New England Biz Law Update

Advocates and opponents of a bill seeking to ban mandatory binding arbitration clauses in most contracts – bolstered by recent studies they say prove their positions – are amplifying their calls on Congress to act in favor or against the ...

The Internal Revenue Service in April released new draft instructions for its recently-revamped Form 990 for non-profit organizations – and its looking for a lot more information about the inner workings of non-profits. While the original form contained nine pages ...

A federal trial judge in Virginia recently stymied the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from revamping the way it administers the U.S. patent system.

Conducting juror perception research near the beginning of the litigation lifecycle can help corporate defendants develop an appropriate strategy that addresses and perhaps eliminates obstacles created by jurors’ perceptions that may stand in the way of a favorable outcome at trial.

Even though companies are increasingly facing high-stakes commercial or securities-related litigation arising out of the subprime crisis or the down economy, in-house counsel are showing a tendency to omit or refrain from asking important questions, or setting key parameters, in ...

Electronic discovery has become a major component in the litigator’s tool bag. Subject to new court rules and intense court scrutiny, e-discovery is fraught with issues, problems and risks and is quite time-consuming and expensive. As reported in New England ...

Does a company automatically own a patent to an invention invented by an employee who uses company resources and on company time? Or, if a company hires an independent consultant to create a design, does a company automatically own a ...

[Editor’s note: This is the first segment of a six-part series – Succeeding In-House – by Christopher Mirabile, general counsel at IONA Technologies in Waltham, Mass., in which he will explain why basic legal skills are not enough for long-term ...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently declined an opportunity to expand the circumstances in which the corporate form may be disregarded. The court in Scott v. NG U.S. 1, Inc. et al., 450 Mass. 760, 881 N.E. 2d 1125 (2008), ...

I have avoided the subject of executive compensation since writing two articles in this space in 2006, primarily because so much has been written about it elsewhere. But it is hard to avoid a six-ton gorilla, while looking for another, ...