Trolls, Wizards, and the Pitfalls of Patenting

Patents are back in the news. In the past few weeks alone, Microsoft bought AOL’s patent portfolio for $1 billion, then resold much of it to Facebook for $550 million. Twitter pledged to use its patents only defensively, and to give its employee-inventors a say in the company’s future patent litigation strategy. Controversial trials, appeals, rulings, and awards continue—prompting the Wall Street Journal to publish Andy Kessler’s call for curtailing the rights of non-practicing entities (NPEs), also known affectionately as “trolls.” 

IRS issues new instructions on providing partners with Schedules K-1 in exclusively electronic form

New instructions from the IRS—effective February 13, 2012—detail the procedure that partnerships must undertake when furnishing partners with Schedules K-1 in an electronic format. 

ISDA March 2012 Supplement and Protocol

ISDA has announced the launch of the 2012 US Municipal Reference Entity CDS Protocol.  The purpose of the Protocol is to make similar changes to US Municipal CDS transactions (“Muni CDS”) as were made to corporate and sovereign CDS by the 2009 ISDA Credit Derivatives Determinations Committees and Auction Settlement CDS Protocol. The Protocol is open for adherence and closes at 5pm New York time on Monday April 2, 2012.

SEC Amends Rules on Advisory Performance Fee Charges

On February 15, 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to Rule 205-3 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 consisting of: (i) changes to the dollar amount thresholds which determine whether an individual or company is a “qualified client;” (ii) changes to the net worth test in the definition of “qualified client;” (iii) inclusion of two transition, or “grandfather,” provisions which permit investment advisers and clients to continue operating under advisory contracts entered into before adoption of these amendments.

“Employees” v. “Independent Contractors”:  A Benefits Perspective

The Internal Revenue Code provides significant tax benefits to employers that sponsor tax-favored retirement and health and welfare plans. For example, in calculating an employer's income tax, the current cost of providing benefit coverage may be deducted from taxable income, although plan participants are not currently taxed on the benefits at that time. However, these tax benefits are available only if the employer sponsoring the plan does not discriminate against its rank and file employees. Determining who are in the group of covered employees for discrimination testing is critical to the analysis.

SEC’s new standard for “accredited investors” took effect February 27, 2012

The U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission’s new standard to determine whether a party qualifies as an “accredited investor” went into effect Monday, February 27, 2012

ISDA to hold meeting to discuss Greek Sovereign Debt CS:

ISDA is going to hold a meeting on Thursday (11:00 a.m. GMT) to discuss whether Greece's debt swap should be considered a "credit event" under the current Credit Derivatives Definitions.

Sugar Companies Try to Cane Corn Association

This past September I wrote about a lawsuit pitting sugar against corn.  Initially, two sugar manufacturers sued the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) and six high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) manufacturers for false advertising under the Lanham Act, as well as for being in violation of California Business and Professions Code Section 17200 as a result of their corn sugar “re-branding” campaign.  At the time I first wrote about it, the court had just heard motions to dismiss the First Amended Complaint.  Soon thereafter, eight more plaintiffs joined.  I wrote about the case again in mid-November, by which time the court had dismissed the HFCS manufacturers from the case and also had stricken the California state law claim, while allowing the federal false advertising case to continue against CRA.  On November 21, 2011 ten plaintiffs filed their second amended complaint against six defendants:

The Aftermarket Economy

So Facebook filed its IPO papers, and the numbers are eye-popping.  The company appears to be worth about $100 billion, or a bit more than the GDP of Tunisia.  Others shade it a bit lower, but one thing is certain: it’s good to be Facebook.

Honda Held Accountable for False Advertising of Civic Hybrid

Sometimes small claims court is the way to go for dispute resolution.  While you might think that to be the case only when the stakes are low, a California woman proved today that small claims awards can far exceed the redress offered in some class action settlements.