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
Interview With Founder of SCOTUSBlog
If I could take only one legal blog with me to a desert island, it would be SCOTUSBlog. (OK, don't make fun of me). Seriously, this blog -- devoted entirely to the Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") -- is a fantastic legal resource. Everything of interest relating to cases before the Supreme Court is collected here: cert. petitions, briefs, decisions and commentary. There's a lot going on at the Supreme Court, and this blog collects and organizes all of it. It has become an...
Samsung – “Attorney’s Eyes Only” for Naught
Despite what lawyers may promise their clients, lawyers cannot guarantee confidentiality in litigation. Much time and effort is spent negotiating "protective orders" (a stipulation filed by the parties and "entered" as an order by the court). Usually the "PO," as its called, provides for three designations: "attorney's eyes only," "confidential" and non-confidential. "Attorney's eyes only" usually covers attorneys and experts retained by a party, but not the executives or employees of the...
First Circuit Copyright Decision in Society of the Holy Transfiguration
Copyright cases involving translations of ancient religious texts are rare, but in its August 2, 2012, 75 page opinion in Society of the Holy Transfiguration Monestary v. Archbishop Gregory of Denver, the First Circuit addresses many issues of modern copyright law in a case involving just that. The issues the First Circuit discusses include the transfer of copyright ownership by operation of law, the consequences of publication without copyright notice prior to March 1, 1989, the requirement...
Fourth Circuit Weighes in on Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Sides With Ninth Circuit
Yet another federal appeals court has attempted to parse the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act's ("CFAA") ambiguous statutory language. The issue, on which the federal courts cannot agree, is whether an employee who has authorized access to a computer, but uses that access for an illegal purpose -- typically to take confidential information in anticipation of resigning to start a competing company or join one -- violates the CFAA. The controversy is focused on the words "without authorization" and...
How to Follow the Apple v. Samsung Patent Trial
The Internet has made following trials in real time feasible, more or less. For the press to cover controversial trials is nothing new, but in the past these were mostly criminal cases. Today, thanks to sites like groklaw.net, people can follow technology industry cases in detail - descriptions of what is going on in the courtroom, documents and (in the case of groklaw), unsparing commentary. Groklaw is following Apple v. Samsung from a distance (at least compared to its recent coverage of...
Apple’s “Bounce Back” Patent
It seems that Google's "bounce back" patent is going to play a big role in the trial between Apple and Samsung, underway in federal district court in Palo Alto. References to it in Apple's opening statement highlighted this patent. I wasn't sure what the "bounce back" was, but I think I've tracked it down. How do you know that you've reached the bottom or top of a page on an iPhone or iPad? The screen "bounces back" in the opposite direction. Or, as described in patentese in U.S. patent...
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