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
First Circuit: Company’s Vague Contract Insufficient to Prevent Supplier From Competing
A contract between a company and its supplier states that the supplier shall not "develop any other product derived from or based on" the company's product. Can the company enforce this provision against the supplier when the supplier develops a product that does not appropriate any trade secrets or novel features of the company's product? Not according to a decision of the First Circuit issued on September 4th. Where the features of the product are well known in the art, and there has been...
Oracle and SAP Avoid a Retrial, Go Directly to Appeal, in the Other “Tech Trial of the Century”
Now that the patent trial of the century is on pause for a bit (Apple v. Samsung), it's time to catch up on the other tech trial of the century, Oracle v. SAP. Yes, it's difficult to keep track of all these tech trials of the century. I hope that 80 years from now the world remembers that we had the tech trials of the century back in 2010 and 2012.* *Oh, I almost forgot the other (the third) tech trial of the century, the copyright/patent trial between Oracle and Google earlier this year....
Apple v. Samsung Jury Verdict Form. Huh?
I've been meaning to post a link to the jury verdict form in the Apple v. Samsung patent case. Here it is, linked at the bottom of the post. And no, that's not some weird crossword puzzle on the left, it's a tiny section of the verdict form. If this isn't the most complex jury verdict form in American legal history, I can't imagine what is. The Verge did a nice job of dissecting the jury verdict form pre-verdict, and concluded that a decision on the approximately 700 decision points would "not...
Noncompete Unenforceable Where Employer Changed Terms of Employment
A recent Massachusetts Superior Court decision holds, on summary judgment, that a company may not enforce a noncompete/non-solicitation agreement against a former employee when the former employer had materially breached the agreement by changing the terms of employment. Specifically, the employer changed the employee's job responsibilities and title, and cut his annual salary by $40,000. There's nothing particularly surprising about this ruling, which is a reminder to employers that they can...
Sixth Circuit Finds Trip Advisor’s “Dirtiest Hotel” Ranking Is Not Defamatory
I guess the owners of the Grand Resort Hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee have never heard of the Streisland Effect. Their attempt to sue Trip Advisor for defamation based on the hotel's inclusion in Trip Advisor's annual “Dirtiest Hotels” list was dismissed by the federal district court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. While facts can be defamatory, opinions can not. The court concluded that no "reasonable person could believe that TripAdvisor’s article reflected anything more than the...
Judge Zobel Affirms Statutory Damages Award Against Joel Tenenbaum
Not surprisingly, Massachusetts District Court Judge Rya Zobel has allowed the $675,000 statutory damages award against Joel Tenenbaum to stand in full. The background of this case is well known to many people, but the nutshell version is as follows. Joel Tenenbaum was sued by Sony in 2007. Sony alleged copyright infringement with respect to Tenenbaum's download of 30 digital music files. Harvard Professor Charles Nesson undertook the pro bono defense of Tenenbaum, and the case went to a...
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