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.

Intellectual PropertyPatent

How to Prepare an Invention Disclosure for Your Patent Attorney

An invention disclosure is the single document from which a patent application is built, and its quality sets the ceiling on the protection an inventor can ever obtain. This guide explains what patent claims actually require, how to describe a technical problem and solution in language that translates into claims, why documenting alternative embodiments matters more than most inventors expect, and how to identify prior art in ways that help rather than harm an application. It works through the legal machinery that the disclosure feeds—conception and reduction to practice, inventorship under the Pannu standard, the duty of candor under 37 C.F.R. § 1.56 and Therasense, the enablement and written-description requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 112, and the on-sale and public-use bars after Helsinn—and explains why lab-notebook discipline and confidentiality protect a patent's foundation. It includes a reusable disclosure-form template and annotated examples contrasting effective and ineffective disclosures. The aim is a disclosure that lets counsel claim the full scope of the invention, support every claim, and survive both examination and later challenge.

Casey Scott McKayJune 17, 202654 min read

Intellectual Property and TechnologyTrade Secret

Building a Trade Secret Protection Program from Scratch

Every company holds information that is valuable precisely because it is secret, but trade secret law protects that information only if the owner takes reasonable measures to keep it confidential. This guide explains, in plain language, how to build a protection program that satisfies that requirement, following a fictional robotics startup as it identifies its secrets and secures them across physical, technical, and administrative dimensions. It covers what qualifies as a trade secret under the DTSA and UTSA, how to inventory and classify confidential information, the contractual protections that supplement the statutes, the easily-missed Section 1833(b) whistleblower-immunity notice that can forfeit a plaintiff's punitive damages, employee training, and the high-risk moment of employee departures. It incorporates the 2025-2026 collapse of the FTC's nationwide non-compete ban and explains what that means for protection strategy, and it closes with how trade secret protection coordinates with patents, copyrights, and open-source obligations.

Casey Scott McKayJune 16, 202657 min read

Labor and EmploymentWorkers Compensation

Workers Compensation Toolkit: For Injured Workers and Employers

This toolkit assembles the working documents of a workers compensation matter, in the order they are needed, with the language that actually produces results. It includes the written notice of injury, the average weekly wage audit worksheet, the utilization review appeal that reverses denials, the treating physician narrative request, the light-duty offer letter, the impairment rating challenge, a settlement comparison worksheet that prices future medical against cash, and the lien and future credit negotiation letters used when a third-party case runs alongside the claim. It serves injured workers, employers building a return-to-work program, and counsel on either side.

Casey Scott McKayJune 15, 202611 min read

Government BenefitsVeterans

Veterans Benefits Toolkit: Evidence, Nexus Letters, and Appeal Lanes

A working kit for VA claims. Section A holds records request letters including the claims file request. Section B holds a condition inventory worksheet, a secondary condition map, and a combined ratings calculator that shows why ratings do not add. Section C holds the evidence templates that decide claims: a direct service connection nexus letter, a secondary and aggravation nexus letter, a veteran lay statement, a buddy statement, and an employer statement for TDIU. Section D holds examination preparation and an adequacy review. Section E holds decision analysis and a lane selection matrix. Section F holds appeal filings. Section G holds a TDIU package and survivor claims. Section H collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayJune 15, 202615 min read

EstateDeath Care

Funeral Planning and Final Arrangements Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist covers the days after a death in the order the work must be done, and the afternoon of preparation that prevents nearly all of it. It leads with the four documents to find before making any arrangement, because families routinely pay for a funeral twice. It sets out the twenty-minute phone comparison that the federal price disclosure requirement makes possible, the things a funeral provider may never require you to buy, and the exact phrases that assert each right. It covers who holds the legal authority to decide and what to do when a family disagrees, the death certificates and notifications that follow, and the benefits that go unclaimed — with a separate sequence for when there is no money to pay.

Casey Scott McKayJune 15, 20269 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Choosing Between a Design and Utility Patent: A Practical Checklist

Design patents and utility patents share the word "patent" and almost nothing else: a utility patent protects how an invention works under 35 U.S.C. § 101; a design patent protects how an article looks under 35 U.S.C. § 171. They differ in term, claim structure, examination, cost, the infringement test, and—dramatically—damages. This checklist helps an inventor, founder, or counsel decide whether to file a utility patent, a design patent, or both, by working through what the value of the invention really is, how each is examined and enforced, the total-profit damages superpower of § 289 after Samsung v. Apple, the post-LKQ rise in the design obviousness bar, the broken-line drawing strategy that sets design scope, and the international filing deadlines (12 months for utility, 6 months for design). It also flags the overlap with trade dress and copyright.

Casey Scott McKayJune 14, 20269 min read

TechnologyOpen Source

Software and Open Source Licensing Toolkit: From IP Layers to Compliance Programs

This toolkit is a high-level roadmap and curated library guide for the legal landscape of software and open source licensing. It walks the full terrain: the layered IP that protects software (copyright, patent, trade secret), proprietary licensing models, the major open source license families and their obligations, building an OSS compliance program, software-related M&A and investment diligence, SaaS and cloud distribution questions, and the emerging issues raised by AI-generated code. At each stage it links the firm's articles and checklists alongside the authoritative external references—the Open Source Initiative, SPDX, the canonical GPL/Apache/MIT license texts, and the leading enforcement case, Jacobsen v. Katzer. It is written for software companies, engineering and legal leaders, investors and acquirers, and transactional counsel. Read the roadmap, then drill into the linked review and compliance checklists. License terms are contractual and enforceable—treat compliance as engineering hygiene, not paperwork.

Casey Scott McKayJune 13, 202614 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Rule 37(c)(1) Preclusion of Undisclosed Evidence: A Practical Guide

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(c)(1) is the rule that ended "trial by ambush." When a party fails to disclose information or a witness as required by Rule 26(a) or to supplement under Rule 26(e), it generally may not use that information or witness on a motion, at a hearing, or at trial—unless the failure was substantially justified or harmless. This guide explains, in plain language for litigators, business owners, and judges alike, how the rule works: the affirmative disclosure duties it enforces, its "self-executing" character, the two escape hatches and who bears the burden of proving them, and the multi-factor tests the federal circuits use—the Second Circuit's Patterson/Softel factors, the Fourth Circuit's Southern States framework, and the Tenth Circuit's Woodworker's Supply factors—to decide whether the harsh remedy of preclusion is warranted. It covers the special and high-stakes context of expert disclosures, the recurring question of whether a party may rely at trial on something it withheld in discovery, the procedural mechanics of invoking the rule, the menu of lesser sanctions, and a worked hypothetical, closing with practical takeaways for both sides and an FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayJune 12, 202641 min read

FinanceFinancial Services Regulation

Fintech Licensing and Money Transmission Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Whether a payments or lending product requires licensing is determined by the flow of funds and by who owes an obligation to whom, not by what the product is called, and the analysis has to be run before anything is built. A company that discovers the answer after launching has customer balances in states where it is not licensed, which is a problem with no cheap solution. This checklist runs the analysis in order: map the flow of funds, identify whether the company ever holds or controls funds it owes to someone else, test the available exemptions, choose among direct licensing, a bank partnership, and a restructured model, and then work through the registrations, program requirements, and consumer protection obligations that attach regardless of the licensing answer. The organizing point is that the flow-of-funds analysis must precede any engineering, because a company that launches first has customer balances in states where it is not licensed and no cheap way to unwind them.

Casey Scott McKayJune 12, 20269 min read

TransportationMotor Carrier

Commercial Driving and Motor Carrier Compliance: CDLs, Hours of Service, and Disqualification

A commercial driver's license is a livelihood held on terms that almost no other worker faces, and the rules that govern it operate very differently from ordinary traffic law. This article explains the disqualification structure — the major offenses that end a career, the serious traffic violations that accumulate, and the prohibition on masking that removes the diversion and deferred adjudication options available to everyone else. It covers hours of service and electronic logging, the driver qualification file and medical certification, and the drug and alcohol testing regime including the clearinghouse and the return-to-duty process that a driver cannot navigate alone. It then turns to the carrier side: roadside inspections, out-of-service orders, safety measurement scores and the DataQs process for challenging bad data, and the whistleblower and coercion protections that exist and are rarely invoked.

Casey Scott McKayJune 12, 202629 min read

CommercialInternational Trade

Customs and Trade Compliance Toolkit: Rulings, Protests, Penalties, and Duty Savings

This toolkit supplies the working documents of an import compliance program. It contains a classification worksheet with the General Rules of Interpretation applied in order, a landed cost model, an assist identification form routed through accounts payable and engineering, a supplier origin declaration, a binding ruling request outline, protest and prior disclosure templates, a penalty mitigation framework, a drawback and duty savings analysis, first sale documentation requirements, a broker instruction letter, a recordkeeping matrix, and the audit response file that demonstrates reasonable care.

Casey Scott McKayJune 10, 202614 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Public and Subsidized Housing: Vouchers, Public Housing, and the Rules That Govern Your Tenancy

Subsidized housing runs on a body of federal law that most tenants and many lawyers never encounter, and its most important feature is that a tenant facing termination usually gets a hearing that private-market tenants do not. This article explains the difference between tenant-based vouchers, project-based assistance, and public housing, and why the difference decides almost everything else. It covers how rent is calculated, what an interim recertification is and why failing to report a change is the most common cause of a repayment demand, and what the grievance procedure and informal hearing actually provide. It works through the one-strike rule and Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, the good cause standard that applies in subsidized housing but frequently not in private tenancies, the reasonable accommodation duty that changes outcomes more often than any other tool, and the appeals available at every stage.

Casey Scott McKayJune 9, 202628 min read