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 Reverses Judge Young in Situation Management Case
Are business training materials sufficiently original to be protected by copyright law? The answer, of course, is “it depends.” First and foremost it depends on the materials themselves, but it also depends on the judge. In Situation Management v. ASP, Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge William Young thought the training materials created by the plaintiff, Situation Management, were not entitled to copyright protection. (I posted on this case when Judge Young’s decisionwas issued – click...
Andy Updegrove's Thoughts on the Microsoft v. TomTom Patent Case, on Consortiuminfo.org
It would be an understatement to observe that Microsoft's patent suit against Dutch GPS vendor company TomTom has been closely watched. Why? Because Microsoft alleges that several of the patents at issue are infringed by TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel. In this first month of the dispute, the most urgent question has been this: will TomTom fight or fold? Now we have the answer: TomTom has decided to fight - and perhaps fight hard. Yesterday, it brought its own suit against...
First Circuit Declines to Reconsider Its Holding That Truth May Not Be a Defense Under 1902 Massachusetts Law
The First Circuit has denied Staples' request that it hear the Noonan v. Staples case en banc, or that it ask the SJC to advise it on how to apply the 100 year old Massachusetts statute which provides that "actual malice" may create an exception to the principle that defamation must be false to be actionable. I posted on this case a few weeks ago (link here), and commented on the agita it had created in the First Amendment milieu. In fact, a vast number of publishers and First Amendment...
Free The Market! by Gary Reback
Gary Reback, famed antitrust/IP lawyer and long-time thorn in the side of Microsoft, has written a book entitled "Free The Market!". The book will be released in mid-April and is available on preorder at Amazon now. Based on a few excerpts on Reback's web site it looks like this will be an anecdotal, "in-the-trenches" book (as opposed to theoretical/academic) that should be well worth reading for those interested in the antitrust/IP wars of the last two decades. Reback was truly in the center...
"You Assert That a ‘Spike’ is a Non-Pointed Structure Under This Patent? That Will Cost You $4.6 Million, Counselor!"
As I've said so many times in this blog, it's not the law you need to fear, it's the judge. In CU Medical v. Alaris Medical System (a patent infringement case involving medical valves) the patent owner/plaintiff argued that the term "spike," described in the patent as "a pointed instrument," included non-pointed structures, such as a tube.The California U.S. District Court trial judge didn't take kindly to this frivolous argument (in the eyes of the judge). The judge also found that the...
Connecticut Supreme Court Briefs Online
Here's a link to Connecticut Supreme Court Briefs Onlne, a Wordpress blog managed by members of the Connecticut bar who attempt to post the briefs in every case that is argued before the Connecticut Supreme Court. The site also posts a short description of the issue in each case, the decision (when it becomes available) and a video of argument before the Court (also when available). It would be great if every state did this, and if there were a centralized site that provided access to each...
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