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.
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.
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.
People-Search Sites and the Right of Publicity: Yearbooks, Data Brokers, and the Persona Class Actions
People-search sites and yearbook databases show a sliver of a real person's profile to sell a subscription, and plaintiffs have spent six years arguing that the sliver is an advertisement using that person's identity. This article reads the cases against Whitepages, Instant Checkmate, RocketReach, Spokeo, ZoomInfo, Ancestry, and PeopleConnect closely, including the Ninth Circuit's September 2026 decision affirming class certification in Nolen v. PeopleConnect. It explains how these sites work at the system level and why event logs now decide cases, then sorts the outcomes on Article III standing, Section 230, anti-SLAPP motions, arbitration, limitations periods, and personal jurisdiction. It also covers the separate legal tracks that reach the same data: the Fair Credit Reporting Act, New Jersey's Daniel's Law and the Fourth Circuit's October 2026 decision striking West Virginia's version, and California's Delete Act and DROP platform. The First Amendment runs through all of it, and the article explains why a directory and an advertisement for a directory can be treated differently. Readers get worked hypotheticals, tables of outcomes, and a candid list of what remains unsettled as of 31 October 2026.
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.
Discovery Enforcement Toolkit: Deficiency Letters, Meet-and-Confer Records, and Rule 37 Motions
This toolkit collects the working papers of federal discovery enforcement, each introduced by its purpose, its owner, and when to use it, and each followed by drafting commentary tied to the governing rule or case. The requesting party's templates cover a deficiency chart, a deficiency letter, a meet-and-confer log with a confirming email, a Rule 37(a)(1) certification and attorney declaration, a joint discovery letter, a motion to compel with a memorandum outline, a proposed order with a warning paragraph, and a fee declaration. The responding party's templates cover a burden and proportionality declaration, an opposition outline, and a Rule 72(a) objection outline. A Rule 37(b) sanctions motion and a compliance and deadline tracker complete the set. A running example involving a brewery's dispute with its can supplier shows each template filled in.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Competitor Hire Trade Secret Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist turns a competitor hire into phased tasks that fit on a desk: recruiting, screening, offer, resignation, onboarding, monitoring, and dispute response. Each task names its owner and its authority, with notes on why the step matters and red flags that call for counsel immediately. It separates the tasks of the recruiter, hiring manager, HR, IT, and counsel, and adds a short final phase for the former employer evaluating a claim. It reflects the law as of its last modified date, including the FTC's February 2026 removal of its noncompete rule and the 2026 appellate decisions in Insulet v. EOFlow and Comet v. XP Power. Use it with the companion article, guide, and toolkit.
CDL and Motor Carrier Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist covers the decisions that determine whether a commercial driver keeps working. It leads with the citation, because the plea available to every other driver is prohibited for a CDL holder and taking it anyway is how careers end. It sets out the disqualifying offenses at both tiers, the medical certificate whose lapse downgrades a license by operation of law, and the annual two-hour records review that catches errors while they remain fixable. It covers the testing regime including refusal and the return-to-duty sequence that must be performed in order, roadside inspections and out-of-service orders, the free DataQs challenge, and the whistleblower and coercion complaints with their ninety and one hundred eighty day deadlines.