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
Noncompete Unenforceable Where Employer Changed Terms of Employment
A recent Massachusetts Superior Court decision holds, on summary judgment, that a company may not enforce a noncompete/non-solicitation agreement against a former employee when the former employer had materially breached the agreement by changing the terms of employment. Specifically, the employer changed the employee's job responsibilities and title, and cut his annual salary by $40,000. There's nothing particularly surprising about this ruling, which is a reminder to employers that they can...
Sixth Circuit Finds Trip Advisor’s “Dirtiest Hotel” Ranking Is Not Defamatory
I guess the owners of the Grand Resort Hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee have never heard of the Streisland Effect. Their attempt to sue Trip Advisor for defamation based on the hotel's inclusion in Trip Advisor's annual “Dirtiest Hotels” list was dismissed by the federal district court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. While facts can be defamatory, opinions can not. The court concluded that no "reasonable person could believe that TripAdvisor’s article reflected anything more than the...
Judge Zobel Affirms Statutory Damages Award Against Joel Tenenbaum
Not surprisingly, Massachusetts District Court Judge Rya Zobel has allowed the $675,000 statutory damages award against Joel Tenenbaum to stand in full. The background of this case is well known to many people, but the nutshell version is as follows. Joel Tenenbaum was sued by Sony in 2007. Sony alleged copyright infringement with respect to Tenenbaum's download of 30 digital music files. Harvard Professor Charles Nesson undertook the pro bono defense of Tenenbaum, and the case went to a...
Interview With Founder of SCOTUSBlog
If I could take only one legal blog with me to a desert island, it would be SCOTUSBlog. (OK, don't make fun of me). Seriously, this blog -- devoted entirely to the Supreme Court of the United States ("SCOTUS") -- is a fantastic legal resource. Everything of interest relating to cases before the Supreme Court is collected here: cert. petitions, briefs, decisions and commentary. There's a lot going on at the Supreme Court, and this blog collects and organizes all of it. It has become an...
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