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Kennedy Law Blog
It’s 10:00 PM. Do you know where your data is?
Many businesses are moving, or have moved, their data to one of the various cloud servicing...
Hate Speech Online
I just got off the phone with a potential client who lost his job because of a hateful comment he...
Supreme Court Denies Redskins Petition for Cert
The United States Supreme Court has denied the Washington Redskins certiorari Petition. We have previously covered the trademark disparagement cases extensively here on the blog. The Washington Redskins are currently appealing a district judge’s order cancelling six...
Supreme Court to Hear Trademark Disparagement Case Lee v. Tam
As we predicted here on the blog last year, the Supreme Court has accepted certiorari this morning in Lee v. Tam. The Court will be reviewing whether the disparagement provision of the Lanham Act is facially invalid under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment....
Avoiding Trademark Infringement
Imagine this scenario: You’re opening a coffee shop in your local town. You’ve spent countless hours and have invested a lot of money into the opening of your new shop. You’ve chosen a brand name and you’ve had that brand name plastered all over your brand new coffee...
Federal Circuit Overturns Alice Invalidation
In McRO, Inc., DBA Planet Blue v. Namco Games, et. al, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court’s finding that a software patent claims an abstract idea and is invalid under the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the Alice case. McRo involved...
Continuing DMCA Abuse
Recently, Warner Bros. (“WB”) filed a DMCA Takedown Notice with Google. The takedown notice included numerous websites that WB sought to remove infringing content from. Normally, a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) takedown Notice is used by a copyright owner...
Federal Circuit holds that PTAB Failed to Substantiate Application of “Common Sense” Legal Analysis
On August 9, 2016, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Arendi S.A.R.L. v. Apple Inc., Appeal No. 15-2073 (Fed. Cir. 2016). In the case, the Federal Circuit holds: “Because the Board’s presumption that adding a search for phone numbers to Pandit...
Whole Foods is Not the World’s Healthiest Grocery Store
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Whole Foods’ application for the trademark WORLD’S HEALTHIEST GROCERY STORE. Whole Foods filed its initial application on June 23, 2016. In its application, Whole Foods disclaimed any exclusive right to the...
The Learned Professional Overtime Exemption: What You Need to Know – Part IV
The professional exemption to the federal overtime requirements (“Professional Exemption”) is frequently relied upon to categorize employees as exempt from overtime when an employee is functioning in what appears to be a highly skilled capacity. Employers relying on...
THE ADMINISTRATIVE OVERTIME EXEMPTION: THE EXEMPTION IS OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD BUT HEAVILY RELIED UPON – PART III
Introduction Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”), certain employees are exempt from the overtime requirements of the Act. The Act requires that an employee who works in excess of 40 hours during a seven-day workweek get time and one half for all...