Publications
This year brings the commencement or increase in enforcement of three major privacy initiatives. First, on March 1, 2010, Massachusetts began enforcement of its specific, and as many would claim, onerous privacy regulation. While only a Massachusetts state regulation, the implementing law states that its jurisdictional reach is to all businesses that possess personal information […]
I am standing on the edge of a red sandstone cliff looking down through a heavy mist to the medieval town of Landstuhl, Germany. Behind me is the U.S. Army’s Landstuhl hospital, a sprawling complex of buildings set back from the cliff’s edge. A few miles in front of me, beyond the church towers that […]
AIR EVACUATIONTraveling With USAFAir Mobility Command Aeromedical Evacuation Teams – 2009 I will be traveling with air evac teams flying air evac missions into Iraq, picking up American wounded and starting them on their way home. My goal in this article is to put you with U.S. Air Force medical evacuation crews as they fly […]
In the summer of 2007, lawyers at my firm, Wiggin and Dana LLP, formed our Climate Change and Sustainable Development group. This chapter discusses the need our community of active and potential clients has for the services provided by this practice group. This chapter cannot discuss in detail the immense range of topics comprehended by […]
In re Seagate Technology, which was decided en banc by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in August 2007, replaced the prior standard for determining whether an infringer committed willful patent infringement with a new standard that thus far, has made it more difficult for patent owners to prove willful patent infringement. In […]
Like Humpty-Dumpty, we patent lawyers would hope that our words would mean to others what we want them to mean to ourselves. Certainly we like to think we know what “patentable subject matter” means to us. However, the phrase risks confusion among non-patent people who may tend to construe “patentable subject matter” as “subject matter […]
Off-label promotions of drugs by pharmaceutical companies continue to be a concern of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Justice (DOJ). In January 2009, Pfizer’s US $2.3 billion settlement and Eli Lilly’s US $1.42 billion settlement in connection with off-label promotions have been two of the largest payouts […]
Recent headlines report tales of corporate greed and avarice. Today, the corporation is typically the villain. In fact, in the current economic climate, it is difficult to imagine a corporation as a victim, especially a corporation in the financial services sector. But corporations and other business entities, in all sectors and industries, are sometimes victimized […]
Franchising is a popular method of distribution used by a wide variety of businesses. Franchising is attactive as a business model because it offers companies the prospect of expansion with a lower financial and overhead investment than establishing or acquiring a network of company-owned distribution points. In short, franchising leverages other people’s money, credit, and […]
The decision to implement a reduction in force (“RIF”) never comes easily to employers, irrespective of company size or nature of the business. Where a business is struggling, a RIF may be a necessity. However, even where businesses are holding their own in this troubled economic climate, they see the need to stay “lean and […]
As we watch the current economic down cycle unfold, we can only wonder how long it will last, and how much of an impact it will have on our nation’s patent system. Pundits appear ambivalent as to how to characterize the severity of the current down cycle, and even differ on what to call it. […]
In Cracco v. Vitran Express, Inc., 559 F.3d 625 (7th Cir. 2009), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected a terminated employee’s retaliation and interference claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and in doing so reaffirmed that the FMLA does not bar an employer from dismissing an employee […]
In February, for the first time, two satellites — a defunct Russian military satellite and an operational, privately owned Iridium satellite — collided in orbit. The damage has yet to be fully ascertained, but it will likely include the total loss of the Iridiuim satellite, operational costs to minimize gaps in Iridium coverage and costs […]
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association, Inc. (“CBIA”), the Insurance Association of Connecticut (“lAC”), the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (“NAMIC”), the American Insurance Association (“AlA”), and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (“PCIA”) (collectively, the “Amici”), submit this brief to assist the Court as it determines the scope of protection that the […]
In diversity cases that raise state law issues of first impression, federal appellate courts must try to predict how the state’s highest court would rule on the issue. When a federal circuit has done just that — ruled on a novel issue of law from a state within its jurisdiction — should other federal circuits […]
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On May 22, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a supervisor’s statement indicating that men have a propensity to commit sexual harassment, coupled with the employer’s failure to properly investigate allegations of sexual harassment, are sufficient to infer that the accused harasser was the victim of illegal sex […]
On June 18, Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority of a sharply divided Supreme Court in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., relied on the dictionary — rather than two decades of Supreme Court precedent — to reject the availability of “mixed motive” claims under the Age Discrmination in Employment Act (ADEA). Although widely […]
On June 9, 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. that the doctrine of patent exhaustion applies to method patents as well as product and composition of matter patents. Patent exhaustion provides that an authorized sale of an article that substantially embodies a patent exhausts the patent […]
On September 25, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) into law. The ADAAA, which took effect on January 1, 2009, implements considerable and meaningful changes to the current interpretation and application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Employers should focus all discussions about performance […]
In the scramble to address climate change, state and municipal governmental agencies, private developers, and local communities — both in Connecticut and nationwide — are increasingly turning to “transit-oriented development” or “TOD,” which situates housing close to public transportation and commercial and retail amenities. By incorporating mixed uses and density, TOD ensures that walking and […]
Most experts agree that solving the problem of climate change and/or reversing global warming will require a combination of conservation, recycling, and new technologies. The International Energy Agency (IEA) continues to urgently call for sweeping global changes in transportation technology, energy sources that power factories, and the global economy overall. A global energy revolution will […]
A previous column [“Collateral Orders,” NLJ, 11-27-06] noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had narrowed the categories of orders that were immediately appealable under the “collateral order” doctrine, allowing such appeals only when the denial of immediate review would “imperil a substantial public interest.” Will v. Hallock, 546 U.S. 345, 352 (2006). The Supreme Court’s […]
On September 10, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected a disabled employee’s discrimination and retaliation claims under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§12101, et seq., and in so doing held that a rarely required job function may be deemed essential if the potential consequences of employing […]
On March 4, leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that they’d reached agreement on a modified version of a patent reform bill (S. 515) introduced into Congress last year. If enacted, the modified bill is sure to disrupt our nation’s established patent policy and decrease our nation’s competitive edge in technology-related matters. A first […]
Patents are often overlooked as a means for a franchisor to protect its franchise system. Although almost all franchisors boast a unique and proprietary business system, few seek patent protection. For a franchisor that develops a unique business method that meets the minimum patentability requirements, a business method patent can be an integral part of […]
Many franchisors heartily dislike arbitration.It is easy to understand why.To anyone who has ever endured a protracted arbitration,conducted without regard to evidentiary rules or governing law,only to receive a mystifying (or infuriating)award that a reviewing court will simply rubber stamp,the flaws of the process are manifest.1 Certain franchisors tolerate those flaws because,even if they sometimes […]
A cradle of manufacturing and industry, Connecticut serves as home to a significant number of abandoned or partially used industrial properties.1 Plagued or stigmatized by either real or perceived environmental contamination, these legacy properties constitute Connecticut’s “brownfields.” Factories and mills that once made clocks, pins, thread, hats, buggies, guns, military ordnance, and other products in […]
Samuel Taylor Coleridge sagely observed that “often the spirits of great events stride on before the events, and in today already walks tomorrow.” Our Association’s eighty-fifth gathering at the Waldorf in honor of the Federal Judiciary was, by all measures, a great event. It is eminently fitting that Chief Judge Paul R. Michel was honored […]
Even those of us who don’t enjoy dancing to electronic music may need to be aware of a recent federal law that was enacted to target drug use at raves. The so-called “Rave Act,” or the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003, signed into law on April 30, 2003, expands the circumstances in which individuals […]