Media & Entertainment

Expert Analysis

• Jurisdiction At The Heart Of Charlottesville Defamation Case

  

  In Gilmore v. Jones, the Fourth Circuit will consider whether a counterprotester at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, can sue conservative commentators for defamation in state court. The case will help determine what confers personal jurisdiction over an online publication, say James Stewart and Rian Dawson of Honigman.

• How To Hire Lateral Partners More Effectively

  

  Although lateral partner hiring is the preferred method of inorganic growth among law firms, the traditional approach to vetting does not employ sufficient due diligence by the hiring firm, says Michael Ellenhorn at executive search firm Decipher Competitive Intelligence.

• How High Court May Resolve Generic '.Com' TM Issue

  

  In its upcoming U.S. Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com decision, the U.S. Supreme Court could uphold the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that generic terms can be transformed into protectable marks when combined with a top-level domain in some cases or, instead, adopt the Ninth and Federal Circuits' more stringent view requiring exceptional circumstances, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

• NLRB Ruling Further Clarifies Employer Handbook Standards

  

  The National Labor Relations Board’s recent LA Specialty Produce decision demonstrates the impact of the board's 2017 Boeing decision on workplace handbook standards and allowed the NLRB to explain certain aspects of the Boeing ruling, says Anthony Glenn at Barnes & Thornburg.

• Comcast Bias Suit A Bad Way To Make Law, Arguments Show

  

  Oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Comcast v. National Association of African American-Owned Media highlighted the case's flaws, including that it concerns the dismissal of a complaint that omitted a key fact and was tainted by dubious insinuations, says R. Scott Oswald of The Employment Law Group.

• Adapting 4th Amendment Standards To Connected Tech

  

  An evolving view of the Fourth Amendment acknowledges that the detailed and sensitive nature of internet of things data — which is starting to find its way into courtroom evidence — requires strong privacy protections and a shift away from a blunt, either-or approach to third-party access, say Jennifer Huddleston and Anne Philpot of George Mason University.

• Texas Could Take Page From Mass.'s Judicial Selection Book

  

  As Texas and other states review their judicial election processes, they would be well served by taking guidance from Massachusetts' Governor’s Council system, which protects the judiciary from the hazards of campaigning, says Richard Baker of New England Intellectual Property.

• Series

  Judging A Book: McKeown Reviews 'Conversations With RBG'

  

  Reading Jeffrey Rosen’s "Conversations With RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law" is like eavesdropping on the author and his subject while they discuss how the restrained judicial minimalist became the fiery leader of the opposition, says Ninth Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

• What NCAA Publicity Rights Guidance Means For Athletes

  

  Following the recent release of NCAA student-athlete compensation guidelines, it remains unclear how disparate governing bodies will choose to set rules, leaving student-athletes seeking to commercialize their names, images or likenesses through contracts or trademark rights with a confusing mix of incentives and prohibitions, says Radhika Raman of Knobbe Martens.

• How Fed. Circ. May Defer To PTAB In Facebook Case

  

  The appeal of six inter partes reviews in Facebook v. Windy City presents an opportunity for the Federal Circuit to provide clarity on the appropriate level of deference to be afforded holdings of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's precedent-setting panel, and it may even provide a chance for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

• AI Bill Emphasizes Transparency And Consumer Control

  

  The Filter Bubble Transparency Act introduced in the Senate last month is the latest of growing congressional efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, and the first substantive federal bill aimed at curbing companies' algorithmic control of content on internet platforms, say Adam Aft and Yoon Chae of Baker McKenzie.

• 2 FTC Cases Take A Stand Against Online Endorsement Fraud

  

  Businesses involved in e-commerce should take careful note of the Federal Trade Commission's recent cases against Sunday Riley Modern Skincare and Devumi, because until now consumer protection agencies have struggled to govern fake reviews and false indicators of brand value online, says Brad Elbein at Culhane Meadows.

• Where A Litigator's Advice Can Improve Agreement Drafting

  

  Transactional attorneys should consider consulting with litigation counsel when drafting certain contractual provisions — choice of law, choice of forum, attorney fees and others — that could come into play in a broad range of substantive disputes, says Adrienne Koch at Katsky Korins.

• Opinion

  Flat-Fee Legal Billing Can Liberate Attorneys

  

  Replacing hourly billing with flat-fee arrangements, especially for appellate work, will leave attorneys feeling free to spend as much time as necessary to produce their highest quality work, says Lawrence Ebner of Capital Appellate Advocacy.

• Spoliation Rule Remains Ambiguous Despite Amendments

  

  Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to provide a uniform standard of culpability for spoliation, cases with similar facts are still reaching differing results because the rule does not specify how a court should evaluate a party's intent, say attorneys at Pepper Hamilton.