U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu on Friday called for a "new narrative" about patents that emphasizes their benefit to society, illustrating his point in a speech at a lunch for women in intellectual property by highlighting the breakthrough inventions of Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr.
A recent report by specialty insurer Beazley detailing the prevalence of email-based "phishing" theft schemes illustrates the need for companies to build up robust defenses including employee education, preventative policies and insurance tailored to such risks, experts say. Here, Law360 offers four tips for companies to shield against phishing attacks.
Departing from circuit court rulings in five similar cases, the Ninth Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court's dismissal of a putative securities class action alleging Emulex Corp. concealed that Avago Technologies Ltd.'s $606 million acquisition offer was too low, holding that the investors’ claims require a showing of negligence rather than intentional wrongdoing.
A seemingly small change to China’s value-added tax rates set to go into effect next month may not be enough to give China an edge over the U.S. in drawing new businesses, but it could encourage existing multinational businesses to stay put.
Starbucks’ plan to hold training addressing implicit bias after the arrests of two black men at one of its Philadelphia stores stoked widespread outrage underscores how unconscious prejudice on the part of employees can have disastrous consequences. Here, experts share four tips for scrubbing implicit bias from the workplace.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s patent-eligibility decisions like Alice have caused “total chaos” that diminishes patent protection for software and medical diagnostics, and it may be time for Congress to step in, the former director of the USPTO and other patent leaders said at a conference Friday.
Taking the measure of President Trump's "Buy America, Hire America" mandate after one year, the general counsel of FactSet weighs in on the European Union’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, and a settlement between Uber and regulators could change the way companies think about data breaches. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest refusal to tackle the enduring and highly consequential circuit split over how precisely False Claims Act suits must be pled has left lawyers wondering whether justices will wade into the legal morass anytime soon.
SunTrust Banks Inc. said Friday that a former employee may have made off with the personal information of roughly 1.5 million customers, potentially compromising details like client names, addresses, phone numbers and account balances.
The European Union’s sweeping new data regime is set to take effect next month, but many companies aren’t on track to be in compliance by the deadline, according to a McDermott Will & Emery LLP-sponsored study released Friday, with almost half of the businesses surveyed saying they don’t expect to be ready.
A California federal judge Thursday expressed “grave concerns” about whether Arista Networks Inc.’s antitrust suit could proceed against Cisco Systems Inc. because the conduct in question — a separate copyright infringement case Cisco filed against Arista and statements by Cisco’s general counsel — may have First Amendment protection.
Microsoft received nearly 23,000 requests from law enforcement agencies around the world for access to its customers' data in the second half of 2017, the lowest total since the tech giant began publicly reporting such figures five years ago, according to a transparency report released Thursday.
J.C. Penney, Sears, Kohl’s and Macy’s on Thursday urged a California judge to dismiss the Los Angeles city attorney’s suits alleging the retailers trick consumers with inflated “original” prices on sale goods, arguing the city is pushing an unnecessarily narrow definition of “original” that consumers don’t share.
Facebook Inc. said Thursday that more than 1.5 billion users who had agreed to be governed by Irish law will be asked to sign new terms of service with its U.S. headquarters, in a shift that would push those users beyond the reach of the European Union's new data regime.
Facebook Inc. and the IRS squared off in California federal court Thursday over the government’s bid to toss Facebook’s lawsuit claiming the tech giant is entitled to contest the IRS’ tax adjustments in its independent appeals office, with Facebook arguing that the appeals process could cut its taxes by billions.
The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division laid out his views about digital platforms like Facebook and Google on Thursday, saying privacy is emerging as a new type of asset that digital companies may soon be competing over, but called for measured enforcement of the space.
A San Francisco judge has thrown out a proposed class action accusing Yelp Inc. of illegally monitoring and recording conversations between the named plaintiff and Yelp sales representatives, ruling that there’s no evidence the online review company eavesdropped on any calls.
A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday trimmed a claim from a fired UBS Financial Services Inc. executive’s whistleblower suit following a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Dodd-Frank Act protections only extend to those who report alleged wrongdoing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Policyholders and insurers alike are eagerly anticipating guidance from a trio of federal appeals courts on whether email-based "phishing" theft schemes trigger coverage under computer fraud insurance policies. Here, Law360 breaks down the computer fraud coverage cases pending before the Second, Sixth and Eleventh circuits.
An Illinois federal judge again tossed a consolidated proposed class action against digital learning toys maker VTech Electronics over a breach that compromised the data of 11 million adults and children, holding Wednesday that some claims were beyond repair while leaving room for others to be revamped.
Among the proposed amendments to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which are scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, are specific requirements related to “front-loading.” They outline the process for seeking preliminary court approval of class action settlements and related notice plans, say Shandarese Garr and Niki Mendoza of Garden City Group LLC.
Despite the powerful incentives to engage in external whistleblowing after Digital Realty, companies should know that their compliance programs can contribute in meaningful ways to whether employees decide to report possible misconduct internally or to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
How can we improve meetings in the legal industry, which tends to evolve with the speed of a tranquilized water buffalo mired in quicksand? Breaking it down to three phases can yield significant benefits, says Nicholas Cheolas of Zelle LLP.
While the justices' comments during oral argument in South Dakota v. Wayfair Tuesday indicate that the U.S. Supreme Court is divided about the appropriate response to the South Dakota law at the heart of this matter, a ruling to affirm the status quo and hold for the taxpayers would not be surprising, say attorneys with Alston & Bird LLP.
It is important for auditors and their counsel to understand the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's investigatory and decision-making process. In addition, recent developments like the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Laccetti may impact how an attorney defends an investigation, says Robert Cox of Briglia Hundley PC.
One way law firms differentiate themselves from the competition to attract and retain top talent is through their real estate and workplace strategies. Taking a lead from the hospitality industry can help create a more inviting, welcoming and collaborative workspace environment, says Bella Schiro of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
On Tuesday, the National Institute for Standards and Technology released a revised version of its standard-setting Cybersecurity Framework, once again producing a useful, flexible document that can be applied or adapted by a wide range of companies, says Alan Raul, leader of Sidley Austin LLP's cybersecurity practice.
Opinion
In his first year on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch has proven to be a narrow-minded elitist who consistently votes in favor of corporations and the powerful, acting to roll back protections for workers, consumers, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized communities, says Elliot Mincberg of People for the American Way.
Opinion
The American Bar Association continues to oppose legislation that would impose certain European Union and U.K. anti-money laundering requirements on U.S. lawyers. The ABA should further consider its approach to this issue as there is a viable middle ground that protects privileged communications and confidential information while advancing the interests of the legal profession, says Matthew O’Hara of Freeborn & Peters LLP.
American organizations with a European workforce, or presence, should not assume that they can ignore the General Data Protection Regulation in favor of a self-regulatory approach to employee privacy, as is often favored across the U.S., say Sam Rayner and Tom Mintern of Bird & Bird LLP.