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.
Probate and Estate Administration Checklist: A Practical Checklist
A deadline ordered checklist for administering an estate. It opens with the first week, including the insurance call about vacancy that families miss and that causes the worst outcomes in this field. It then runs the titling review that determines whether probate is required at all, the simplified procedures worth asking about before filing anything, the petition and appointment, the estate account and ledger that protect the representative personally, the creditor notice that must include direct written notice to known creditors, the claim period and statutory payment priority, the inventory and appraisals that fix the basis step up, the four tax filings and the portability and disclaimer deadlines, and closing with releases and a discharge order.
Gray Market Goods and the First Sale Doctrine: Parallel Imports, Exhaustion, and Border Enforcement
Gray market goods are genuine products sold outside the channel their maker intended, and whether that is lawful depends on which intellectual property right you invoke and where the goods were first sold. This article explains the exhaustion rules for copyright, patent, and trademark separately, because they differ in ways that decide cases. It covers the Supreme Court decisions that established international exhaustion for copyright and patent, the material differences doctrine that keeps trademark law available against parallel imports, and the customs framework that determines what actually gets stopped at the border. It closes with the contractual and commercial tools that work where intellectual property law does not.
Freedom to Operate and IP Clearance Toolkit: Clearing the Path Before You Launch
This toolkit is a high-level roadmap and curated library guide for clearing intellectual property risk before launching a product, brand, or codebase. It walks the full clearance process: why to clear before launch, conducting a patent freedom-to-operate search, trademark clearance, copyright and open-source clearance, the role of opinions of counsel in defusing willful-infringement exposure after Halo v. Pulse, designing around blocking rights, and ongoing risk management. At each stage it links the firm's articles and checklists alongside the search tools and primary authorities a practitioner needs—USPTO Patent Public Search, Espacenet, Google Patents, USPTO trademark search, and the willfulness/enhanced-damages framework of 35 U.S.C. § 284. It is written for product and brand teams, founders, in-house counsel, and outside clearance counsel. Read the roadmap, then drill into the linked search checklists. FTO is a risk-management exercise, not a guarantee—calibrate depth to the stakes.
Filing a Chapter 13 Plan: A Practical Guide
A Chapter 13 plan is a payment proposal that becomes a binding court order, and drafting one badly produces a case that fails eighteen months later with nothing accomplished. The plan must be filed with or shortly after the petition, payments must begin within thirty days whether or not the plan is confirmed, and the numbers must satisfy three separate tests—disposable income, best interests, and feasibility—that constrain each other. Most of the real work happens before filing: gathering the income history that fixes the commitment period, valuing the collateral that determines what secured creditors receive, and testing whether the household can actually sustain the payment for the full term. This guide walks the preparation, the plan's provisions section by section, the confirmation process and the objections to expect, and the post-confirmation management that keeps a case alive.
FDA Food Labeling Review Checklist: A Practical Checklist
Food labels are among the most prescriptive documents in commercial regulation, and nearly every requirement is a formatting rule with a numerical answer rather than a judgment call. That makes label defects unusually easy to prevent and unusually expensive to discover after a print run. This checklist walks the label panel by panel: the statement of identity and net quantity on the principal display panel, the ingredient statement and allergen declaration and manufacturer identification on the information panel, the Nutrition Facts panel and the serving size that must derive from the reference amount customarily consumed rather than from marketing preference, and then the claims—nutrient content, health, structure function, natural, organic, and bioengineered disclosure—each of which carries its own definition and its own substantiation requirement. It closes with the state overlays, the review process, and the version control that makes it possible to prove what a label said on any given date.
False Advertising Toolkit: Substantiation Files, Surveys, and Injunction Briefing
This toolkit collects the working documents of an advertising dispute practice, on both the compliance side and the litigation side. It includes the claim intake form and substantiation file structure that prevent claims from becoming cases, the evidence log and characterization worksheet that open a challenge, a demand letter and a self-regulatory challenge outline, a preliminary injunction brief skeleton, survey specifications for building and attacking, targeted discovery requests, and settlement terms that actually prevent recurrence. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents. Each template carries drafting notes on what the document is proving and to whom. Adapt everything to the claim, the medium, and the governing law.
Bail and Pretrial Release: Detention, Conditions, and the Money Bail Debate
Whether a person is released before trial changes almost everything about the case, and the decision is usually made in a hearing lasting minutes, on incomplete information, within days of arrest. This article explains the constitutional framework from the Excessive Bail Clause through Stack v. Boyle and United States v. Salerno, the federal Bail Reform Act's structure of a presumption of release and a graduated set of conditions, how detention hearings actually work and what the rebuttable presumptions do, the probable cause timing rules, the mechanics of cash bail, commercial sureties, and unsecured bonds, the pretrial services and risk assessment apparatus, the reform movement and the evidence behind it, and how release is revoked.
False Advertising Claim Checklist: A Practical Checklist
False advertising disputes are decided in the first ninety days, and the checklist below is organized to fit that reality. It runs the sequence from capturing an advertisement before it changes, through characterizing the claim as literally or impliedly false, choosing among the demand letter, the self-regulatory forum, and litigation, moving for preliminary relief, and running the substantiation and survey discovery that decide the merits. Separate sections cover the defendant's response, the advertising review program that prevents claims, and the settlement terms worth negotiating. It covers the plaintiff's proof, the defendant's substantiation file, and the survey decision. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.
Tribal Law Toolkit: Jurisdiction Analysis, Tribal Court Practice, and ICWA Compliance
This toolkit collects the working documents of a matter with a tribal dimension: a jurisdiction analysis worksheet, an Indian country determination request, a tribal code research log, a tribal court admission letter, an exhaustion motion outline, a sovereign immunity waiver clause with a council resolution request, the ICWA inquiry script and notice letter with a genealogy intake form, an active efforts log, a qualified expert engagement letter, placement preference and transfer tools, a protection order enforcement packet, a comity petition outline, and consultation and cultural resources letters.
Trademark Preliminary Injunctions After the Trademark Modernization Act: The Presumption of Irreparable Harm and the Delay Trap
This article explains how trademark preliminary injunctions work now that Congress has restored a rebuttable presumption of irreparable harm in 15 U.S.C. § 1116(a). It traces the presumption's fall after eBay and Herb Reed and its statutory return, then reads Nichino closely on what the presumption actually does under Rule 301. A full section covers the delay trap, with a table of cases from Citibank to Gilead showing which gaps were fatal and which were forgiven. The reader also gets the merits shortcuts that work, the evidence record, TRO and asset freeze rules, bond exposure, order scope after Abitron, what Starbucks v. McKinney adds, and appeal. Worked examples show the presumption bursting, a chronology going wrong, and a small defendant's response. Open questions are flagged throughout.
Bringing or Defending a False Advertising Claim: A Practical Guide
False advertising cases are decided in the first ninety days, which means the work that matters happens before and immediately after a complaint is filed. This guide walks through the sequence for both sides: capturing the advertisement before it changes, characterizing the claim as literally false or implied, deciding among a demand letter, a self-regulatory challenge, and litigation, moving for preliminary relief, running the survey and substantiation discovery that decide the merits, and evaluating remedies honestly. It includes a timeline, a division of labor, budget guidance, and the errors that most reliably lose an otherwise good case on either side. A worked dispute follows a competitor claim from demand letter through preliminary injunction. It also covers the NAD alternative and when it is the better forum.
Naturalization Toolkit: Evidence Packets, Interview Preparation, and Appeals
Working templates for a naturalization application, from the trip log through the appeal. It includes the physical presence and continuous residence worksheets, the rebuttal packet cover letter for a long absence, the letter that gets a certified disposition out of a court clerk, the Selective Service explanation statement, the tax compliance memorandum, and language that makes a disability certification survive review. It also includes the interview update sheet, a request-for-evidence response format, the hearing request letter for a denial, a delay inquiry, and the after-the-oath worksheet for derived citizenship. Adapt each to your facts; none is a substitute for advice on a complicated file.