will want to have […]
I. Introduction Imagine that a plane crashes and that the pilot and three passengers are tragically killed. An investigation reveals a potential problem with the gadget, a component part of the aircraft. Investigators find that the gadget, which is essential to the operation of the aircraft, had a design defect that probably caused the accident. […]
Plaintiffs in pharmaceutical personal injury litigation frequently join non-diverse, non-resident claims with those of resident plaintiffs in order to have all claims heard in a favorable state court. The proposed Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017 addresses this problem, commonly referred to as litigation tourism.[1] Subsection (d) of the Act would permit defendants […]
Basic Information and Background The Guidance for Data Security uses the term confidential information to refer to various types of information that can be exchanged in the course of an arbitration, including the subsets of personally identifiable information (PII), protected (or personal) health information (PHI), and sensitive or proprietary business information. While various laws and […]
Corporations and businesses of all varieties risk falling victim to crimes committed by their employees and becoming ensnared in criminal investigations of their vendors and business partners. When wrongdoers are convicted federally, the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) requires that they make restitution for losses directly caused by their criminal conduct. In addition to direct […]
Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the number of lawsuits filed in the United States against museums over artworks that changed hands during the Nazi period, whether due to alleged Nazi looting or alleged sales under duress due to Nazi persecution. While many of these suits have been brought against US museums, plaintiffs […]
Dear Compliance Corner, Does our midsize dental practice really have to take HIPAA seriously? Maybe I am worrying about this too much when we have other priorities to attend to. What is the likelihood that we would ever be audited or investigated for failing to implement HIPAA’s requirements? From A HIPAA-chondriac Dear HIPAA-chondriac, Unfortunately, HIPAA […]
The art dealer has a special deal for you. One that he's not offering just anybody. Just you. It's a Cezanne. And the price is $750,000. Cash on delivery. But, you ask, Why is the price so low? Cezannes have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. The reply: I'm going through a divorce and […]
The following is a fictional conversation between two litigators; Alan from New Haven, Connecticut in the United States and Gilad from Ramat Gan in Israel. They share a client incorporated in Connecticut, with its principal place of business in Hartford, Connecticut. The client has a world-wide distribution network, including a sales subsidiary in Israel. The […]
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) administers numerous sanctions programs focused on foreign countries, rogue regimes, terrorist organizations, criminal organizations, and other persons and entities that pose a threat to U.S. national security and U.S. foreign policy objectives. While some of these programs place prohibitions on specified activities with persons and entities in targeted […]
Telia Company AB was fined more than $730 million for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations in 2017, Haliburton, nearly $30 million and Mondelez International, $13 million. Other examples abound. Given these staggering penalties, the announcement late last year that the Department of Justice was issuing a revised FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy creating a presumption […]
Wiggin and Dana Outsourcing Partners, Mark Heaphy and John Kennedy, authored the publication, Outsourcing: United States Overview, which is a Q&A guide giving a high level overview of legal and regulatory requirements on different types of outsourcing; commonly used legal structures; procurement processes; formalities required for transferring or leasing assets; data protection issues; customer remedies […]
Wiggin and Dana Outsourcing Partners, Mark Heaphy and John Kennedy, authored the publication, Transferring Employees on an Outsourcing in the United States: Overview, which is a Q&A guide giving a high level overview of the rules relating to transferring employees on an outsourcing, including structuring employee arrangements (including any notice, information and consultation obligations) and […]
U.S. economic sanctions programs received top billing in the news this year, following major changes further restricting trade with Cuba, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela, including a significant expansion of secondary sanctions, which target foreign businesses for transactions that have no nexus to the U.S., but conflict with U.S. national security or foreign policy objectives. […]
Economic sanctions are touted as a powerful tool in the fight against terrorism, rogue regimes, and transnational criminal organizations. Each round of new sanctions is accompanied by bold assertions of the positive effect the sanctions will have on national security. Critics, on the other hand, contend economic sanctions will cause unintended consequences by harming U.S. […]
Almost every sailor has experienced it –– while on the bow on a breezy day, a rogue wave or unforeseen puff causes the sailor to drop a line. After quickly recovering and completing the task at hand, the skipper asks, What happened? The sailor inevitably responds by saying something along the lines of, I don't […]