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
The U.S. Supreme Court IP Year in Review
[As initially published in the September 1, 2014 issue of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly] A lot has changed in the realm of intellectual property law following the record-breaking ten intellectual property cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2013 term. Highlights of the six unanimously decided patent cases include suits in which the Court narrowed the scope of patent protection for inventions implemented on computers, made it easier to invalidate a patent for indefiniteness, and made...
“Bingo-With-a-Computer” Patent Doesn’t Survive Alice
It would be difficult to find a more straightforward application of the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International (June 14, 2014) than the Federal Circuit's August 26th decision in Planet Bingo, LLC v. VKGS LLC (Fed. Cir. August 26, 2014) (non-precedential). While practitioners and observers of patent law seemed to agree that Alice didn't spell doom for software and business method patents, it was clear that it did mark the end for patents that do...
Seventh Circuit Finds That Copyright Protection for Sherlock Holmes “Character” Has Expired
It may come as a surprise to some readers that fictional characters are protected by copyright law. Even if the actual words used to describe a character are not copied, a "well delineated" or "especially distinctive" character may receive copyright protection. Prominent examples from decided court cases include Rocky (under-appreciated, sullen, heroic boxer) and James Bond (British accent, tuxedos, "license to kill," "stirred not shaken"). Unlike stock/stereotypical characters, Rocky and...
Lightlab Wins Trade Secret Case, Recovers No Damages
This case, decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on July 28, 2014, shows how difficult it can be to recover damages in a trade secret case. The facts (boiled down) are straightforward. Lightlab manufactures optical coherence tomography systems (OCT). Lightlab had a joint development/non-disclosure agreement with Axsun. Axsun disclosed Lightlab secrets to Volcano, a competitor to Lightlab and would-be acquiror of Axsun. Lightlab obtained a preliminary injunction enjoining the use...
Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em … (Aereo)
It's difficult to read Aereo's section of Aereo and ABC's July 9, 2014 joint letter to the U.S. District Court without experiencing a good dose of disbelief. Until the Supreme Court issued its decision in ABC v. Aereo on June 25, 2014 (earlier blog post on that decision), Aereo insisted that it was not a cable company entitled to a compulsory license under Section 111 of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. section 111(c)). Aereo denied it was a cable system in filings with the district court and in...
Failure to Obtain or Properly File for Copyright Registration Dooms Plaintiffs in Alicea v. Machete Music
[catch-up post] The First Circuit issued an copyright law opinion in March addressing a number of issues related to copyright law. However, the unwritten lesson of this case is that artists need to obtain ownership rights in writing. Failure to do so led to the unfavorable outcome the plaintiffs experienced in this case. Before attempting to describe this decision (or the most interesting aspects of it), it's worth pointing out that the First Circuit judge who wrote the opinion not only began...
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