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 Wayback Machine and the DMCA
Copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Quick now, what's a good legal strategy when you're involved in a bitterly contested trade secret, copyright and trademark case? Sue the lawyers on the other side, accusing them of hacking, of course. At worst, you'll distract them and knock them off their game; at best, you'll force their disqualification, pushing them out of the case and making your opponent go to the expense and inconvenience (not to be underestimated) of hiring new counsel and...
Interview With Tim Berners-Lee
Technology. Tim Berners-Lee is widely recognized as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Today, he is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, Senior Researcher at MIT's CSAIL, and Professor of Computer Science at Southampton ECS. Mr. Berners-Lee's current project is the development of a Semantic Web, a dramatic enhancement of the current web which is described in detail here. This Spring (2005) my partner Andrew Updegrove interviewed Mr. Berners-Lee regarding the Semantic Web. To read...
The Supreme Court’s Grokster Decision – A Conversation With a Client
Following the Supreme Court's June 27, 2005 decision in MGM v. Grokster I wrote a short article about the case, in the style of a client consulting a lawyer about a file-sharing system. Attorney: Judy, what brings you to my office today? Client: John, I have an exciting idea, and I want to run it by you to make sure it passes legal muster. I've been involved in indie music and film for years; I have hundreds of contacts in the entertainment industry. People don't realize what a huge body of...
Second Circuit Holds that Use of Competitor's Name to Trigger Pop-Up Ads Does Not Violate Trademark Law
Trademark Law. Last year I wrote (together with Susan Mulholland, an attorney at my firm), an article on the WhenU line of cases. We reviewed the three legal decisions that had been published to date on the WhenU technology: two from the district courts in Virginia and Michigan holding that WhenU's practice was permissible; and one, from the federal district court in New York holding that WhenU had violated the Lanham Act, the federal trademark statute. What does WhenU do that resulted in...
The Story of the Demoulas Fortune and the Judge’s Clerk
Yesterday's masters of the universe are today's cosmic dust. Anon _____________________ What Were They Thinking? A case that has received enormous attention in Massachusetts is the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers investigation into the activities of several attorneys for the defendants in the Demoulas case, a state court case involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty surrounding the ownership of a large New England supermarket chain. The case itself was a legal odyssey, spanning years...
Lawyer/Employee Who Secretly Modifies Severance Agreement Before It Is Signed by Employer Loses His Case
A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice. -Bill Cosby What Were They Thinking? It fascinates me when lawyers do exceptionally stupid things. One would think that the successful completion of four years of college and three years of law school (not to mention years of experience watching clients do unwise things) would inoculate lawyers against the most foolish forms of human behavior. But, of course, experience shows otherwise. Even experienced lawyers are...
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