Insights

Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.

Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property — from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.

EducationHigher Education

College Conduct and Title IX Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a college conduct or Title IX matter from the notice through the appeal, in the order the decisions must be made. It leads with the criminal exposure question that must be answered before anything is written, and the advisor of choice provision that both parties routinely fail to use. It sets out the documents to obtain, including the handbook version in effect on the date of the alleged conduct, and the procedure mapping that supports the strongest available theory at any institution. It covers interim and supportive measures, the investigation, element-by-element hearing preparation, and the four strategies that should not be combined. It closes with sanction negotiation and the collateral consequences that outlast it — transcript notations, financial aid, immigration status, and licensure disclosure.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 31, 20269 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Bringing a Medical Malpractice Case: A Practical Guide

This guide runs a potential malpractice claim from the first phone call through resolution. It covers the intake questions that identify a case in ten minutes, the complete records request including the electronic audit trail that almost nobody asks for, building the minute by minute chronology from objective sources, obtaining a merit review that separates breach from causation, the state specific pre suit requirements that take months and cannot be compressed, the economic analysis that determines whether a case can be brought at all under damages caps, the deemed federal clinic check that changes the court and the deadline entirely, discovery and expert work, and resolution including lien resolution and structured settlements.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 31, 202628 min read

PropertyNeighbor Law

Neighbor Dispute and Boundary Problem Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a neighbor dispute from the first conversation to the recorded agreement that ends it. It sets out the three questions to answer before acting, how to document a recurring problem so enforcement agencies will act on it, and what a boundary survey must include to be useful. It covers the tree rules that people most often get expensively wrong, the fence and drainage obligations that vary by state, and the free enforcement machinery that resolves most disputes without a lawyer. It ends with the documents that end things permanently — the written license that defeats adverse possession, the recorded boundary line agreement, and the maintenance agreement that most easements omit.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 29, 20269 min read

ConsumerUtilities

Utility Dispute Toolkit: Medical Certificates, Payment Agreements, and Commission Complaints

This toolkit contains the letters and worksheets that keep utility service on and correct bills that are wrong, ordered by urgency. It opens with a disconnection notice audit worksheet that identifies the procedural failures behind most improper shutoffs, then a medical certificate request and a provider letter template that a doctor's office can complete in an afternoon. It provides a payment agreement proposal, a notice that an assistance application is pending, and a letter requesting the three programs utilities almost never volunteer. It includes a written bill dispute drafted to activate the protection against disconnection, an account history and meter test request, a back billing challenge, a leak adjustment request, a deposit refund demand, an informal commission complaint, a municipal utility appeal, a landlord shutoff letter, and a submetering calculation request.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 27, 202619 min read

PropertyNeighbor Law

Resolving a Dispute with Your Neighbor: A Practical Guide

This guide is about the sequence — what to do first, second, and third when something a neighbor is doing has become a problem, and why skipping steps costs money and goodwill. It covers the conversation that resolves most disputes and how to have it, the written notice that resolves many of the rest and what it must contain, and the documentation that makes everything afterward possible: dated photographs, a log with times and durations, a survey, an arborist's report. It then walks the free enforcement machinery most people never use — code enforcement, animal control, noise enforcement, zoning, and the HOA — followed by community mediation, and finally the choice between small claims for money and superior court for an order. It closes with the agreements that end disputes permanently: the written license, the boundary line agreement, and the recorded maintenance agreement.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 24, 202628 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Medical Malpractice: Standard of Care, Causation, Damages, and Defenses

A bad outcome is not malpractice, and that single distinction organizes the entire field. This article explains what the standard of care actually requires and how it is proved, why nearly every state now demands a supporting expert affidavit before a case may be filed, how causation is litigated including the loss of chance doctrine, how informed consent operates as a separate theory with its own standard, why the statute of limitations in these cases is unusually complicated because of the discovery rule and statutes of repose, how damages caps and collateral source modifications have reshaped recovery, who else can be liable through vicarious liability and corporate negligence, and the special regimes for federally funded clinics, emergency care, and vaccine injuries.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 24, 202627 min read

EducationHigher Education

Responding to a College Conduct or Title IX Proceeding: A Practical Guide

This guide covers a college conduct or Title IX proceeding from the notice through the appeal, in the order the decisions have to be made. It opens with the first forty-eight hours, including the criminal exposure question that must be answered before anything is written down, and the advisor of choice provision that both parties routinely fail to use. It explains how to obtain the governing documents and map every procedural obligation, because whether the institution followed its own published process is frequently the strongest theory at a private college and a substantial part of the case at a public one. It covers interim measures, the investigation, hearing preparation, and the four strategies available. It closes with sanction negotiation and the collateral consequences — transcript notations, financial aid, immigration status, and licensure — that outlast any sanction.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 23, 202627 min read

ConsumerUtilities

Utility Shutoff and Billing Dispute Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist is ordered by urgency, because in utility matters the sequence decides the outcome. It opens with the five things to do the day a disconnection notice arrives, all of them free, then the medical certificate that can be obtained in an afternoon and is the strongest protection in this field. It sets out the notice requirements to check the utility against, the payment arrangements and named programs that are almost never volunteered, and the single question that explains most shocking bills. It covers the written dispute that keeps service on, the free commission complaint that resolves most problems in days, the assistance that goes unclaimed, and the landlord shutoff that is an unlawful eviction rather than a utility problem.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 19, 202610 min read

Government BenefitsSocial Security Disability

Social Security Disability Application and Appeal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a Social Security disability claim from the decision to file through federal court review, organized by the deadline that governs each stage. It covers the insured-status and earnings-record verification that should happen before anything else, the four application documents and how to complete each without undermining the claim, the medical evidence and the specific opinion questions that produce usable answers, the sixty-day appeal deadlines at every level, hearing preparation including the five-day evidence rule and the two vocational questions that win most hearings, and the post-award items — onset date review, work incentives, and overpayment response.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 19, 20269 min read

CommercialContract

Contract Construction Toolkit: Canons, Clauses, and Dispute Positioning

A working kit for the two sides of contract construction. Section A is a reference table of the canons with what each actually decides and how to defeat it. Section B is model language for the fifteen clauses that most often determine how a contract is read, each with a note on what the language is doing. Section C is dispute positioning: the summary judgment posture, a discovery request set aimed at course of performance, an argument sequence, and a sample brief skeleton. Section D collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 19, 202618 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark Litigation

Damages Apportionment in Trademark Cases: A Practical Guide

When a defendant infringes a trademark on one product but runs a much larger business, how much can the plaintiff actually recover? The answer lies in the doctrine of apportionment, which limits recovery to the profits and damages actually attributable to the infringement rather than the defendant's entire revenue. This guide explains, in plain language for lawyers and business owners alike, how apportionment works under Section 35 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). It maps the unusual burden-shifting structure—where the plaintiff proves the defendant's infringement-related sales, the defendant proves its costs and the share of profit not caused by the infringing mark, and sales are treated as profit until the defendant proves otherwise. It covers the two layers of apportionment, the proximate-cause requirement, the Supreme Court's 2025 narrowing of recoverable profits to the named defendant in Dewberry, the equitable factors the Second Circuit weighs, the role of willfulness after Romag, the alternative measures of actual damages (lost profits, reasonable royalty, and corrective advertising), and when courts exclude damages testimony as speculative. It closes with a worked example and practical takeaways for both sides.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 17, 202640 min read

Intellectual PropertyCopyright

Copyright Registration of Books, Manuscripts, and Speeches

Books, manuscripts, and speeches are "literary works" under U.S. copyright law, and registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office unlocks the right to sue, statutory damages, attorney's fees, and a public record of ownership. This guide explains how registration works for written and spoken expression, including the all-important fixation requirement that decides whether an extemporaneous speech is protected at all. It walks through published versus unpublished status, the deposit and best-edition rules, single versus standard versus group registration (including the GRTX option for short online literary works), preregistration for at-risk manuscripts, and the special wrinkles of ghostwriting, pen names, and anonymous authorship. A running worked example follows a debut novelist from first draft to certificate. The article closes with an FAQ, key takeaways, and a reminder that an ISBN is not a copyright.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 17, 202654 min read