A recent New Jersey Supreme Court decision allowing parties to launch contribution actions over contaminated sites without waiting on state enforcement efforts will help fund cleanups, but a finding that the state must approve actual cleanup costs could prove tough to implement, attorneys say. Continue Reading
Wimbledon Faces Plagiarism Controversy Involving Books
Sports teams, leagues and events often aggressively protect their intellectual property, whether it’s targeting unauthorized use of their logos, footage or names. The biggest damage ultimately is reputational, said James Donoian, a partner in McCarter & English, where he focuses on Continue Reading
N.J. Appeals Court Orders $175K Frivolous Litigation Sanction
A New Jersey appeals court has ordered the plaintiffs in a business dispute to pay a $175,000 sanction for fees racked up by lawyers in two states battling what was determined to be frivolous litigation. The fees are payable to Weingarten Brown, a Los Angeles firm recently acquired by Venable Continue Reading
Shareholders Fight Hemispherx’s Fee-Shifting In Del. Chancery
Attorneys for shareholders derivatively suing Hemispherx Biopharma Inc. over bonuses paid to the company’s board members asked a Delaware Chancery judge on Monday to invalidate the company’s newly enacted fee-shifting bylaw or remove them as counsel from the suit. The bylaw, which was adopted by Continue Reading
Revisions Take Bite Out Of Proposed NJ Hiring Restrictions
New Jersey employers could soon be living with new hiring process restrictions intended to combat discrimination against the unemployed and remove barriers for people with criminal records, but those bills now before Gov. Chris Christie have undergone changes that should soften the impact for the Continue Reading
Accounting Mistakes Can Squeeze Pension Benefits
This article examines the problem of pension fund benefit miscalculations and overpayments, discusses how pension funds recover their overpayments and their obligation to do so, and profiles some retirees who have had pension overpayments recovered after being mistakenly overpaid. Continue Reading
6 Tips for Shaving Down a Hotel Tax Bill
Hotels can have a hard time scoring fair tax assessments given their complicated revenue streams. And now that the lodging business is booming, some experts predict, tax bills will rise, too—and not always justly.“Assessors just make mistakes, and they don't recognize that some of the hotels, Continue Reading
Lawyers Weigh In on High Court’s Software Patent Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that computerized abstract ideas are not patent eligible. Here, attorneys tell Law360 why the decision in Alice Corp. Pty Ltd. v. CLS Bank International is significant. Continue Reading
Attorneys React To High Court’s Gene Patent Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that human genes cannot be patented, striking down Myriad Genetics Inc.'s patents on isolated DNA associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Both Erik Belt and Maria Laccotripe Zacharakis, partners in the IP/IT Group at McCarter & English explain Continue Reading
Lawyers React To High Court’s CERCLA Preemption Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court found Monday that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act does not preempt a North Carolina law prohibiting claims related to pollution that occurred more than 10 years ago. Here, attorneys tell Law360 why CTS Corp. v. Waldburger is Continue Reading