New England Biz Law Update

A recent 1st Circuit case reminds us that, although copyright law is broad and protective, it does have limits, including triteness: You can’t copyright the wholly banal. The case, Johnson v. Gordon (Docket No. 04-2475), involved alleged misappropriation of copyrighted ...

For many corporate counsel, “culture” and “compliance” seem to be mutually exclusive concepts. Culture is squishy and conceptual. Compliance is definitive and measurable. Follow the seven steps in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, and, voila, you have a compliance program. Why ...

The U.S. Supreme Court this term will consider a case concerning a patented method for diagnosing vitamin deficiencies, opening the door for the court to break more than 20 years of silence on the scope of innovations for which scientists ...

Obtaining a "confidentiality agreement" with government prosecutors may not protect against the release of privileged documents, according to the authors.

“But I don’t want to go among the mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said ...

“Doing Well By Doing Good” is not the mantra that one is accustomed to hearing in corporate America. However, in the wake of a seemingly unending stream of corporate fraud and scandals, an increasing number of wisely managed national and ...

Lost in the debate over the increased costs that Sarbanes-Oxley has imposed on U.S. companies are some largely unnoticed changes to state corporate law that can help companies reduce their corporate governance costs. These state law changes embrace, perhaps a ...

In a remarkable ruling, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has narrowed the eligibility standards governing patent term extensions (PTEs) on the grounds that the Federal Circuit 1990 precedent, Glaxo v. Quigg, is no longer good law. The PTO ...

Launching a company’s first life sciences commercial product can be daunting, especially from a legal, regulatory and compliance perspective. Many key elements are in play related to planning a new product launch, as well as building a cross-functional team and ...

Despite many tragic and well-publicized incidents, and the knowledge that no employer is immune from the scourge of workplace violence, most employers have not yet enacted the basic buildings blocks of a workplace violence prevention program. This article summarizes the ...