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
"Honey, I’m Going to Whole Paycheck, Has Our Home Equity Loan Come Through Yet?"
"[Wild Oats] is the only existing company that has the brand and number of stores to be a meaningful springboard for another player to get into this space. Eliminating them means eliminating this threat forever, or almost forever." - John P. Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods, in 2007 email to Whole Foods Board Member. Mr. Mackey also posted on Internet message boards under the pseudonym Rahodeb for seven years, ending in 2006 Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it...
Exploring Google Book Search
In November 2005 I wrote an article about Google Book Search and the legal efforts of copyright owners to stop Google from achieving its goal of digitizing the world's books and making them searchable on Google. The lawsuit filed by the Author's Guild described there has dragged on with little visible activity and no apparent end in sight, but in the meantime Google has been digitizing books like nobody's business. Although Google won't disclose how many books it has scanned (why is this a...
New Hampshire Federal District Court Issues Comprehensive Ruling on Communications Decency Act
"[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. ... [n]o cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section. . . . . [However this law] shall [not] be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property." Communications Decency Act ("CDA"), 47 U.S.C.
It Gets Harder (possibly much harder) to File a Lawsuit in Massachusetts
One of the things that drives people crazy is how easy it is to file a lawsuit, and conversely how difficult it is to persuade a judge to dismiss a lawsuit before the defendant incurs the costs of discovery and summary judgment. It has long been the law in Massachusetts that a complaint should not be dismissed "unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Nader v. Citron, 372 Mass. 96 (1977). This is a...
Massachusetts Software Company Liable for Breach of License Agreement and Under Chapter 93A
It's probably fair to say that there are thousands of software license and development agreements entered into every business day in the U.S. Only a very small number result in a lawsuit, and an even smaller number end up with a jury verdict and ruling under 93A by a Massachusetts trial judge. So, when a case does go the distance, it's worth paying attention. The recent decision by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Leila R. Kern in Perfectyourself.com v. Accusoft Corporation discusses the...
Is it Under Copyright? Check Here
Whether a U.S. work is protected by U.S. copyright is often a difficult question to answer. It can depend on factors such date of first publication, whether the work was published with a copyright notice, whether the copyright was renewed, whether the author is living or dead and, if dead, when the author died. Technology to the rescue!, sort of .... Click on the graphic below to go to the American Library Association "Copyright Advisory Network" website where you can use the "digital slide...
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