Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
The FTC and DOJ – "So Sorry, but When it Comes to Sherman Action Section 2 Conduct, We Can’t Agree on What the Law Is, or What it Should Be"
The Federal government has two antitrust enforcement authorities - the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. These two agencies have partially overlapping enforcement authority over civil cases, and they often collaborate in setting antitrust policy. Although the federal courts are the final arbiters of the federal antitrust laws (which are statutory, and therefore originate with Congress), the business community relies heavily on the Justice...
In re Bilski – The Pendulum Swings
Those who take an interest in patents -- inventors, litigants, lawyers, judges, pundits, trolls, and on and on -- have been waiting with bated breath for the CAFC's decision in In re Bilski. Is it a game changer for much-maligned "business method" patents? How far does it go in narrowing the patentability of business method processes? How will the courts apply it? How does it affect pending or contemplated cases? Is the Supreme Court likely to accept an appeal? It seems that almost every...
"Excuse me, where is the Google Terminal?"
As expected, the proposed Google Book Search settlement has led to a lot of scrutiny, criticism and questions. Here is a link to the 125 page Settlement Agreement(without attachments; pdf). Here is a link to the page that holds the full agreement which, with attachments, is over 300 pages long). Both Larry Lessig ("IMHO, this is a good deal that could be the basis for something really fantastic") and Wade Roush("Book Search settlement contains some major disappointments") have taken a first...
Welcome to the Metaverse
Wade Roush (technology journalist and chief correspondent at Xconomy) wrote an extraordinary article in the MIT Technology Review in 2007 which I've had in my "must re-read" pile for a while. Recently I picked it up and noticed that the article is accessible in full on the Technology Review web site (free registration required). Here is a brief excerpt from the article, modestly entitled Second Earth: [w]ithin 10 to 20 years--roughly the same time it took for the Web to become what it is...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer