Mar 13
In Plantronics, Inc.v. ALIPH, Inc, ALIPH was successful in its bid to exclude the report of Plaintiff’s infringement expert in this case involving the fit of ear buds. The Court found that the expert did very little analysis in order to conclude infringement: “Professor Katz never conducted any quantitative analysis (i.e., size, measurements, dimensions, or …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/03/court-strikes-expert-for-parroting/
Feb 21
A recent case in the Canadian courts took the unusual step of extending liability to the employees working for the entity who underreported licensing royalties. Plaintiff XY and Defendant JingJing entered into a licensing agreement for use of technology. The Court found that JingJing breached the terms of the contract and falsified its records in …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/02/liability-extended-to-employees-for-underreported-license-fees/
Feb 19
The IRS is taking serious issue with Michael Jackson’s estate over the value of various assets upon which taxes are due. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times (“LAT”), there is over a billion dollar discrepancy between the value reported by his estate after his 2009 death and the amount concluded by …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/02/how-much-is-michael-worth/
Feb 04
The IRS has determined that for sales-based royalties for tax years ending on or after January 13, 2014, taxpayers can either allocate sales-based royalties entirely to property sold and include those costs in cost of goods sold or allocate sales-based rolaties betwen cost of goods sold and ending inventory using a facts and cirucmstances cost …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/02/irs-rules-on-sales-based-royalties-treatment/
Jan 29
Technology is changing at a rapid pace and this change touches on some serious legal issues. A recent article by Marc Miller and Melissa Reinckens of DLA Piper discusses a case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The cases involves, Aereo, a New York-based startup technology company financed by Barry Diller, utilizes …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/01/us-supreme-court-to-hear-significant-copyright-case/
Jan 21
King is the game developer responsible for the hugely popular online game “Candy Crush Saga”. Recently it was awarded trademark protection on the word “candy”. According to a recent article in the LA Times, competitors are complaining that such a common word was granted protection as some have begun to get cease and desist notices. …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/01/protecting-their-candy/
Jan 20
When it comes to damage calculations, the term “speculative” is effectively a death sentence. In order to provide evidentiary value, a damage calculation must be to a reasonable degree of certainty. In Carter v. Clements Walker PLLC, et al. (“CW”), the Court found that despite an expert opinion that Carter suffered $33 million in damages, …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/01/speculative-damages-lead-to-summary-judgment/
Jan 07
In the course of affirming the district court’s decision in Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., 2013 WL 6017396, Judge Posner went a step further. While upholding the injunction, he ended his assessment with some comments “for future reference” when it comes to consumer surveys offered to demonstrate consumer confusion …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/01/addressing-judicial-concerns-about-consumer-surveys/
Nov 15
The Federal Circuit ruled in Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. that the widely used (but fatally flawed) 25 percent rule can no longer be part of reasonable royalty damages calculations. This article provides the details of this reasonable royalty damages decision. Since that time, plaintiffs have advanced the Nash Bargaining Solution, a theoretical mathematical …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/11/nash-bargaining-solution-in-patent-damages-is-not-always-a-5050-split/
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/11/google-prevails-in-copyright-lawsuit-against-google-books/
Nov 14
Google Prevails in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Google Books
November 14, 2013
After an eight year class action copyright infringement battle in and out of court, Google won the right to continue its Google Books project to digitize books. According to Judge Denny Chin’s November 14, 2013 Ruling, to date, Google digitized, indexed, and made available for search more than 20 million books. Even though many of …
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