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
Electronic Evidence – Fear and Loathing in the Legal Profession
The best aspect of law school is the subordination of math. Anon ________ The schematic displayed above (click for a blow up in pdf format) is a simplified illustration of a corporate network which Microsoft provided to the Federal Rules Committee in connection with proceedings on electronic evidence. It was intended to illustrate a generic corporate computer network. If you are a lawyer and this seems like an alien concept that no lawyer should ever be required to understand, you're not...
Recent Cases (or, Lawyers Behaving Badly)
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing, nothing, against leasing companies. But it seems that some people do, so it grabs my attention when a leasing company sues for breach of a lease and not only loses its case but gets hit with a counterclaim that results in a judgment for violation of M.G.L. c. 93A (the Massachusetts "unfair and deceptive acts and practices" statute). This was the outcome in General Electric Capital v. MHPG, Inc. Following default on the lease GE sued not only its lessee,...
Jury Trials In Massachusetts – "Not"
In the strange heat all litigation brings to bear on things, the very process of litigation fosters the most profound misunderstandings in the world. Renata Adler _______________ The Boston Bar Association (BBA) today issued a report entitled Report of the Boston Bar Association - Task Force on the Vanishing Jury Trial. The subtitle is "Jury Trial Trends in Massachusetts: The Need to Ensure Jury Trial Competency among Practicing Attorneys as a Result of the Vanishing Jury Trial Phenomenon."...
Viral Video, YouTube and Whack-a-Mole, or Why Mark Cuban is Wrong
I quote from News.com on September 28th: Cuban, co-founder of HDNet and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, also said YouTube would eventually be "sued into oblivion" because of copyright violations. "They are just breaking the law," Cuban told a group of advertisers in New York. "The only reason it hasn't been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue." * * * Cuban said "anyone who buys that (YouTube) is a moron" because of potential lawsuits from copyright violations. "There...
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
I've been meaning to post some statistics reported by Price Waterhouse Coopers at the MCLE 9th Annual Intellectual Property Conference earlier this year. PWC has done a rigorous study of patent and trademark cases in the Federal District Courts and at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) over the last 25 years. A few highlights and trends: In 2005, 4% of patent cases and 1.5% of trademark cases went through trial. (Presumably the balance were resolved via settlement or summary...
Project Posner
Tim Wu and Stuart Sierra, a Columbia Law School professor and web designer respectively, have launched Project Posner, a web site offering unheard of access to Judge Richard A. Posner's legal opinions, in searchable format. And yes, the creators -- who are certainly not alone in this view -- pronounce that "Richard Posner is probably the greatest living American jurist." If, however, you still find yourself wondering: why should I care?, Project Posner has you covered. Project Posner offers...
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