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
Hair Color Formulas and Salon Client Contact Info Not a Trade Secret, Says Superior Court Judge
When I think of trade secret cases I tend to think of "high end" stuff: secret manufacturing processes, software algorithms, chemical or biological secrets, maybe even the formulas for Coca Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken. The truth, however, is more mundane, as shown by a case decided by Judge Nicholson in Barnstable County. In this case, which was dismissed in favor of the defendant hair stylist on summary judgment, the court held that a hair salon's hair color formulas and customer contact...
Copyright and Innovation: Hanging on to the Past
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S. Thompson _________________ As the battle between online music companies and copyright owners has raged in the courts during the last decade many of us have wondered what was going on behind the scenes. How did the record companies and publishers assess the threat of digital music to their industry? Why did they...
Procedural Errors During Trial Cause Trade Dress Defendant to Forfeit Rights on Appeal
I've written before about waiver. As I said back in July 2008, the "one thing that scares the bejesus out of trial lawyers is waiver." Waiver is a constant risk in litigation, but nowhere is it more of a risk than during trial. Failure to object to improper jury instructions, or failure to follow the proper procedure required for judgment as a matter of law ("JMOL" in lawyer parlance) can constitute a forfeiture, and preclude the right to raise the omitted issue on appeal. To make matters...
Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine Fails Again in Massachusetts
Can an employer prevent a former employee from working for a competitor in the absence of a non-compete agreement and with no evidence the employee has violated the former employer's trade secret or confidentiality rights? You would think not, but a couple of cases -- infamous in the annals of non-compete law -- have imposed a non-compete in these circumstances. The case cited most frequently on this issue is PepsiCo v. Redmond, a 1995 case in which the 7th Circuit affirmed a preliminary...
Judge Posner Puts the Kabosh on Apple/Google Smartphone Patent Suit
"It's not clear that we really need patents in most industries . . .. You just have this proliferation of patents. "It's a problem." Judge Richard Posner, Silicon Valley MercuryNews.com, July 5, 2012 Do you recall the final scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail? After 90 minutes of farcical medieval/King Arthur-inspired humor the film concludes with a big attack scene (cliché visuals of swords, spears and knights in armor, opposing armies lined up in a field, battle music ....)....
You Want to Enforce a Non-Compete? Bad Facts, Sir, Give Me Some Bad Facts!
What is the first thing a lawyer looks for when a client wants to enforce a non-compete agreement? What is the first thing a lawyer hopes not to find when a client is the subject of a non-competition demand letter or lawsuit? Bad facts. Did the employee take confidential information belonging to the former employer? Did the employee contact customers of the former employer and solicit them for the prospective employer before leaving the former employer? If the employee was an executive or...
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