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.

LitigationFederal Practice

Protective Orders, Confidentiality Designations, and Sealing: Secrecy and Its Limits in Federal Court

Litigation forces parties to disclose material they would never share voluntarily, and the machinery that makes this tolerable is the protective order — which is also, increasingly, the machinery that courts scrutinize when the public asks what a case was about. This article separates the two questions that practitioners routinely conflate: what discovery material may be kept private between the parties, which is governed by a permissive good-cause standard, and what may be kept out of the public record once filed, which is governed by a much more demanding right of access. It covers designation practice and its abuses, tiered access including attorneys-eyes-only, clawback protection, and how sealing motions actually succeed. It explains why the standard for keeping discovery material confidential differs sharply from the standard for sealing a court filing. It closes with the drafting and practice consequences for both producing and receiving parties.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 17, 202628 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Maintenance and Renewal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A checklist for keeping a federal trademark registration alive and strong, organized around the Lanham Act maintenance calendar: the Section 8 declaration of continued use between the fifth and sixth years and at each renewal, the combined Section 8 plus Section 9 renewal every ten years, the Section 71 path for Madrid registrations, and the optional Section 15 declaration of incontestability. It covers specimens, grace periods, the USPTO proof-of-use audit program, and the substantive threats no calendar can stop: abandonment through nonuse, genericide, and naked licensing. WHY notes, trap warnings, a common-mistakes list, and primary authority are included. Educational, not legal advice; confirm current fees and deadlines at USPTO.gov.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 16, 20267 min read

ImmigrationRemoval Defense

Removal Defense Toolkit: Bond, Relief Applications, Appeals, and Judicial Review

This toolkit supplies the working documents of removal defense. It contains a relief screening matrix covering every form of relief with its elements and bars, a criminal analysis worksheet applying the categorical approach, a notice to appear review sheet, a bond package index and argument outline, a declaration template with the questions that must be answered, a corroboration and country conditions index, expert declaration request letters, a credibility reconciliation table for prior statements, a pre hearing brief framework, and the appeal and petition for review outlines with the jurisdictional framing that determines reviewability. It closes with a family contingency planning worksheet.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 16, 202613 min read

ConsumerAir Travel

Handling a Flight Disruption and Filing a Claim: A Practical Guide

This guide covers a flight disruption from the moment it happens through the claim that follows, in the order the work has to be done. It opens with the first thirty minutes at the airport, where most of the value is captured — screenshotting the stated cause, standing in two lines at once, asking for specific things by name, and refusing a voucher before asking about the cash alternative. It explains what involuntary denied boarding actually pays and why volunteering forfeits it, how to demand a refund rather than a travel credit, and how to claim the ancillary fees airlines never volunteer. It covers baggage reporting deadlines, mobility device damage and the Complaints Resolution Official, and closes with the four claim routes: the airline, the Department of Transportation, a credit card chargeback, and small claims on the contract of carriage.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 16, 202627 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Forum Strategy Toolkit: Clauses, Transfer Motions, and First-Filed Briefing

This toolkit collects the documents that decide forum disputes: a clause that does what the drafter intended, a comparison worksheet that converts instinct into a client-facing analysis, the witness declaration that determines whether a transfer motion succeeds, a forum non conveniens conditions stipulation, first-filed briefing for both sides, and the standstill agreement that prevents the declaratory-action race entirely. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents, and the drafting notes explain which single word in each provision does the work. Each template carries drafting notes on what the court is actually weighing and what evidence supports it. Adapt everything to the district, the parties, and the claims. The declaration templates in particular are where transfer motions are won.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 16, 202613 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Venue and Transfer Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Forum decisions are made once and lived with for years, and the motions that follow are won on the specificity of the record. This checklist runs the whole sequence: comparing candidate districts on the factors that actually differ, confirming venue including the special statutes that displace the general rule, avoiding the demand letter that invites a declaratory action, building a transfer motion around named witnesses beyond the subpoena power, enforcing or resisting a forum selection clause after Atlantic Marine, briefing first-filed priority, and sequencing motions so nothing is waived. It covers venue propriety, the section 1404 convenience factors, forum selection clause enforcement, first-filed disputes, and the record each requires. Separate sections address the movant and the party resisting transfer. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 15, 20267 min read

GovernmentElection Law

Voting and Running for Office: A Practical Guide

This guide is the operating manual for two roles: the voter who wants their ballot to count and the citizen who decides to run for something. For voters it covers the annual registration check, absentee mechanics and the cure process that saves rejected ballots, what to do when told you are not on the list, and the assistance rights that exist. For candidates it covers the county handbook that answers most questions, the signature gathering that defeats more campaigns than opponents do, committee registration and reporting, the coordination firewall, and what happens in a recount or a contest.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 14, 202627 min read

CommercialAdvertising and Marketing

The TCPA and Text Message Marketing: Consent, Revocation, and Class Action Exposure

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is thirty-five years old, was written about fax machines and robocalls, and is now the most expensive statute in American marketing because it pays five hundred dollars per message with no cap. A company that sends a single unwanted campaign to fifty thousand numbers has created twenty-five million dollars of nominal exposure before anyone asks whether the messages were annoying. This article explains what the statute actually prohibits after the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of an autodialer in Facebook v. Duguid, why prerecorded voice calls and the do-not-call rules remain the live exposure, what consent must look like and how it must be documented, how revocation works after the FCC's recent rulemaking, and where the state statutes go further than federal law. It closes with a compliance program that actually prevents claims.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 14, 202626 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Moving or Keeping a Case in Your Chosen Forum: A Practical Guide

Forum fights are won on preparation done before filing and on the specificity of the record supporting a motion. This guide covers both sides: choosing a defensible forum and documenting why, avoiding the demand letter that hands the other side a declaratory action, drafting a transfer motion around named witnesses rather than general inconvenience, enforcing or resisting a forum selection clause after Atlantic Marine, briefing first-filed priority and its exceptions, and handling removal and multidistrict tag-alongs. It includes a forum comparison worksheet, a motion outline, the declarations that decide these motions, and the errors that recur. A worked transfer fight shows how the convenience factors are actually built from declarations. It also covers first-filed disputes, forum selection clause enforcement, and parallel state proceedings.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 14, 202627 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Forum Selection, Transfer, and Parallel Proceedings: Choosing and Keeping the Court You Want

Where a case is heard shapes its outcome more than most substantive rulings, and the doctrines controlling that question are scattered across venue statutes, transfer provisions, contract enforcement, and abstention. This article assembles them. It covers venue and the transfer statutes, the transformed analysis that applies when a valid forum selection clause exists after Atlantic Marine, forum non conveniens for foreign alternatives, the first-filed rule and its exceptions, abstention where parallel state proceedings exist, anti-suit injunctions against foreign litigation, and consolidation through multidistrict litigation. It closes with the practical question of what actually happens to choice of law when a case moves.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 13, 202627 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Sentencing, Appeals, and Post-Conviction Relief: From Verdict to Habeas

A conviction is not the end of a criminal case, and the routes that follow have different names, different deadlines, different standards, and different courts. This article explains how sentencing actually works after the guidelines became advisory, the constitutional rule that facts increasing a maximum must be found by a jury, what the presentence report does and why objections to it matter more than argument, the direct appeal and the preservation rules that determine what can be raised, the difference between an appeal and a collateral attack, ineffective assistance and Brady claims, state post-conviction procedure, federal habeas with its one-year clock and its procedural default doctrine, and compassionate release.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202629 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Justiciability Toolkit: Standing Allegations, Rule 12(b)(1) Motions, and Mootness Briefing

This toolkit collects the documents a justiciability practice produces: standing allegations that plead harm rather than violation, the historical analogue paragraph that most complaints omit, facial and factual Rule 12(b)(1) motion outlines, the custodian declaration that converts a pleading argument into an evidentiary one, targeted standing discovery, the class certification brief built on sampling evidence, a covenant not to sue drafted broadly enough to moot a case, and the decision framework defendants should run before filing anything. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents. Each template carries drafting notes on the difference between a facial and a factual attack and what each requires. Adapt everything to the claim, the relief sought, and the procedural posture. The standing allegation templates in particular should be adapted claim by claim rather than used as a block.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202611 min read