The Bottom Line Courts around the country subject non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants to increasingly strict scrutiny in employment contracts.Courts applying Delaware law may also limit enforcement of restrictive covenants executed in the sale-of-business context to the Continue Reading
Ballots Continue to Come in for Legalized Sports Betting
The Bottom Line Maryland, South Dakota and Louisiana join 18 states plus the District of Columbia that have already implemented legalized sports betting and four others that have legalized it pending regulatory legislation, pushing sports betting to the half-way point in the United States. Continue Reading
Supreme Court Seeks to Curb the Worst Abuses of the Patent System
5th Edition: Trends in Marketing Communications Law Congress, commentators and a wide variety of industry leaders have long noted that the patent system was broken. Besieged by a tide of weak patents and baseless patent troll litigations, these stakeholders argued that the current patent climate Continue Reading
All Bets Are Off (or On): SCOTUS Strikes Down Federal Ban on Sports Betting
The Bottom Line The Supreme Court held 6-3 that federal law prohibiting states from enacting sports betting schemes was an unconstitutional "commandeering" of state law issues by the federal government. In striking down the prohibition, the Court paved the way for states to decide for themselves Continue Reading
Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Goes Into Effect on April 1, 2018
The Bottom Line With the MPWFA's April 1, 2018 effective date quickly approaching, Massachusetts employers should review and revise their handbook policies, onboarding notices and HR practices to ensure that they comply with the law’s notice obligations and requirements to provide reasonable Continue Reading
The Days of Patent Plaintiff Forum Shopping May be Over
The Bottom Line The Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland establishes that just having sold goods in the judicial district is now insufficient on its own to establish jurisdiction. Patent holders bringing suit must do so in either the judicial district where the defendant resides, or Continue Reading
Patent Troll Cases Unlikely To Drop Significantly
4th Edition: Trends in Marketing Communications Law The statistics are striking. "Patent trolls" (companies that do not create products or services based on their patents, but instead use patents to extort license fees) are continuing to file large numbers of patent infringement lawsuits, now Continue Reading