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I launched a new blog today, called Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. Here's the link. The blog is based on a book I just published of the same title, available here and here. Posted on August 6, 2009 at 07:34 pm

A recent decision by a district court in Colorado, Health Grades, Inc., v. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Inc. (HT to Eric Goldman and Mike Masnick at Techdirt) raises once again courts' confusion over foundational holdings by the Supreme Court in its 1991 Feist compilation opinion, confusion that has resulted in inappropriate extension of copyright to facts, prices, and ratings. In the Colorado case, the opinion was on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, meaning that there has been no... Posted on July 18, 2009 at 11:41 am

West Publishing just put out a "new" treatise of mine on fair use in copyright. Here is a link to buy it ($200, free shipping!). "New" is in quotes because the book goes back to 1985, when BNA published the first edition. The book got off to a good start: the week after it was published the Supreme Court cited it in its Harper & Row, Publishers v. Nation Enterprises opinion, the case about the Nation magazine's unauthorized publication of excerpts from former President Gerald Ford's memoirs... Posted on June 8, 2009 at 07:40 am

What should employers do to prepare for a possible pandemic? Here are the latest tools and tips. Resources Click here for the Health & Human Service pandemic workplace planning center Click here for a workplace pandemic planning checklist Click here for a checklist for companies with overseas operations Click here and here for tips on preventing germs from spreading in the workplace Click here for OSHA's pandemic guidance Click here for workplace flyers and posters Click here for tips from... Posted on April 29, 2009 at 03:22 am by Mark Toth

Employment lawsuits are skyrocketing at an alarming rate. Class actions are exploding. Plaintiffs' attorneys and government agencies are getting more and more aggressive. RIFs and other cost-cutting measures are fueling the fire. Verdicts are getting larger and larger. What do you do? Don't panic. Just sign up for our FREE May 27 webinar, entitled Anatomy of an Employment Lawsuit. Using recent real-life cases, we'll give you all the latest legal developments and loads of practical tools and... Posted on April 29, 2009 at 12:03 am by Mark Toth

Arlen Specter (R-PA) has switched from Republican to Democrat. Here's his statement. Specter's switch gives the Democrats a 60-seat "supermajority" in the Senate (assuming Al Franken's "win" of the Minnesota seat holds). That means that Democrats would be able to block Republican filibusters on bills such as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). However, Specter has repeated his public stance that he still will not vote to block an EFCA filibuster. The exact quote: "my position on Employees... Posted on April 28, 2009 at 04:21 am by Mark Toth

Reid Trautz has done it again - for the fifth year in a row. Spread the word - the Holiday Gift Guide is out!! Reid My Blog!: The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com * Posted on November 19, 2009 at 11:01 pm by Editors

The blawgosphere is abuzz with the news - Google has entered the legal research game. Learn more about the news by reading a recent post at Robert Ambrogi's LawSites and then head over to Google Scholar to check it out. * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com * Posted on November 19, 2009 at 04:17 am by Editors

Microsoft Outlook isn't perfect, but there is more to its e-mail and calendar functions than meets the eye. By combining some of Outlook's best undiscovered features with a little ingenuity, lawyers can reduce their stress levels and perhaps add a bit of leisure time to their schedules. [via Law.com - Mastering Outlook to Increase Productivity.] * Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com * Posted on November 15, 2009 at 11:58 pm by Law.com

For many in-house practitioners, basic legal research begins at the computer, searching legal web sites or professional services, news sites, and blogs for the lasted blip on the "law of the land". While this exercise may bear fruitful, there are some pitfalls as well. For example, using databases or search engines could prohibit or narrowly tailor a search, instead of providing the most comprehensive results. In Guerrilla Research published in The Florida Bar Journal, author, Nancy Wear,... Posted on April 10, 2007 at 06:43 am by Todd Lewis Mayover

The stakes are high in the realm of patent lawsuits. Not surprisingly, patent cases continually increase in complexity, costs and frequency which are why these cases are feared by many emerging companies who see patent lawsuits as obstacles in the path to their success. These fears heavily influence how companies deal with patent lawsuits. Therefore, it is more important now than ever before for companies to better manage their patent lawsuits. As the sole in-house attorney of a medical device... Posted on July 17, 2006 at 08:07 am by Todd Lewis Mayover

A few months ago, I was interviewed by GC South Magazine on blogging and IP Counsel Blog. Recently, my interview was republished by a sister publication, Law.com. If you are interested in reading my interview, you may do so by clicking the following link. Lawyers' Blogs Aren't Just For Marketing Posted on June 29, 2006 at 05:33 am by Todd Lewis Mayover

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Posted on November 9, 2009 at 06:18 am

Engadget recently posted an interesting article that gives a lot of good background on patent issues in standards setting organizations. Wireless standards like GSM are developed by a standards-setting body with the cooperation of its members - in the case of GSM and UMTS, it's the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and with WiFi it's the familiar IEEE. These organizations aren't blind to the fact that its members invest billions into R&D and have lots of patents, but... Posted on November 2, 2009 at 05:02 pm by David Rudin

Here's a few resources that might come in handy if you're interested in standards. http://www.standardslearn.org/ - standards e-learning. [xml.coverpages.org] - standards news and background. [www.talkstandards.com] - standards background and analysis. Posted on September 12, 2009 at 11:00 pm by David Rudin

From a patent licensing perspective, most standards organizations are based on RAND principals. In other words, members are required to make their patents that are required to implement a specification available on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Most standard organizations permit patent holders to charge royalties for their patents. Some, like W3C, require that those required patents be made available under RAND terms without royalty. This is often referred to as RAND-z (RAND with... Posted on August 6, 2007 at 05:40 pm by David Rudin

We all know that times are tough, so what's the best way to save some money when you are in the middle of a contentious merger? Fire the GC, of course. That's what the three Bank of America executives testifying before a Congressional panel yesterday, Brian Moynihan, Charles "Chad" Gifford, and Thomas May, argued when trying to explain the suspicious firing of Mayopoulos. It was result of "downsizing." Yeah, right. I guess it was as good a try as any, but it's hard to know how these executives... Posted on November 18, 2009 at 02:07 am by Vanessa Vidal, Esq.

After months of waiting and wondering about what happened following the announced Merrill Lynch losses declared by Bank of America on December 9th, Tim Mayopoulos was finally able to tell his side to the story before Congress after the bank agreed to a request to waive its attorney-client privilege. In a tale that would make for an interesting John Grisham novel, Mayopoulos recounts how he was "fired on the spot," the day after he learned that losses at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. were almost... Posted on November 17, 2009 at 06:44 am by Vanessa Vidal, Esq.

White House counsel Greg Craig has announced his resignation today. According to a report by NBC News, Bob Bauer, who was general counsel on Obama's presidential campaign and a longtime adviser to Obama, will be taking over Craig's role, officials said. What led to the sudden resignation? Greg Craig has been the subject of questions about his future since late summer, when he became involved with the controversial plan to close Guantanamo Bay. Dogged by criticism from both the left and the... Posted on November 13, 2009 at 12:19 am by Leslie White, Esq.

There's almost nothing like the words 'record retention policy' to quickly put a group of grown adults asleep. If you're lucky enough to be placed on the team to formulate said policy, you probably wonder who you ticked off and should remove from your holiday card list. Reminds me of the Dilbert where the boss starts a meeting and falls asleep while talking, slams his head on the desk only to wake up and ask what the meeting was about. They all said 'the records retention policy.' But hey, some... Posted on November 12, 2009 at 06:28 am

I'm a little late on this one, but this article outlines the use of technology to budget and control the cost of a document review project and could be helpful to some folks. It's sometimes an overwhelming topic, but there's no question that law-related technology tools have advanced in recent years and, when used properly, can drastically reduce the overall data set that is needed to review, code and produce. De-duplication, near dupes, key words, clustering of some type or another and... Posted on November 4, 2009 at 06:44 am

In early January, I read an interesting piece by Susan Hackett of ACC wherein she laid out a few tips for GC's on weathering the economic storm. Although things are beginning to look up (for some), lots of questions remain about 2010. Many of our in-house comrades have weathered or are currently going through the budgeting process; the open questions about the upcoming year have made that process almost like shooting at a target in a dark room. Despite this cloud of uncertainty, it seems there... Posted on November 2, 2009 at 10:26 am