Intellectual Property
Lessons in rejection of will.i.am trademark expansion
By Kenneth G. Parker, Diana C. Obradovich
Entertainer William Adams, aka will.i.am, of The Black Eyed Peas has marketed and sold goods using the phrase “I AM” in severa...
Law Practice, Government, California Supreme Court, State Bar & Bar Associations
The ‘last rites’ of the State Bar
By Karen M. Goodman, Loren Kieve
We disagree that Senate Bill 36, which will change the structure of the bar and how its trustees are selected, is something to...
Civil Litigation, Family, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, Appellate Practice
Spousal support and ‘changed circumstances’
By Robert A. Roth
Earn MCLE learning about the changed circumstances test — the benchmark for modification motions in family law cases.
U.S. Supreme Court, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, Appellate Practice, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Setting up an appeal: Preparing the Statement of Decision
By Myron Moskovitz
Whether you win or lose, you’ll want to think about what should be included in the Statement of Decision.
U.S. Supreme Court, Law Practice
Raising up the work of (s)hero lawyers
By Rachel A. Van Cleave
There a several reasons for each of us in legal education and in the profession to broaden our own perspectives and evaluation...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Supreme Court
Justices punted in Parrish decision
By Roy G. Weatherup, Kenneth C. Feldman
The decision is important because the state’s highest court has reaffirmed the strict definition of lack of probable cause app...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Judges and Judiciary, Corporate, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Questions left open in new Spokeo decision
By Randolph Hunter Pyle
The case involves whether a plaintiff has alleged a sufficiently concrete injury for purposes of Article II standing.
Civil Litigation, Labor/Employment, Corporate, California Supreme Court, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Will high court draw bright lines for employers?
By Arthur F. Silbergeld
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the California Supreme Court to decide whether an employee’s time spent waitin...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Courts of Appeal
The timeliness of attorney malpractice claims
By Scott P. Dixler
Earn MCLE credit reviewing the applicability of the “continuous representation” rule.
Law Practice, Contracts
Contracts 101 and the growing Internet of Things
By Jill Bronfman
Notice and consent are a basic concept in contracts, but they may be missing when it comes to IoT devices that gather data fro...
Jerry Seinfeld, like the rest of us, has to pay taxes.
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports
Instagram this: fair use and social media
By John M. Gatti, Emil Petrossian
A court recently ruled on appropriation artist Richard Prince's unauthorized use of an unauthorized Instagram post.
Football season will soon be upon us: that crisp time of year when brass horns gleam in the autumn sun, the biggest boys on ca...
Civil Litigation, Government, Criminal
New law will help to protect victims of child sex abuse
By Nancy Peverini, Micha Star Liberty
Senate Bill 755 is a new law that provides protections for children who have been sexually abused and seek recovery through th...
Tax, Entertainment & Sports
Mayweather got his tax lien released, but will you?
By Robert W. Wood
Tax liens are public, and can also cause you embarrassment, even if you’re not a celebrity. But a new report says that Floyd M...
Civil Litigation, Government, Environmental & Energy, Corporate, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal
Next stop, even more CEQA litigation
By Richard M. Frank
Neither side in this litigation won a clear-cut victory from the Supreme Court.
Immigration, Government, Civil Rights
Immigration act is really an exclusion act
By Bill Ong Hing
Trump’s call for overhauling the legal immigration system suffers from serious flaws.
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Supreme Court, State Bar & Bar Associations
Bar has kept out fine lawyers for no reason
By Susan Smith Bakhshian
Both the passing score and the overall validity of the exam need attention.
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Health Care & Hospital Law, Corporate, Contracts
The biosimilar patent dance: When in doubt, list it
By Limin Zheng
For all the reference product sponsors about to enter into a patent dance under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovatio...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Corporate, Contracts
Pitfalls in supplier agreements after patent exhaustion ruling
By Sean Murray
It is only logical that patent owners will seek to protect their interests in other ways, and the U.S. Supreme Court has expre...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Corporate, Civil Rights, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, Appellate Practice, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
When an out-of-state corporation is at home
By Erwin Chemerinsky
There is no way to understand recent personal jurisdiction rulings by the Supreme Court except as a major victory for corporat...
Government, Corporate, Administrative/Regulatory
It’s not too late to be tough on Wall Street
By Blair Nicholas, David R. Kaplan
President Trump can both rein in Wall Street abuses and adhere to the free market principles by allowing the SEC to partner wi...
Tax, Government, Administrative/Regulatory
Commercial operations, abuse of charitable funds and Boy Scouts
By Erin Bradrick
In the height of the summer, we have indication from the IRS that the commerciality doctrine is alive and well; a cancer chari...
Government, Administrative/Regulatory
Protection from teddy bears and toasters
By Anita Taff-Rice
As many politicians have learned over the decades to their regret, one should assume that all microphones are turned on and al...
Civil Litigation, Labor/Employment, Corporate, Civil Rights
Engineer who wrote memo may have claim against Google
By Tamara M. Kurtzman
Under both the NLRA and California law, it is unlawful for an employer to terminate an employee for participating in a legally...
Letters, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Supreme Court, State Bar & Bar Associations
There is no evidence to support a high cut score
By Mitchel L. Winick
Alarm, confusion and protection of the status quo seem to be the main themes of the recent debate surrounding the California S...
Letters, Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Supreme Court, State Bar & Bar Associations
Lawyer quality concerns do not have anything to do with the cut score
By William Wesley Patton
In his article, “The case against a lower bar pass score,” nowhere does Judge William F. Fahey demonstrate a correlation betw...
Letters, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, California Supreme Court, State Bar & Bar Associations
Lower cut score is a step backward
By Mark D. Gershenson
Even at the existing passing grade, there are practicing attorneys in California who aren’t very smart or ethical, who don’t s...
A response to my column on proposed changes to the special prosecutor rule used the tactic of quoting selected sentences or wo...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Judges and Judiciary, California Supreme Court, Appellate Practice
Tailoring the Emperor’s New Clothes
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
Precedent sometimes rests upon a legal fiction, and persists until a later decision exposes the fiction for what it is.