Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Issues Ruling Which Affirms Rights in an Exclusive License to Joint Intellectual Property
I just spent about five hours on the phone with multiple clients over the last few weeks explaining to them the ins and outs of exclusively licensing joint intellectual property, so I was pleased to see the decision of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Appeal [...]
Collaborating Can Create Legal Headaches if the Appropriate IP Agreements Are Not in Place
If you run a small business, you have probably given some thought over this recession to how you might be able to collaborate with other businesses to generate some additional revenue for your business. I know that this is definitely something that I have been thinking about for my practice, and it is something [...]
Anticipating Likely Copyright Battle, Amazon Backs Down Over Kindle 2 Audio Feature
Anticipating a likely copyright battle over its new Kindle 2 audio feature, Amazon has backed down on its previous position and announced that publishers and authors will be able to decide whether to enable the feature.
The Author’s Guild first signaled that a fight was brewing when it issued a February 12th alert over the Kindle [...]
Cutting Legal Costs by Investing in Good Templates
In a recent blogpost, AdamsDrafting suggested that the recession should prompt companies to look at overhauling their contract template process.
AdamsDrafting wrote:
[A] recession should provide a greater incentive for a company to do something about the considerable amounts of time and money that it’s wasting due to its mediocre templates and primitive contract process.
I completely [...]
License Grant Language: How Should it be Drafted?
Ken Adams at Adams Drafting raised an interesting question about the proper drafting of a license grant in a software license. In particular, Adams questions the drafting of the following clause:
Acme hereby grants Widgetco a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license to the Software (that license, the “License“).
I agree with Adams that [...]
Blogosphere Reacts to Associated Press Assault on Fair Use Doctrine
Should the Associated Press have the right to set its own standards as to how much quoting from an Associated Press article constitutes fair use and how much requires the payment of a royalty?
The Associated Press (”A.P.”) apparently thinks so, based on recent coverage of its plans to adopt blogging guidelines for quoting [...]
