Publications
On Nov. 15, 2011, the Securities and Exchance Commission reported its newly established whistleblower program has generated hundreds of tips in the first seven weeks of its existence, and that dozens of enforcement actions had been opened. Corporations should take note that the landscape has now shifted significantly, and that a “culture of whistleblowing” is […]
A claim of a U.S. patent is directly infringed only if each of the elements of a patent claim are contained in an accused product or if all of the steps of a claimed method are performed. Indeed, establishing infringement liability, a strict liability determination, is relatively straight forward when one entity comprises all elements […]
Experienced litigators have had to get comfortable with the fact that you cannot pick your judge. Sure, you can narrow the field a little by selecting federal over state court (or vice versa) or, at least in Connecticut, requesting a particular Complex Litigation Docket venue. But, generally, you have to take what you get. In […]
Imagine this: You are seated in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria at the Judges’ Dinner. After the usual pre-prandial drinks and multi-course meal, you settle in for dessert and what you may have come to expect will be a light-hearted and entertaining speech from the keynote speaker.On this occasion, however, you are destined to […]
I. Introduction In Mark Twain’s 1889 novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the first thing that protagonist Hank Morgan does when he comes to have influence in his medieval kingdom is to establish a patent office. The reason, he declares, is that “a country without a patent office and good patent laws was […]
Do you remember from your high school or college 20th-century literature course the character of Big Brother, the dictator of Oceania, the totalitarian state in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four? In Oceania the state wields total power, in part by keeping everyone under 24-7-365 surveillance through the use of telescreens and spies, and the population […]
Canadian David Mulligan played golf at the County Club of Montreal back in the 1920s. One day after hitting a poor tee shot, he is said to have re-teed and hit again, calling it a “correction shot.” His friends named the shot after him. Coincidentially, he later became manager at the Waldorf-Astoria. Another Mulligan was […]
The Connecticut Bar Association Professional Ethics Committee recently released an important opinion clarifying the strategic options available to class action defense counsel. For the first time in Connecticut history, the committee stated that defense counsel can directly contact members of a putative class without fearing ethical violations. (CBA Informal Op. 2011-09). Until now, Connecticut offered […]
A writ of mandamus and an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. 1292(b) provide distinct avenues for seeking immediate appellate review of a district court order. In some circumstances, however, appellate courts have denied mandamus because the petitioner failed to pursue an appeal under § 1292(b). Mandamus is a “drastic and extraordinary” remedy reserved for those […]
“It would be idle to pretend that the line separating permissible from impermissible state regulation is readily discernible in our admiralty jurisprudence, or is indeed even entirely consistent within our admiralty jurisprudence.”[1] I. INTRODUCTIONIt is well recognized that the whole of admiralty law[2] in the United States is derived from a one-phrase grant of power […]
www.competitionpolicyinternational.comCompetition Policy International, Inc. 2012© Copying, reprinting, or distributing this article is forbidden by anyone other than the publisher or author. Robert M. Langer[1] I. INTRODUCTION In 1994, while still with the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, I wrote a short essay that cautioned antitrust practitioners to beware of state antitrust enforcers and state antitrust law. […]
A quarter century ago, the Hon. Robert W. Sweet answered that question thusly: “It is rather paradoxical that in this most modern area of the law, this organization fosters the spirit, the camaraderie and the fellowship of a simpler day when lawyers rode the circuit, knew and trusted each other. Because you strengthen each other […]
Appropriate limits to punitive damages awards in product liability actions have been the subject of great debate over the past few years. Most of the debate has focused on federal due process limitations in the wake of several important U.S. Supreme Court decisions that struck down large punitive damages awards as unconstitutional. But just as […]
Ordinarily, a party cannot appeal a denial of summary judgment after trial has taken place, unless the arguments were renewed in a motion for judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. A growing majority of appellate courts, however, has carved out an exception to this general rule—allowing appeals of […]
As with all organizations, change for the NYIPLA is an inevitable fact of life. One challenge, however, lies in timing the rate of change at a pace to maximize advantages for the Association and minimize inconvenience to our individual members. The Association has undergone change in recent years as part of a transition from paper […]
Like parents shocked at exposés of their daughters partying for adult television cameras, regulators in 2012 made one disappointing discovery after another about mobile app privacy practices. Industry-wide, whether they are fun games, serious tools or educational resources, mobile apps continue to access, collect and use private data stored on smart devices while customers remain […]
The smoke has barely lifted since Connecticut’s passage of Public Act No. 12-55, “An Act Concerning the Palliative Use of Marijuana,” and the questions continue to pile high. On October 1, 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state to allow the physician authorized use of marijuana for specifically enumerated and “debilitating medical conditions.” Companies failing to […]
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During the very same week in which the trial of the multibillion dollar claims by the U.S. Government and private parties against BP and the other parties involved with the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig was just getting under way in Federal Court in New Orleans, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was putting the finishing […]
In almost every white-collar case, questions arise about the attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine. Issues concerning the identity of the client, the holder of the privilege, and whether representation of multiple clients is proper are often present at the very start, and the fluid nature and complexity of most white-collar investigations often complicate efforts to […]
In summing up the America Invents Act (“AIA”) in as few words as possible, GWU Law’s Professor Hal Wegner put it thusly: “It’s bad law, but it’s the law. Get over it.” A recent practitioner survey cited by the Patently-O blog suggested that fully seventy percent of patent practitioners surveyed agree with Prof. Wegner’s assertion […]
More than a year ago, on September 23, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP) that it developed in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) mandate that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) establish a protocol for the disclosure and […]
Sir, In respect to “Parameters shift in online piracy battle” (January 24) it may be helpful to bear in mind an observation by Daniel Defoe writing in November 1709 of the MegaUploads of his day, the London printers of Black-Fryars who regularly reproduced a writer’s authorised work within days of its being printed by an […]
This article marks our third annual round-up of Second Circuit decisions emanating from the District of Connecticut. As in previous years, beyond geography, the process for case selection was purely subjective and reflects our view of cases we thought would be of interest to Connecticut’s civil and criminal federal practitioners. Before turning to the decisions, […]
A threshold question in U.S. patent law is, “Whether the subject matter of a claim in a pending patent application or issued patent is directed to patentable subject matter?” Just a few years ago the answer to that question seemed simple, “Yes, if the claimed subject matter came from the ‘hand of man.’” However, recent […]
NRS 16th Annual Fall Investment Adviser & Broker-Dealer Compliance Conference
28th Annual Rocky Mountain State-Federal-Provincial Securities ConferenceDenver, Colorado
28th Annual Rocky Mountain State-Federal-Provincial Securities ConferenceDenver, Colorado
NSR 2nd Annual Conference on Suitability for Traditional and Online Brokers
The words “Auction Today” draw me in every time. That fall day a few months ago was no different. I parked in a gravel-strewn parking lot alongside an old, brick industrial building converted into an auction house. The auction was to start in fifteen minutes. With little time to look for possible treasure, I walked […]