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.
Copyright Overview
Copyright is the body of law that protects original works of authorship—books, songs, code, photographs, films, and more—from the instant they are fixed in a tangible medium. This overview is the hub for everything copyright at mclaw.io: it explains what copyright covers and what it pointedly does not (the idea-expression line of Baker v. Selden and the originality floor of Feist), the six exclusive rights, who counts as an author, how long protection lasts, and how rights are transferred and clawed back. It walks through fair use as reshaped by Google v. Oracle and Warhol v. Goldsmith, the registration system and the Supreme Court's Fourth Estate rule, infringement and remedies, the DMCA, and the international picture under the Berne Convention. Worked hypotheticals make the doctrine concrete, and generous cross-links point you to deeper articles on registration, the DMCA, fair use, and more. It is a map of the whole territory, written so a judge, a lawyer, and a curious creator can all follow it.
Removal and Remand: Getting a Case to Federal Court and Keeping It There
Removal is a procedural right with unforgiving deadlines, and the party that gets it wrong loses a forum choice worth more than most substantive rulings in the case. This guide covers both sides. It starts with the jurisdictional bases for removal and the requirements each imposes, then the mechanics: the thirty-day clock and when it starts, the rule of unanimity among defendants, the forum defendant rule and the snap removal practice that has grown around it, and what the notice of removal must contain. It then covers remand, including the distinction between jurisdictional defects that can be raised at any time and procedural defects waived after thirty days, the one-year limitation on diversity removals and its bad faith exception, and fee awards. Later sections address fraudulent joinder, CAFA removals and their exceptions, complete preemption, and the strategic considerations on both sides.
Proving or Defeating Infringement Under the Doctrine of Equivalents: A Practical Guide
This guide takes both the patent owner and the accused infringer through a doctrine of equivalents dispute from the first read of the file history to appeal. It sets out what each side should do at each stage: pre-suit analysis, pleadings, infringement contentions, discovery, expert reports, pretrial motions on estoppel and the other legal limits, trial, and post-trial motions. Sample language is included for contentions, expert testimony, motions, and verdict forms. Worked hypotheticals show how the same doctrine plays out for a mechanical valve, a software fraud system, and a numeric coating range. A section on common mistakes and a section on prosecution lessons close the guide for those who can still fix the file before it matters.
Answer and Affirmative Defenses Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist turns the federal rules for answering a complaint into concrete, ordered tasks for the defendant, its lawyer, and the plaintiff's lawyer who has to read the answer. It starts on the day of service with the deadline, waiver, removal, preservation, insurance, and arbitration decisions, then covers the choice between answering and moving under Rule 12. It walks through the three responses Rule 8(b) allows, the Rule 9 matters that require particularity, and the selection and pleading of affirmative defenses, with a separate list of defenses that patent, copyright, and trademark defendants must plead. It then covers counterclaims, crossclaims, and third-party claims, the filing formalities, and the deadlines the answer starts. A plaintiff-side audit, a judgment-on-the-pleadings readiness list, and a default rescue list follow, and the checklist closes with common mistakes, an FAQ, and practical takeaways.
Rule 11 Sanctions and Safe Harbor Checklist: A Practical Checklist
Rule 11 practice is procedural before it is substantive, and most motions fail on the safe harbor rather than on the merits. The rule requires a separate motion, served on the offending party and not filed, with twenty-one days to withdraw or correct—and a motion filed without that sequence is denied almost automatically. This checklist covers the pre-filing inquiry that prevents exposure, the exact safe harbor procedure for a party seeking sanctions, the response for a party receiving a motion, and the separate regimes that govern discovery conduct, attorney conduct that multiplies proceedings, and bad-faith conduct reachable only through the court's inherent power. It closes with citation verification, now the fastest-growing category of sanctions.
Cross-Examining an Adverse Witness at Deposition: A Practical Guide
This guide walks a litigator through cross-examining an adverse witness at a deposition in federal civil litigation, from deciding what the deposition is for to using the transcript at summary judgment and trial. It begins with the threshold choices: discovery versus lock-in, whether the witness will appear at trial, and how to spend the seven-hour limit. The steps cover building a theory-driven outline in chapters, mastering and controlling the documents, opening the record, running funnels that move from open questions to locked admissions, impeachment with prior statements, handling evasive witnesses and obstructive counsel, and making a clean record. A separate step explains how Rule 30(b)(6) depositions differ, and the final steps cover closing the deposition, errata review, and use of the transcript under Rule 32 and the Evidence Rules. Each step addresses the defending side as well. A timeline and cost table, a worked example in a commercial equipment dispute, common mistakes, an FAQ, and takeaways close the guide.
Facing Criminal Charges: A Practical Guide for Defendants and Their Families
This guide is written for the person charged and the people helping them. It explains what to do and say in the first hour and the first day, how to prepare the release package that determines whether someone waits for trial at home or in jail, how to choose and work with counsel, what to expect at each court appearance, how to evaluate a plea offer including the collateral consequences that outlast the sentence, and how sentencing mitigation actually works. It also covers the mistakes that convert manageable cases into serious ones: talking to police, talking on recorded jail phones, violating release conditions, missing court, and contacting witnesses.
Appellate Practice Toolkit
Appeals are decided by two things that have nothing to do with persuasive writing: whether the error was preserved below, and whether the standard of review permits the court to do anything about it. A brilliant brief attacking a discretionary ruling, on an issue raised for the first time on appeal, loses. This toolkit therefore starts in the trial court, where preservation happens, and works forward: the objections and motions that keep issues alive, the appealability and deadline analysis that is jurisdictional, the standards of review that determine which issues are worth raising, assembling the record and the appendix, structuring and writing the brief to the court's rules, oral argument, and the post-decision options. It closes with what an appellate lawyer brought in before trial actually contributes.
Food and Beverage Regulation: FDA Labeling, the FSMA, and State Cottage Food Laws
Food and beverage businesses are regulated by more agencies than almost any other consumer industry, and the boundaries between them are historical rather than logical. This article maps the framework: what makes a food adulterated or misbranded under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, how the label is actually constructed panel by panel, what the Food Safety Modernization Act requires of manufacturers and importers, when a claim converts a food into an unapproved drug, and how the USDA, TTB, state agriculture departments, and cottage food statutes divide up what the FDA does not cover. It also addresses the two exposures that end companies rather than merely costing them money: a recall handled badly, and the strict criminal liability that the Park doctrine imposes on responsible corporate officers. The recurring theme is that nearly every failure in this field is cheap to prevent before launch and expensive to remediate afterward.
Attorney Fee Petition and Bill of Costs Checklist: A Practical Checklist
A two-sided checklist covering everything that determines a fee award. The first half runs the applicant's sequence: preserving entitlement at intake, timekeeping standards that survive review, deadline capture at judgment, the components of a complete petition, rate and hours evidence, voluntary billing judgment, apportionment, and the bill of costs with the section 1920 list spelled out. The second half runs the opposition, including the three targets that actually work and the arguments that do not. Sanctions-based fee claims and fee settlement structures are covered at the end.
Domestic Violence Response Toolkit: Petitions, Safety Plans, and Enforcement
A working kit of domestic violence instruments. Section A holds petitioner documents: an incident log form, an evidence inventory, a petition narrative template with strong and weak versions compared, an exhibit index, and complete relief request language including the specific findings that trigger the federal firearms prohibition. Section B holds a safety plan worksheet, a go bag list, and a digital safety audit. Section C holds enforcement documents: a violation report form, a contempt motion outline, a renewal motion, and an interstate enforcement checklist. Section D holds respondent documents. Section E holds collateral protection requests for housing, employment, and immigration. Section F collects the primary authorities.
Trademark FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions About Trademarks
A plain-English, consumer-friendly question-and-answer guide to United States trademark law for founders, small businesses, creators, and the merely curious. It explains what a trademark is and is not, whether you need to register, the difference between the TM and circle-R symbols, how long registration takes and what it costs, what a likelihood-of-confusion refusal means, and how to keep a registration alive for as long as you use it. It distinguishes trademarks from copyrights and patents, covers intent-to-use applications, common-law rights, dilution and the fair-use defenses, and international protection through the Madrid Protocol, and demystifies the dreaded Office Action and the Sections 8, 9, and 15 maintenance filings. Throughout, it cites the Lanham Act and leading cases and points to deeper mclaw.io guides so you can go as far down the rabbit hole as your situation requires. This article is general information, not legal advice.