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
How To Protect a Trade Secret (or, calling Ocean's Eleven)
Clients often ask what measures they need to take to protect their trade secrets, should it be necessary to enforce them in court and prove that they were treated as secrets. Here's how Kentucky Fried Chicken does it, according to an AP story published today: The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and spices that coat the chain's Original Recipe chicken, including exact amounts for each ingredient. It is written in pencil and signed by Harland Sanders. The iconic recipe is now protected by an...
Dispatches From an Innovation Tour of India
If you're fascinated with India, as I am, there's an interesting series of articles described as an "innovation tour," of India by Vinit Nijhawan, Executive-in-Residence in the Boston University School of Management. In a series of "dispatches" Nijhawan "takes readers on a journey, from New Delhi’s teeming cell phone (and cell phone unlocking) marketplace to Chandigarh, home to a great engineering college and a nascent life sciences industry forming . . . around agricultural products", to...
An Oral Agreement is Only as Good as the Paper It's Written On
You've got to wonder what Steelcraft was thinking when it decided to file a lawsuit against its former employee, James Hensel. It's hard enough to enforce a written noncompete agreement, much less an oral agreement, but that's what Steelcraft tried to do in this case. The absence of a written agreement didn't deter Steelcraft, which sought a preliminary injunction against Hensel. Steelcraft was able to allege nothing more than an "oral" noncompete agreement. One of several requirements for...
Rambus Files Its Opposition to Cert.; Gatehouse/New York Times Copyright Case Settles
[Update: the FTC did file a reply brief. Link here] All the briefs are in on the FTC petition for cert in its antitrust case against Rambus, (unless the FTC decides to file a reply brief, which is unlikely to change things much). I've added the Rambus opposition to the Rambus Group page on scribd.com, here. Now its time for the antitrust community to hold its breath and see whether the Court takes the case. Some knowledgeable commentators have opined that FTC/Rambus case has the best chance...
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