Legal 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.
Trademark Overview: Infringement and Related Rights Under Trademark Law
This is Part 4 of a four-part overview of United States trademark law, covering what happens when a mark is misused and how owners enforce their rights. It explains the core test for infringement—likelihood of confusion—and the multifactor analyses the federal circuits apply, then walks through the related federal causes of action: dilution of famous marks under the TDRA, cybersquatting under the ACPA, false designation of origin and false advertising under Section 43(a), counterfeiting, gray-market imports, and contributory liability. It maps the major defenses, including descriptive and nominative fair use, the expressive-use limits the Supreme Court reset in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products (2023), and equitable defenses such as laches. It closes with the full remedial toolkit—injunctions, profits, damages, enhanced and statutory awards, attorney's fees, seizure, and customs recordation—plus a practical enforcement framework and FAQ. Read it alongside Parts 1 through 3 of the series on subject matter, substantive standards, and obtaining and licensing rights.
Self-Represented Litigant Toolkit: Forms, Filings, Hearings, and Collection
This toolkit gives a self represented litigant the actual documents. It contains a demand letter template, a complaint skeleton with the elements of the most common claims, an answer with a full affirmative defense list, the sworn declaration format that turns your documents into evidence, discovery request sets including the requests for admission that decide cases, an opposition framework for summary judgment, an exhibit index and hearing outline, a settlement agreement checklist, and the post judgment collection filings. It also explains where to find free help and how limited scope representation works.
Medicare Enrollment and Appeal Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist runs Medicare in five sequences: the enrollment decision before sixty five, the supplement and plan choice, the annual review, the hospital and service-termination appeals that run on two-day clocks, and the claim appeal ladder. Each item is a discrete action with the deadline that governs it. It is designed to be printed and worked through with a folder, a calendar, and a phone. The enrollment section exists because a wrong answer there is permanent, and the appeal sections exist because the deadlines are short and unforgiving. Use it alongside the Medicare article and guide.
Identifying an Anonymous Defendant Online: A Practical Guide
This guide walks a plaintiff's lawyer, step by step, from the first screenshot of an anonymous post to an amended complaint naming a real defendant, and shows the anonymous speaker and the subpoenaed platform what to do at each stage. It starts with the threshold decision whether a name is worth pursuing, then covers evidence capture, lawful investigation without a subpoena and the ethical lines around pretexting and account access, and a map of who holds identifying data and what legal process reaches it. The core steps cover choosing the claim, court, and limitations strategy; drafting the Doe complaint; moving for early discovery under Rule 26(d)(1); serving first- and second-tier Rule 45 subpoenas on platforms, internet providers, email services, carriers, registrars, and payment processors; managing notice periods and motions to quash; and verifying, amending, and serving. Separate sections cover the DMCA subpoena, state pre-suit procedures, cross-border routes, and response protocols for the anonymous defendant and the platform. A timeline and cost table, an extended worked example involving a startup's leaked investor deck, common mistakes, an FAQ, and practical takeaways close the guide.
Preventing a Utility Shutoff and Fixing a Bill: A Practical Guide
This guide is organized by what is happening right now. It opens with the shutoff notice on the counter and the five calls that stop it, then explains the medical certificate that can be obtained in an afternoon and is the most powerful protection in this field. It covers the payment arrangements a utility generally must offer and the three programs to ask for by name that are almost never volunteered. It then turns to bills that are wrong, starting with the single question that explains most shocking bills, and walks the dispute sequence that keeps service on while it is pending. It sets out the free commission complaint that resolves most utility problems in days, the assistance that goes unclaimed, and what to do when a landlord is the one who cut off the power.
Health Insurance Appeal Toolkit: Internal Appeals, External Review, and ERISA Litigation
A working kit for health coverage appeals. Section A is a plan type diagnostic that determines which law applies and what remedies exist. Section B holds the document requests including the claim file request that produces the clinical criteria and reviewer credentials. Section C holds a criteria comparison worksheet and a denial type response map. Section D holds the letters that decide appeals: a letter of medical necessity template, a peer to peer request, the internal appeal letter, and an expedited appeal request. Section E holds external review and regulatory complaint filings. Section F holds specialty requests including formulary and step therapy exceptions, a prudent layperson emergency appeal, a parity analysis request, and a No Surprises Act dispute. Section G holds an ERISA complaint outline and a record preservation checklist. Section H collects the primary authorities.
Debt Restructuring and Workout Toolkit
A troubled loan is a negotiation conducted in the shadow of remedies neither side wants to use, and the outcome is largely determined in the first thirty days by whether the lender preserved its rights before talking, whether the borrower produced credible information, and whether the collateral position is what the loan file says it is. This toolkit runs the sequence from both sides: recognizing default and preserving rights, the file audit that determines what the lender actually holds, the pre-negotiation agreement and the information package, structuring a forbearance with real milestones, the restructuring alternatives and their tax consequences, and then the remedies—Article 9 dispositions with their commercial reasonableness requirements, real property foreclosure and its anti-deficiency traps, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors, and what changes when the borrower files. Written for both sides, it emphasizes the two asymmetries that govern: the lender's leverage is highest before it says anything accommodating, and the borrower's leverage is entirely in the quality of its information. It closes with the borrower's playbook and the trust fund tax exposure that is personal and non-dischargeable.
Telehealth Law: Licensure, Prescribing, Reimbursement, and Privacy
Telehealth is not a distinct legal category. It is ordinary clinical practice conducted across a distance, which means every rule that governs a medical practice still applies and several of them apply differently. This article covers the questions that determine whether a telehealth business can lawfully operate: where the practitioner must be licensed and which compacts help, what establishes a valid practitioner-patient relationship and what modalities a state will accept, when a controlled substance may be prescribed without an in-person examination under the Ryan Haight Act, how Medicare and commercial reimbursement actually work after the expiration of pandemic-era flexibilities, and how the corporate practice of medicine doctrine constrains ownership and management of the clinical entity. The unifying principle is that the patient's physical location at the time of the encounter determines which state's law governs nearly every question.
Brand Protection Online: A Strategic Guide for Businesses
This guide explains how businesses can protect their brands across the internet, from federal trademark registration through enforcement against cybersquatters, counterfeiters, and online impersonators. It covers the Lanham Act framework, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the UDRP, keyword advertising and metatag litigation, marketplace anti-counterfeiting programs including Amazon Brand Registry, Tariff Act customs seizures, DMCA notice-and-takedown, gray-market parallel imports under the first-sale doctrine, and the limits of online reputation and defamation remedies. It translates each doctrine into plain language, illustrates the law with worked hypotheticals, and cites the controlling statutes and leading cases. The article closes with a practical, repeatable monitoring-and-enforcement program, a worked multi-threat example, and a short FAQ. It is written so that brand managers, in-house counsel, and litigators can all use it as a working reference.
School Discipline Toolkit: Records Requests, Hearing Preparation, and Appeals
This toolkit provides the requests, worksheets, and letters that turn a school discipline matter from a meeting you were summoned to into a proceeding you are prepared for. It includes a comprehensive records request, a removal-day count request that surfaces the threshold question schools rarely track, a written evaluation request that can bring an unidentified student within the discipline protections, and a manifestation meeting request with the documents to demand first. It provides an incident timeline, a comparator worksheet, a meeting question sheet, a confirming email template, hearing preparation materials, an appeal letter organized by the grounds that actually win, an expungement and record amendment request, a bullying report, a restraint incident request, and an Office for Civil Rights complaint.
Manufactured Housing Toolkit: Title Conversion, Lot Lease Review, and Park Closure Response
This toolkit provides the letters, worksheets, and records that protect a manufactured home owner's largest asset, each annotated with the loss it prevents. It includes a pre-purchase information request to a park, an itemized price demand for a dealer, a data plate record sheet, a lot lease review worksheet keyed to state park act provisions, the four written utility questions that expose improper submetering, responses to a rent increase and to a selective rule enforcement notice, a buyer rejection documentation letter that turns verbal brush-offs into a provable pattern, a sale-in-place request, a park closure response with the ninety-day sequence, an association formation outline, a warranty notice to all three responsible parties, and a state agency complaint.
The Trademark Process: From Search to Registration and Beyond
This guide walks a brand owner through the entire life of a U.S. trademark, from picking a name to keeping the registration alive decades later. It explains the distinctiveness spectrum (the Abercrombie ladder from generic to fanciful), how clearance searches work, the difference between use-based and intent-to-use filing bases, and what happens when a USPTO examining attorney issues a refusal under Section 2(d) for likelihood of confusion or Section 2(e) for descriptiveness. It covers the mechanics of TEAS e-filing, the specimen rules that sink more applications than anything else, publication and opposition before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Notice of Allowance and Statement of Use, the certificate of registration, and the post-registration maintenance filings under Sections 8, 15, and 9. It folds in the changes wrought by the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 and the 2020 e-filing rules. Written for founders, in-house lawyers, and the curious alike, it pairs plain-English explanations with worked hypotheticals and primary authority. The aim is to demystify a process that intimidates many small businesses but follows a surprisingly logical arc. It is general information, not legal advice.