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
Federal Circuit: Disparagement Provision of Trademark Statute is Unconstitutional
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("Federal Circuit") has issued a typically fractured en banc decision (12 judges, 5 opinions) holding that the 70 year old disparagement provision of § 2(a) of the Lanham Act (the federal trademark statute) is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. This law states, in relevant part: No trademark by which the goods of the applicant may be distinguished from the goods of others shall be refused registration on the principal register on account of...
New Employment Agreement Leaves Noncompete Provision in Earlier Agreement Unenforceable
I've often written about how easy it can be for an employer to lose the ability to enforce an employee noncompete provision. In recent years the courts have come down hard on employers who materially change an employee's job responsibilities but fail to require the employee to enter into a new contract, holding in many cases that a noncompete provision in the old contract does not survive the job change. (For example, see Rent-A-PC Fails to Enforce Restrictive Covenants Against Former...
Unattributed Online Material Does Not Qualify as a “Learned Treatise” in Massachusetts
Lawyers can cross examine experts by questioning them with a "learned treatise" - what a non-lawyer might describe as an authoritative book or article written by an expert in the field. For example, if a doctor is testifying at trial in a medical malpractice case, her opinion on the proper standard of medical care can be challenged, on cross examination, by showing her a "learned treatise" that conflicts with her testimony. The jury hears the quote from the book, and can take it into...
Lets Go Crazy! The Dancing Baby, the DMCA and Copyright Fair Use
It's not often that a case involving a 29 second video of toddlers cycling around on a kitchen floor goes to a federal court of appeals, much less results in an important, precedent-setting copyright decision. But that is exactly what happened in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. The cases arises from an issue inherent in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA allows copyright owners to request the "takedown" of a post that uses infringing content. But, what does the copyright owner have...
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