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
Is It Copyright Infringement, or Is It Something Else?
One of the thorny issues that comes up in copyright cases is whether a dispute actually falls under federal copyright law. What the plaintiff may claim to be copyright infringement the defendant may argue is a breach of contract, or vice versa. If copyright law does control, any state law claim based on rights that are the equivalent of those protected by the Copyright Act are preempted, and must be dismissed. A common example is breach of contract: if copyright law applies, a claim for...
Copyright Infringement Trial? Fagettabout It!
Not long ago the Computer Lawyer published an article that made the case on how rare copyright trials have become. The article had an appendix listing cases that had been dismissed in favor of the defendant either on the pleadings or summary judgment. The bottom line was that judges are inclined to look at the works at issue in a copyright case early on, make a decision on similarity or dissimilarity, and end the case long before it has the chance to get to a jury. Two cases decided by the...
Hair Color Formulas and Salon Client Contact Info Not a Trade Secret, Says Superior Court Judge
When I think of trade secret cases I tend to think of "high end" stuff: secret manufacturing processes, software algorithms, chemical or biological secrets, maybe even the formulas for Coca Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The truth, however, is more mundane, as shown by a case decided by Judge Nicholson in Barnstable County. In this case, which was dismissed in favor of the defendant hair stylist on summary judgment, the court held that a hair salon's hair color formulas and customer contact...
Copyright and Innovation: Hanging on to the Past
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S. Thompson _________________ As the battle between online music companies and copyright owners has raged in the courts during the last decade many of us have wondered what was going on behind the scenes. How did the record companies and publishers assess the threat of digital music to their industry? Why did they...
Procedural Errors During Trial Cause Trade Dress Defendant to Forfeit Rights on Appeal
I've written before about waiver. As I said back in July 2008, the "one thing that scares the bejesus out of trial lawyers is waiver." Waiver is a constant risk in litigation, but nowhere is it more of a risk than during trial. Failure to object to improper jury instructions, or failure to follow the proper procedure required for judgment as a matter of law ("JMOL" in lawyer parlance) can constitute a forfeiture, and preclude the right to raise the omitted issue on appeal. To make matters...
Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine Fails Again in Massachusetts
Can an employer prevent a former employee from working for a competitor in the absence of a non-compete agreement and with no evidence the employee has violated the former employer's trade secret or confidentiality rights? You would think not, but a couple of cases -- infamous in the annals of non-compete law -- have imposed a non-compete in these circumstances. The case cited most frequently on this issue is PepsiCo v. Redmond, a 1995 case in which the 7th Circuit affirmed a preliminary...
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