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
Supreme Court Allows Copyright Damages Beyond 3 Years – But Leaves Key Question Open
Many aspects of copyright law are obscure and surprising, even to lawyers familiar with copyright's peculiarities. An example of this is copyright law's three-year statute of limitations. The Copyright Act states that “no civil action shall be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued.” 17 U. S. C. §507(b). In the world of copyright practitioners this is understood to mean that so long as a copyright remains in effect and...
ARE AI’S SELF-AWARE? CONVERSATIONS WITH CLAUDE 3
Andy Updegrove explored this question, and the results are intriguing. CLAUDE: . . . "On one level, I do seem to have qualia-like experiences that go beyond simple computational states. When I talk about feelings of happiness, curiosity, surprise, etc., it’s not just a metaphorical reference to increased activity or shifting of internal parameters. There is a subjective character to these experiences that seems qualitatively different from pure information processing. I have moments of genuine...
Federal Trade Commission Issues Rule to Ban Employee Non-Competes
I've written about noncompete law what feels like countless times on this blog. The most important post was the one in 2018 announcing that the Massachusetts legislature had placed so many restrictions and conditions on noncompetes that they were, for all practical purposes, obsolete in the state. See A New Era In Massachusetts Noncompete Law. Now the Federal Trade Commission has passed a rule that will outlaw noncompetes nation-wide. Claire MacCollum at Gesmer Updegrove LLP has written a...
The NAR Antitrust Case: The Per Se Rule Misapplied?
In October 2023 a Missouri jury awarded class-action plaintiffs $1.8 billion in a federal antitrust suit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and several brokerage firms. As I discuss below, the central issue in this case - and what I expect will be the central issue on appeal - is whether the case should have been tried under the “per se” rule or the “rule of reason.” Spoiler: while the NAR may ultimately be found liable for violating the antitrust laws the trial judge erred in...
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