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.

TechnologyIntellectual Property

Legal Considerations After Developing a Mobile App

You finished building the app—now the legal work begins. This guide walks the founder, the in-house lawyer, and the curious layperson through everything that should happen between "feature complete" and "live in the store": forming a liability shield, nailing down who actually owns the code, surviving Apple's and Google's developer agreements in a post-Epic v. Apple world, writing a EULA, terms of service, and privacy policy that are actually enforceable, and complying with the alphabet soup of consumer law that governs in-app purchases and subscriptions (ROSCA), kids (COPPA), accessibility (the ADA), advertising, open-source licenses, and export controls. We use a running hypothetical—a meditation app called "Acme Calm"—to make the abstractions concrete. The law here is fast-moving and varies by state and country; treat this as a sophisticated map, not a substitute for counsel. By the end you will know which fires to put out first and which can wait.

Casey Scott McKayApril 21, 202636 min read

EducationSpecial Education

Special Education Advocacy Toolkit: Evaluations, IEPs, and Due Process

A working kit for special education advocacy. Section A holds the letters that start and shape every case: an evaluation request, a prior written notice demand, a records request, and a parent concerns statement. Section B holds review instruments: a goal quality rubric, a service specification table, an IEP review worksheet, and an evaluation report reading guide. Section C holds enforcement instruments: a service log audit worksheet, a compensatory education demand, and a state complaint template. Section D holds dispute filings: a due process complaint outline, a ten day private placement notice, and a manifestation determination challenge. Section E holds Section 504 and OCR instruments. Section F holds a transition worksheet. Section G collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayApril 20, 202616 min read

PropertyShort-Term Rentals

Short-Term Rental Toolkit: Permits, House Rules, Agreements, and Neighbor Response

This toolkit contains the worksheets, letters, and operating documents a short-term rental host needs, ordered from the research that should precede a purchase through the notices that arrive when something goes wrong. It includes a four-question feasibility worksheet covering the city, the association, the lease or mortgage, and the insurer; an insurance disclosure letter written to produce a coverage answer in writing; a tax authority inquiry that exposes the levies platforms do not remit; an HOA document request; a dated safety inspection log that becomes a premises liability defense; house rules and rental agreement terms drafted to be enforceable; the notices that must be posted; a neighbor introduction letter; scripts for a rules violation and a neighbor complaint; responses to a city notice and an HOA violation; an injury incident report; and a personal use log.

Casey Scott McKayApril 20, 202618 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

When to Trademark Your Brand

Choosing when to trademark your brand is a timing decision with real financial consequences, and most founders get it wrong by waiting too long. This article explains why trademark priority generally goes to the first user or filer, how an intent-to-use application lets you stake a nationwide claim before you have a single sale, and why a clearance search before you commit to a name can save you a six-figure rebrand. It covers the distinctiveness spectrum, common-law versus federal rights, the constructive-use date that anchors federal priority, the six-month Paris Convention priority window for international filings, the Madrid Protocol, bad-faith squatting in first-to-file markets, and realistic budgets at each stage of growth. It closes with a practical sequencing plan for startups, a candid look at DIY versus hiring counsel, a worked example, an FAQ, and links to related guides. The throughline: in trademarks, early and deliberate beats fast and sloppy, every time.

Casey Scott McKayApril 17, 202644 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Recovering Unpaid Wages: A Practical Guide

This guide is a sequence for a worker who suspects they are owed money, beginning with the habit that costs ten seconds a day and decides most claims. It explains how to reconstruct hours when the employer kept no records and why that absence helps rather than hurts, how to audit a pay stub for the four most common violations, and how to test an exemption against what you actually do rather than what your title says. It covers writing the complaint that converts a wage dispute into a wage-plus-retaliation dispute, choosing among the state labor agency, the federal Wage and Hour Division, and a private lawsuit, and what each route costs and preserves. It closes with the final paycheck penalties, collecting from an employer with no money, and what to do while still in the job.

Casey Scott McKayApril 17, 202627 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Asserting Victims' Rights and Getting Compensated: A Practical Guide

This guide is the sequence for a person harmed by a crime. It covers what to do in the first week including obtaining the report and finding an advocate, how to register for notification everywhere so the case does not proceed without you, how to exercise the right to confer before a plea, how to document losses so restitution is actually ordered, how to write and deliver an impact statement, how to apply for compensation and appeal a denial, how the civil claim and insurance fit alongside the criminal case, and what to do after the case ends including parole input and custody notification.

Casey Scott McKayApril 16, 202628 min read

ConsumerCredit Reporting

Recovering from Identity Theft and Fixing a Credit Report: A Practical Guide

This guide is the recovery sequence for someone whose identity has been stolen or whose credit report is wrong. It covers the first twenty-four hours in priority order, why a freeze beats every other protective step, how to obtain the identity theft report that unlocks the strongest remedy in the statute, how to write a dispute that cannot lawfully be answered with a perfunctory verification, the block procedure that most consumers never use, how to handle specialty reports from tenant and employment screeners, what to do when a deleted item reappears, and when the problem is worth taking to a consumer lawyer.

Casey Scott McKayApril 15, 202627 min read

Government BenefitsSocial Security

Social Security Retirement Toolkit: Earnings Records, Claiming Strategies, and Appeals

This toolkit assembles the working papers of a Social Security retirement matter: the earnings record correction request, the benefit comparison and household claiming worksheets, the survivor benefit projection, the protective filing request, the application preparation list, the overpayment reconsideration and waiver letters, a repayment rate proposal, the appeal request and hearing file index, and a deadline calendar. Each template is annotated with the rule it invokes and the failure it prevents. Amounts and thresholds change annually and rules on non-covered pensions have been amended, so verify before filing.

Casey Scott McKayApril 14, 202611 min read

PropertyShort-Term Rentals

Short-Term Rental Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist covers a short-term rental from the research that should precede a purchase through daily operation, complaints, and renewal. It sets out the five documents to read and five calls to make before listing, and why answering the city does not answer the HOA, the lender, or the insurer. It covers the permit conditions that get violated, the insurance conversation that prevents the largest exposure in the field, the tax registration that survives platform collection, and the hour-long safety walkthrough that becomes a premises liability defense. It ends with the operational disciplines — the local contact who actually answers, the neighbors who have your number, the occupancy limits enforced, and the long-stay threshold that can accidentally create a tenancy.

Casey Scott McKayApril 12, 20269 min read

HealthMedical Billing and Debt

Medical Billing Toolkit: Itemized Bill Requests, Financial Assistance Applications, and Dispute Letters

This toolkit provides the letters, worksheets, and language that resolve medical billing disputes, with commentary on what each accomplishes and the mistake it prevents. It includes an itemized bill and financial assistance request, a billing error dispute keyed to line numbers, a financial assistance cover letter, a surprise billing letter citing the correct protection, an insurance appeal letter built around the denial reason, a debt validation letter and a separate time-barred debt letter with the acknowledgment disclaimer people leave out, settlement agreement language that must appear before any payment, a credit bureau dispute, a skeleton answer to a debt lawsuit with the affirmative defenses that are waived if unpleaded, and a bill audit worksheet.

Casey Scott McKayApril 12, 202615 min read

ConsumerStudent Loans

Student Loans: Repayment Plans, Forgiveness, Default, and Discharge

Student loan law is unusual in nearly every direction: the debt survives bankruptcy in most cases, has no statute of limitations, can be collected without a lawsuit, and yet offers repayment terms and forgiveness programs no private lender would ever match. This article explains the difference between federal and private loans and why it governs everything, the repayment plan architecture including income-driven plans, the forgiveness programs and their notorious paperwork traps, what default actually triggers and how to escape it through rehabilitation or consolidation, the discharge categories for closed schools, school misconduct, disability, and death, the undue hardship standard in bankruptcy, and how to handle a servicer that gets it wrong.

Casey Scott McKayApril 11, 202628 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage Theft and Unpaid Wages: Overtime, Misclassification, and Getting Paid

Wage theft is the largest category of theft in the United States by dollar value, and almost none of it is prosecuted. This article explains what the Fair Labor Standards Act actually requires — minimum wage, overtime at one and one-half times the regular rate, and a recordkeeping obligation that falls on the employer rather than the worker — and then the four ways employers most often avoid paying: misclassifying employees as exempt, misclassifying them as independent contractors, requiring work off the clock, and manipulating the regular rate. It covers the tip credit and tip pooling rules, meal and rest break law which is largely a state matter, and final paycheck requirements that carry penalties in many states. It closes with the remedies — liquidated damages doubling the recovery, a three-year limitations period for willful violations, fee shifting, and the anti-retaliation provision that is frequently the stronger claim.

Casey Scott McKayApril 9, 202628 min read