Financial services firms have traditionally been cautious about utilizing emerging communication tools such as social media due to uncertainty regarding the application of existing securities laws to the use of these tools. Recently, regulators have focused their attention on defining the regulations that govern social media. FINRA has taken an active approach to informing financial …
The hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies utilized in the extraction of natural gas have proven controversial, particularly in states where the legal infrastructure is unprepared to accommodate the industry. In particular, a newly discovered natural gas reservoir in central North Carolina highlights deficiencies in the state’s laws addressing the serious environmental and public health …
The equitable doctrine of patent misuse is best known for prohibiting patentees from exploiting the rights and benefits that arise from the grant of a patent. Despite a long history of favorable Supreme Court cases, over the past twenty-five years the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has substantially narrowed the patent misuse …
U.S. legal holds present a conundrum that confronts the bar and bench with increasing frequency. It is the result of a clash between broad U.S. preservation obligations mandated by existing case law and stringent privacy and data protection laws in other jurisdictions, including European Union (“E.U.”) member states. The challenge requires a multinational litigant to …
Ineffective policing of bad patents remains a main focus of the academy with respect to Hatch-Waxman challenge settlements, but the potential of the challenge structure for weakening justified, good patents has gone relatively unnoticed. Currently, the most rational target for a generic challenger is a highly profitable patent, whether it is weak or strong. The …
Official guidelines must be promulgated in order to assist with case-by-case judicial admissibility determinations of genetic testing evidence in toxic tort litigation. Emerging technology, specifically advancements in genetic testing, could prove highly influential in toxic tort litigation. Genetic testing data can, in many cases, provide evidence of both (i) proof of exposure to a toxic …
