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
Decision in Viacom v. YouTube: Dog Bites Man (Mark Cuban was wrong)
Despite all the hoopla, this week's copyright decision in Viacom v. YouTube (link on Scribd) was predicatable - a decision in the opposition direction would have been a shocker. Viacom accused YouTube (owned by Google) of massive copyright infringement. The court dismissed the case on summary judgment in favor of YouTube. Of course, there is no question that copyright infringement is taking place on YouTube every instant of the day. The court noted that video is being uploaded to YouTube at...
Don’t Mess With Texas
I’ve written before about how generous juries in the federal courts in the Eastern District of Texas (EdTX) are to patent plaintiffs. (link). After I wrote about this a year ago there was a feeling that this trend might be reversing itself. However, Johnson & Johnson’s $1.6 billion judgment against Abbott and i4i’s $200 million verdict against Microsoft last summer put an end to those thoughts. So, when Apple, Sirius XM and others were recently sued for patent infringement in EdTX they...
Mass Moca Loses to Büchel Under VARA
Nice post title, eh? Mass MoCA is the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation a contemporary art museum in North Adams, MA. Christoph Büchell is a Swiss “installation artist.” Think very large, very avant-garde. The New York Times describes his work “dense, fraught creations, which compress masses of material and objects into historically charged labyrinthine environments through which viewers walk, climb and crawl.” Wow. Sounds just right for good old, left-leaning western Mass. Not.
My firm’s Client Advisory on Massachusetts Data Security Regulations, Which Took Effect (at long last) on March 1st
My partner Joe Laferrera has been incredibly active in connection with the Massachusetts Data Security Regulations, which took effect on March 1, 2010 after multiple delays (initial deadline was January 1, 2009; second deadline May 1, 2009; third deadline January 1, 2010). Among other things, Joe has co-chaired the Boston Bar Association Privacy Committee last year and this, and organized what seems like countless programs on the regulations. He has also spoken to legal and business groups...
Judge Young, Bulger/Flemmi and "The Government – Our Government"
U.S. Federal District Court Judge William Young has issued a lengthy decision, awarding $2.7 million in damages to the estates of three people murdered by James J. Bulger, Stephen J. Flemmi, and their associates. Judge Young describes the story as “harrowing,” which may be an understatement. The key defendant in this case is the U.S. Government, which will foot the bill if the decision survives appeal. Here are some quotes, pulled from the opinion, which is linked in all of its gory detail at...
Defendant Choses a New Trial in Minnesota File Sharing Case
When I wrote about the trial judge's remittitur order in the Jamie Thomas case last week, I didn't mention that a legal aspect of remittitur is that the plaintiff may accept it, or reject it and demand a new trial. I now understand that the plaintiff in this case has not accepted the judge's remittitur, and has informed the court that it elects instead to proceed with a new trial. This would be the third trial in this case, since the first was set aside by the judge following verdict. ...
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