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• 06.17.2024Unanimous But Fractured: Supreme Court Upholds Rejection of “Trump Too Small” Trademark, With Little Guidance for the Future Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Vidal v. Ester, 602 U.S. ___ (2024) that the federal prohibition on registering trademarks that identify a living individual without their consent does not violate the First Amendment right to free expression. Although the Justices were unanimous in the ultimate result, they disagreed dramatically as to why, ultimately providing little guidance for future cases.
• 05.13.2024FTC’s Final Rule on Non-Competes May Not be the Final Word In a controversial move, on April 24, 2024 the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that beginning September 4, 2024, it will enforce its Final Rule banning most non-compete agreements that seek to limit a worker’s ability to change jobs. The Rule also requires employers to notify those workers who have non-compete agreements that are nullified by the Rule that these agreements are no longer enforceable once the Rule takes effect; written notices must be sent no later than September 4, 2024. The exceptions to the FTC Rule are few, and extend to non-compete agreements (i) entered into with a business’s senior executives before September 4, 2024, (ii) entered into between a buyer and a seller as part of a bona fide sale of a business, or (iii) that are part of a franchisee-franchisor relationship.
• 05.09.2024Times Up? Not So Fast: Supreme Court Rules Damages Are Not Limited to Three Year Look Back Where Copyright Act Claim is Timely under “Discovery Rule” The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision this week, finding that the 3-year statute of limitations for claims under the Copyright Act does not limit recovery of damages to three years prior to the filing of the lawsuit. The case, Warner Chappell Music, Inc., et al. v. Nealy, 601 U.S. ___ (2024), reversed the rule previously applied by courts around the country, including the Second Circuit in New York.
• 06.07.2021Supreme Court Narrows Liability Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that narrows the scope of a statute used by the Government and private parties against individuals who access computer systems without authorization. The decision in Van Buren v. United States resolved a split among lower courts limiting both civil and criminal liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a statute that prohibits individuals from “intentionally access[ing] a computer without authorization or exceed[ing] authorized access, and thereby obtain[ing]…information from any protected computer.”