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
Lying About Your Education Can Get You Into Trouble In More Ways Than One
Litigation. In Pease v. Tyco Electronics Corp., decided on September 7, 2006, Massachusetts Federal District Court Judge Ponsor dismissed wrongful termination claims by a former employee of Tyco, based on evidence that the employee had lied to Tyco regarding his education (an MBA), and then modified and destroyed files on his computer to cover up his actions during the litigation. Among other things, this case shows how effective forensic examination of a computer can be in litigation, as well...
The "Work for Hire" Trap
Copyright. Sometimes it just seems like the law is full of traps. Miss a filing deadline, fail to make the proper objection or motion in court, leave the many forms of "magic language" out of an agreement - any of these, and countless more, can result in disaster. Our firm has recently seen two clients pay over $500,000 to buy their way out of what I call the "work for hire" trap. Both clients are software companies. In the first case, the client hired an independent contractor to develop its...
Do We Have a Deal, or Not?
Litigation. "Of course, this letter is not intended to create, nor do you or we presently have any binding legal obligation whatever in any way . . .." In 1991 those words played a major role in the Massachusetts Appeal Court's reversal of a $32 million trial judgment against Federal-Mogul Corp. in the case (infamous to Massachusetts business lawyers of the time) of Schwanbeck v. Federal-Mogul. The plaintiff in that case claimed he had a deal to buy a division of Federal-Mogul, and FM had...
Geeks on the Beach
Ok, my family is a little geeky, I admit it. We watch documentaries together more than we watch family friendly movies. What do I discuss with my beautiful wife and exceptional 12 year old daughter as we walk along the beaches of Cape Cod? They both love astronomy, and every year I remind my lovely daughter that there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth. However, I've always had a nagging doubt about this - is it true? It seems just, well,...
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