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
Go Directly to Jail
We're always warning our standards setting clients that U.S. antitrust laws are about more than just money - you can go to jail. After a while, it feels like these warnings lose their force. This recent press release from DOJ is a reminder that a violation of the antitrust laws is both a criminal and a civil violation: An independent consultant and two executives of Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd., a manufacturer of marine hose located in Grimsby, United Kingdom, pleaded guilty today and have...
First Circuit Decision on Copyright Preemption
The First Circuit has published a complex decision involving copyright preemption of a state law claim for an accounting of profits between co-authors of a copyrighted work. The case, Cambridge Literary Properties, Ltd. v.W. GoebelPorzellanfabrik G.m.b.H & Co. KG (1st Cir. Dec. 13, 2007), has a tortured procedural history. In fact, the First Circuit issued an earlier decision in the case as far back as 2002. The case is quite complex, and involves the chain of copyright ownership in the...
Massachusetts Judges Reluctant to Enforce Noncompete Agreements
Further to my post below, commenting on whether the enforceability of noncompete agreements in Massachusetts has been a major factor in Silicon Valley's relatively greater success in attracting high tech start-ups, a review of recent Massachusetts noncompete cases shows how difficult it has become to enforce these agreements in Massachusetts. Judges appear to be leaning over backwards to deny preliminary injunction motions (which is where the real action lies in these cases). Here is a quick...
Why Has Silicon Valley Outperformed Boston/ Route 128 as a High Tech Hub?
In a post on TechDirt Mike Masnick argues (with references to supporting studies) that the fact that noncompete agreements are enforceable in Massachusetts but not in California has been a major factor in Silicon Valley's success. A few excerpts from the article: Ronald Gilson . . . [found that the success of Silicon Valley] had much less to do with cultural reasons and much more to do with the legal differences between the two places, specifically: California does not enforce noncompetes,...
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