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.

CorporateBankruptcy

Chapter 11 Reorganization: How a Business Restructures and What Creditors Should Expect

Chapter 11 is not a going-out-of-business sale; it is a court-supervised negotiation in which a company keeps operating while it restructures obligations it cannot pay. This article explains the process from both sides of the table. It walks the filing and the automatic stay, the first-day motions that determine whether the business survives its first month, cash collateral and debtor-in-possession financing, and the treatment of executory contracts and leases under Section 365 that decides whether a counterparty is paid in full or holds a rejection claim worth pennies. It then covers claims administration and the priority waterfall, Section 363 asset sales and credit bidding, and the plan process itself, including disclosure, voting, cramdown, and the absolute priority rule. Sections on avoidance actions, subchapter V for small businesses, and what a creditor should actually do in the first two weeks follow, along with a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 14, 202426 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Responding to a Trademark Cease-and-Desist Letter Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A calm, strategic checklist for what to do when a trademark cease-and-desist letter lands in your inbox: the first-72-hours housekeeping (conflicts check, no off-the-cuff reply, check PACER for an actual suit, holding letter, information request, insurer notice, litigation hold), decoding the letter, sizing up the sender and yourself using the free public record, the likelihood-of-confusion analysis, the defenses toolbox, the realistic menu of responses from rebrand to preemptive declaratory judgment, and the landmines. WHY notes, trap warnings, a common-mistakes list, and primary authority are included. Educational, not legal advice. The through-line is that the first written response sets the tone and the record for everything that follows, so it is worth the two days it takes to get right.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 13, 20249 min read

LitigationTrial and Post-Trial

Jury Trial Toolkit: Voir Dire, Openings, Exhibits, and Instructions

A jury trial is a sequence of decisions made under time pressure, each of which either preserves an issue or waives it. This toolkit organizes the sequence: the pretrial order and in limine motions that determine what the jury will hear, the selection process that determines who hears it, the evidentiary foundations that get exhibits admitted, the objections and offers of proof that preserve error, the Rule 50 motions that must be made at specific moments to survive, the instructions and verdict form that frame deliberation, and the post-trial motions with their own short and jurisdictional deadlines. It is written for the lawyer preparing a case that will actually be tried. It ends with the verdict form, the instruction conference, and the post-trial motions where preserved issues either mature into relief or quietly expire.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 10, 202414 min read

Labor and EmploymentHR Policies

Hiring and Onboarding Compliance Toolkit

Hiring is the densest compliance sequence in employment law, and nearly every step is governed by a rule that differs by state and by city. This toolkit runs the sequence in order — the posting and its pay range, the application and the questions that may not be asked, the interview and the automated tools that screen it, the conditional offer that triggers the background check, the FCRA and fair chance process, verification and payroll setup, and the documents signed on day one that determine whether inventions are assigned and disputes are arbitrated. It closes with the multistate architecture that lets a single process work everywhere, and the records that make each step defensible. It closes with the onboarding paperwork and the restrictive covenant questions that should be settled before the first day rather than after it.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 10, 202414 min read

LitigationBusiness Torts

Tortious Interference and Unfair Competition Claims Between Businesses

When a competitor hires away a sales team, a supplier stops shipping after a rival calls, or a customer walks away mid-contract, the claim businesses reach for is tortious interference. It is also the claim they most often lose, because competition is privileged and the line between aggressive selling and improper interference is drawn by a doctrine that varies by state. This article explains both interference torts element by element, the competition privilege and the independently wrongful conduct requirement that most states impose for prospective relations, and the justification defenses. It then covers the adjacent claims that usually travel with it: common law unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment, along with the preemption and economic loss doctrines that eliminate several of them. Later sections address proof and damages, injunctive relief, defenses including Noerr-Pennington and the litigation privilege, and how to plead and defend these cases.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 7, 202426 min read

Intellectual Property and TechnologyInternet

NFT Marketplaces and Secondary Sale Royalties: Smart Contracts, Copyright, and Contractual Expectations

NFTs promised artists something the traditional art market never delivered: an automatic royalty on every resale, enforced forever by code. The promise collapsed when marketplaces made royalties optional in 2023, and this article explains why—and what creators can actually do now. It separates the token from the underlying copyright (17 U.S.C. § 202), traces why U.S. law supplies no resale-royalty right (the first-sale doctrine of § 109, the failed California Resale Royalties Act, VARA's narrow reach), and works through the contract theories that founder on privity. It analyzes the two landmark NFT decisions—Hermès International v. Rothschild (the MetaBirkins verdict) and Yuga Labs v. Ripps—to show how trademark, not royalty law, has done the real doctrinal work, and it weighs the Howey securities risk that aggressive royalty marketing invites. It closes with concrete, drafting-level guidance for creators and a detailed FAQ. The throughline: code can execute, but code is not law.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 7, 202446 min read

Real EstateResidential Finance

Foreclosure and Mortgage Servicing: Default, Loss Mitigation, and the Sale

Foreclosure is a collection remedy dressed as a real estate transaction, and almost everything that decides its outcome happens before the sale date. This article explains the two foreclosure systems and why the difference between them matters more than any other fact, the servicing rules that give homeowners real procedural rights and servicers real liability, the loss mitigation options in the order they should be evaluated, and the defenses that actually work as opposed to the ones that circulate on the internet. It covers standing and chain of title, dual tracking, the bankruptcy alternatives, deficiency judgments and their limits, and what happens to a homeowner after the sale. It is written for homeowners in default, for lenders and servicers, and for counsel on either side.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 4, 202428 min read

CommercialContract

UCC Sales and Supply Chain Toolkit

A supply relationship is governed by whichever document won a contest nobody was aware of, by default rules most parties have never read, and by a handful of provisions that decide who bears a loss that has not yet occurred. This toolkit works through the arc of a goods transaction: how the contract forms and whose terms survive, what warranties attach and how each is disclaimed, how remedies are limited and when the limitation fails, when risk of loss passes, what a buyer may reject and when it loses the right, what remedies each side has on breach, and how disruption is excused. It closes with the master agreement structure that avoids the form fight entirely and with the records that decide any dispute. It closes with insolvency and the reclamation, adequate assurance, and administrative priority rights that matter when a counterparty stops paying.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 3, 202414 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Rule 45 Subpoena Response Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A subpoena to a company that is not a party to the lawsuit is a deadline problem before it is a legal problem, and the most valuable action available — a timely written objection — takes an afternoon and shifts the entire burden of going forward to the party that issued it. This checklist runs the response in the order the clock requires: validate service and the compliance geography on day one, issue a preservation hold, identify whose privilege and confidentiality are implicated, serve a specific objection with a quantified burden showing and a narrowed proposal before day fourteen, then negotiate scope, cost, and format. It closes with production mechanics, testimony, and the motion practice that follows if negotiation fails. It closes with the privilege log, the cost-shifting request, and the protective order terms worth negotiating before anything is produced.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 3, 20248 min read

Labor and EmploymentEmployee Benefits

Employee Benefits Compliance Toolkit: ERISA, COBRA, and the Affordable Care Act

A group benefits program is a set of ERISA plans, each requiring a written document, a summary plan description, a fiduciary process, and a filing calendar — and most small and mid-sized employers have insurance certificates instead of plan documents, an insurance broker instead of a fiduciary process, and no idea which obligations run to the plan rather than to the carrier. This toolkit builds the program from the plan documents outward: the fiduciary structure and the fee analysis the Consolidated Appropriations Act now requires, the health plan overlay of COBRA, the ACA mandate and reporting, HIPAA, parity, and the newer transparency obligations, the retirement plan operational requirements, and the correction programs that exist because these failures are common. It sorts the plan documents, the fiduciary process, the notice calendar, and the reporting obligations into the order they actually come due. It also identifies where the carrier's obligations end and the employer's begin, which is the single most common source of unrecognized liability.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 2, 202414 min read

TechnologyPrivacy and Data Security

Cybersecurity Program Toolkit

Nearly every legal regime that touches data now requires the same handful of controls, described in slightly different words, and the organizations that fail examinations and lose claims are rarely the ones that lacked a framework. They are the ones whose risk assessment covered part of the environment, whose backups had never been restored, whose vendor agreements had a thirty-day breach clock, and whose incident response plan had never been exercised. This toolkit builds a program that satisfies the overlapping requirements at once: the data and asset inventory that scopes everything, the risk assessment the regulations actually require, the technical and administrative controls in priority order, vendor oversight, incident response and the notification clocks, insurance, and the governance and testing that make it durable. It closes with the notification clocks that run simultaneously under different regimes, the insurance that responds, and the testing cadence that keeps the program honest.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 2, 202413 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Registration Toolkit: A Roadmap from Brand Idea to Federal Registration and Maintenance

This toolkit is a high-level roadmap and curated library guide for taking a brand from an idea all the way to a federal trademark registration and through the maintenance that keeps it alive. It walks every stage in order—mark selection, clearance, choosing a filing basis, preparing and filing the application, examination and office actions, publication and opposition, registration, post-registration maintenance, and enforcement—and at each stage points to mclaw.io's articles and step-by-step checklists plus the controlling statutes, rules, and USPTO resources. It reflects the post-January 2025 USPTO fee and filing changes, including the single base application fee with surcharges, the cloud-based Trademark Search, and Trademark Center filing. Use it to orient yourself in the field and to find the right detailed resource for the task in front of you. Fees and deadlines change, so verify current amounts at the official USPTO site before relying on any number here.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 30, 202415 min read