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.

ConsumerFraud and Scams

Recognizing and Responding to a Scam: A Practical Guide

This guide is organized around what to do rather than what to fear. It opens with the first hour after money has moved, in order, because the difference between recovering a wire and not recovering it is measured in hours. It then gives the four questions that identify almost any scam in progress and the two rules that defeat most of them without requiring any judgment in the moment. It walks through what recovery is realistically possible for each payment method and how to write a dispute that triggers error resolution obligations. It covers how to intervene with someone who does not believe you, which is the hardest problem in this area, and what to do about a family member exploiting an older relative. It ends with rebuilding, the recovery scam that targets known victims, and the tax injury nobody warns about.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 10, 202628 min read

CriminalCriminal Procedure

Criminal Defense Toolkit: Bail, Discovery, Plea Bargaining, and Sentencing

This toolkit assembles the working documents of a criminal defense practice in the order they are needed. It includes the client instruction letter that prevents the most common self-inflicted damage, the evidence preservation letter aimed at body camera and third party video before it overwrites, a release plan template and bail argument outline, an enumerated discovery and Brady demand, suppression and Franks motion outlines, a plea evaluation memorandum that forces the collateral consequences analysis before any offer is conveyed, a sentencing memorandum framework built on the statutory factors, mitigation package guidance including how to instruct letter writers, and the post-disposition items that determine whether a record can ever be cleared.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 9, 202613 min read

Government BenefitsSocial Security

Claiming Social Security: A Practical Guide to Timing, Spousal, and Survivor Benefits

This guide walks the Social Security decision from the earnings record check at fifty to the appeal of a wrong determination at seventy. It covers how to read the benefit estimate and what it assumes, how to check the record for missing years while corrections are still possible, the claiming decision framed as longevity insurance rather than a break-even bet, why the higher earner in a married couple holds the most valuable decision, how spousal and divorced-spouse benefits actually work under deemed filing, the survivor switching strategy that still exists, how to apply, and what to do about overpayments and denials.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 8, 202628 min read

TransportationMotor Carrier

Motor Carrier Toolkit: Qualification Files, DataQs Challenges, and Driver Protections

This toolkit provides the records, requests, logs, and complaints that protect a commercial driving career, ordered from the annual review that prevents most problems to the complaints that address the rest. It includes an annual records review sheet, requests for a certified driving record and a driver qualification file, a medical certificate tracker, and a script for screening a lawyer on CDL competence before a citation is resolved. It provides a DataQs challenge form keyed to the six correctable error types, an inspection log, a detention log that supports a wage claim and defends an hours question at once, the written refusal message that wins whistleblower and coercion cases, complaint outlines with their ninety and one hundred eighty day deadlines, a return-to-duty tracker, a settlement statement audit, a lease-purchase review, and a carrier compliance audit.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 6, 202618 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Subsidized Housing Toolkit: Hearing Requests, Recertification, and Accommodation Letters

This toolkit collects the letters and worksheets that decide subsidized housing cases, each annotated with what it accomplishes and the deadline it protects. It leads with the hearing request — the single most important document in the field — followed by a document production demand, an informal review request for a denied applicant, a preference claim letter, an income change report, a medical expense log that recovers money most households never claim, a rent calculation audit worksheet, a repayment agreement proposal with a specific number, a reasonable accommodation letter with a three-sentence provider template, a no-trespass agreement for guest-conduct cases, a search extension request, a special inspection request, an abatement response for landlords who bill the wrong party, and a one-page hearing summary.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 5, 202615 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology

Protecting Your Mobile App: A Comprehensive IP Strategy Guide

A mobile app is a single product wrapped in four overlapping legal regimes at once: trademark in the name and icon, copyright in the code and creative assets, patent in any genuinely novel functionality, and trade secret in the algorithms you never reveal. This guide maps each regime onto the parts of an app it actually protects, explains how to secure each one in the right order and at the right cost, and flags the traps that sink solo developers and venture-backed startups alike. It is current through 2026, reflecting Google v. Oracle on API copyrightability, the Alice patent-eligibility landscape, the post-Epic v. Apple app-store world, the 2025 USPTO trademark fee overhaul, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and the Copyright Office's refusal to register purely AI-generated material. Worked hypotheticals and a lifecycle checklist tie the doctrine to the choices a developer actually faces. Read it before you ship, not after a competitor clones you.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 5, 202661 min read

HealthcarePrivacy and Data Security

HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance for Covered Entities and Business Associates

HIPAA is misunderstood in both directions. Providers refuse to share information the rules plainly permit them to share, and organizations that hold enormous quantities of health data assume the rules do not reach them. This article sets out what HIPAA actually requires: who is covered, what counts as protected health information, the uses and disclosures the Privacy Rule permits without authorization, the risk analysis that anchors the Security Rule, and the four-factor assessment that determines whether an incident is a reportable breach. It also covers the business associate relationship, which is where most enforcement now originates, the Office for Civil Rights penalty structure and what actually triggers a large settlement, the right of access initiative that has produced more enforcement actions than any other theory, and the interaction of HIPAA with state law, Part 2 substance use records, and the reproductive health privacy rules.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 4, 202625 min read

CommercialConsumer Protection

Consumer Debt Defense Toolkit: Validation, Litigation, and Judgment Exemptions

This toolkit collects every document a consumer or their counsel needs from the first collection letter through post-judgment exemption practice. It supplies the thirty-day validation dispute that halts collection, the cease communication letter and the warning about when not to send it, the credit report dispute that triggers a privately enforceable furnisher duty, an answer and affirmative defense template, a full discovery set aimed at the chain of title, the requests for admission that end cases, the arbitration motion framework, settlement terms that avoid new problems, and the exemption and vacatur filings that come after. It also includes a limitations analysis worksheet and a judgment proof worksheet.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 3, 202611 min read

ConsumerFraud and Scams

Scams, Fraud, and Elder Financial Exploitation: How They Work and What to Do

Fraud is not a failure of intelligence. It is an engineered exploit of ordinary human responses under manufactured urgency, and understanding the mechanics is what makes it visible. This article explains the architecture common to nearly every scam — the pretext, the isolation, the urgency, and the payment method chosen because it cannot be reversed — and then walks the major categories, from romance and grandparent scams to tech support, government impersonation, and business email compromise. It sets out what recovery is actually possible for each payment method, which is the question nobody answers honestly, and covers the error resolution rights that apply to electronic transfers and the narrower position of wires and gift cards. It then turns to elder financial exploitation by family members and caregivers, the undue influence and capacity doctrines that reach it, and the reporting systems that exist.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 2, 202628 min read

Family LawMarital Agreements

Prenuptial Agreement Basics

A prenuptial agreement is a contract signed before marriage that sets the rules for how property, debt, and spousal support will be handled if the marriage ends in divorce or death. This guide explains what a prenup can and cannot do, the enforceability requirements courts apply (a written, voluntary, fairly disclosed bargain that is not unconscionable), and how the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act and the newer Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act shape the law in many states. It walks through the sharp state-by-state variation, the special concerns of business owners and creators who hold intellectual property and future royalties, the rise of postnuptial agreements, and the most common myths that get prenups thrown out. A detailed worked example shows how the pieces fit together, anchored in real cases such as In re Marriage of Bonds and Simeone v. Simeone and in primary statutory authority. The article closes with a practitioner-style FAQ and a reminder that prenup law is intensely state-specific.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 2, 202646 min read

HealthcareInsurance

Health Insurance Denials and Appeals: ERISA Plans, ACA Coverage, and External Review

A health insurance denial is not a medical decision and it is not final. This article explains why the single most important question is whether the plan is a self funded ERISA plan or state regulated insurance, because that determines what law applies, what appeal rights exist, what a court will review, and what remedies are available. It covers the categories of denial and what each actually means, the internal appeal deadlines and content requirements, the external review by an independent organization that overturns a substantial share of denials, why Firestone deference makes the administrative record decisive in ERISA litigation, what Metropolitan Life v Glenn held about structural conflicts of interest, why there is no treating physician rule in ERISA, and the specific protections for emergency care, surprise billing, and mental health parity.

Casey Scott McKayJune 29, 202629 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Overview: The Subject Matter of Trademark Law

This is Part 1 of a four-part overview of United States trademark law, and it answers the most fundamental question in the field: what can actually function as a trademark? It walks through the kinds of things that can serve as marks--words, logos, slogans, trade dress, color, sound, scent, motion, plus the specialized worlds of service marks, certification marks, and collective marks--and explains the distinctiveness spectrum from Abercrombie that decides whether a designation is protectable at all. It covers the special problem of generic terms after the Supreme Court's Booking.com decision, the genericide that has killed once-famous brands, and the functionality bar that keeps useful product features (and the disadvantaging features the courts call "aesthetically functional") out of trademark. It closes with the statutory bars in Section 2 of the Lanham Act as reshaped by Tam, Brunetti, and Elster. Worked hypotheticals and plain-language definitions make the doctrine accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Read alongside the companion parts on substantive standards, obtaining protection, and infringement.

Casey Scott McKayJune 28, 202648 min read