Technology

Expert Analysis

• A 12-Point Patent Monetization Plan

  

  A recent Delaware decision acknowledges that there may be an affirmative duty of officers and directors of a corporation to monetize the corporation’s intellectual property. Fortunately, there are steps available to manage this risk that are also profitable business strategies, says Stephen Glazier of Akerman LLP.

• Keys To IP Collaborations With Universities: Part 1

  

  Despite the benefits of working with academia, there remain significant distinctions in the core missions between research institutions and for-profit companies. Without understanding these distinctions, for-profit companies often run the risk of frustrating relationships, or worse, compromising their own intellectual property positions, say attorneys with Greenberg Traurig LLP.

• Powerful Tools For Discovery And Litigation Strategy

  

  Analytics offer opportunities for refining both discovery strategy and overall litigation strategy by providing information to support better informed decisions. As an added bonus, they can result in significant cost savings, say Nathalie Hofman and Carolyn Southerland of Huron Consulting Group Inc.

• Data Breach Dismissals Continue Post-Clapper

  

  In re Science Applications International Corp. Backup Tape Data Theft Litigation reinforces the trend among federal courts in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA that the loss of data and increased risk of indentity theft from data breaches do not constitute injury, says David Brown Jr. of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP.

• PRISM Scatters Attorney-Client Privilege

  

  Any attorney sending or storing confidential client information or privileged communications via the cloud may be knowingly exposing those communications to scrutiny by the U.S. government via programs such as the National Security Agency’s PRISM — and arguably, even waiving any claim of privilege as a result, say attorney Thomas Mullaney and Vaultive CEO Elad Yoran.

• Ambiguities Remain Despite 9th Circ. AU Optronics Ruling

  

  Unfortunately, the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act does not provide much guidance on how “direct” an effect on U.S. commerce must be for it to come within the scope of the Sherman Act, and subsequent case law — including the recent Ninth Circuit AU Optronics ruling — has not settled the issue, say attorneys with Mayer Brown LLP.

• OPINION: Let's Financially Reward Law Firm Diversity

  

  It only took the threat of a 10 cent cost increase to make people bring their own bags to Bay Area grocery stores. What if we gave partners an extra $10,000 for increasing diversity in their firms? asks Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP partner Patricia Gillette.

• Attorney-Client Privilege And Communications In Japan

  

  Due to the increase in cross-border transactions and the explosion of patent lawsuits in the U.S. against non-U.S. companies, the availability of the attorney-client privilege to protect communications between companies and their lawyers has gained importance. Consider communications with Japan's benrishi and bengoshi, say Robert Sloss and Miku Mehta of Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch LLP.

• Crucial Predictive Coding Case Law: Progressive V. Delaney

  

  Any practitioner considering predictive coding should fully consider Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen’s reasoning in Progressive Casualty Insurance v. Delaney and the potential pitfalls associated with failure to consistently cooperate, say Emily Cobb and Annamaria Enenajor of Ropes & Gray LLP.

• Tips For Tracking Open-Source Security Vulnerabilities

  

  In discussions surrounding the gray areas relating to open-source software, licensing concerns are usually the first item to come up, but open-source security vulnerabilities could be another cause for concern, says Mahshad Koohgoli, CEO of Protecode Inc.