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 to Review 9th Circuit Decision in “Raging Bull” Copyright Case
The Supreme Court accepts fewer than 1% of the requests for review submitted to it, and review of copyright cases is relatively rare.* Yesterday, the Court accepted review (or, in lawyer-speak, granted a "petition for writ of certiorari") in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. *Based on my quick count, the Court has decided 15 copyright cases since 1985. Since 1981 Paula Petrella has been the owner (by way of copyright reversion and inheritance) of her father Frank Petrella's copyright...
Judge Stearns Weighs in on Legal Standard for Copyright Takedown Notices
What legal standard should the courts use to penalize a copyright owner for sending a copyright takedown notice that results in the takedown of a copy protected by fair use? This issue has come up infrequently since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was enacted in 1998, and never in the First Circuit, but now it is pending in two cases before different federal district court judges in Boston, one of which has reached a conclusion early in the case. The Issue Copyright owners complain...
Massachusetts Tech Tax Repealed
Gesmer Updegrove Client Advisory - Massachusetts Tech Tax Repealed. Click here to download a pdf from gesmer.com. [scribd id=172168113 key=key-sgirfk6wqgo3hc74rku mode=scroll]
First Circuit Upholds Preliminary Injunction Enforcing 12 Month Non-Solicitation Clause
In Corporate Technologies v. Harnett, decided by the First Circuit on August 23, 2013, the court upheld the Massachusetts U.S. District Court's enforcement of a 12-month employee non-solicitation clause. The court rejected Harnett's (the former employee) argument that he did not solicit Corporate Technologies' customers, particularly given evidence that the new employer sent a "blast email" to a group that included many of Corporate Technologies' customers. The opinion contains an extensive...
Article published in Lawyer’s Weekly: Applying Copyright Law to New Technologies Still Challenging
Embedded below is an article I wrote for Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly that was published in the paper's September 9, 2013 issue. A link to the article on MLW's website is here (subscription required). A link to the original article in an easier to read format is here. [scribd id=167031650 key=key-2m2nwygd60rgez54bcti mode=scroll]
Aeroe Copyright Law Article in Cyberspace Lawyer
The Cyberspace Lawyer was nice enough to take the four-part article on the Aereo copyright case that I published earlier this summer (Part 1 here), combine it into a cohesive whole and publish it in their August issue. The article is embedded below via scribd. A direct link to the article is here. [scribd id=164054335 key=key-ad2bq8dybmovi0uwn70 mode=scroll]
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