Clients in the "soft" IP cases pose special challenges because certain concepts, such as "fair use" and "substantial similarit...

Equitable estoppel is a well-established doctrine, but its fact-specific application often is hard to predict. This is exempli...

In Cephalon v. Watson Pharmaceuticals, the court held that experimentation is not "undue" even though it is "complicate...

Although the White House enthused that the AIA would offer new ways to avoid patent litigation, the law of unintended conseque...

Just because something is novel and potentially patentable does not mean that you should expend your technical staff's time an...

True or false: If you are not selling your product in China, but merely sourcing or manufacturing there, you cannot be held li...

If the decision in Exela Pharma v. Kappos is reversed, then the district court will proceed to scrutinize the statutory...

Just when I thought that I had heard everything imaginable in my 28 years of practicing family law, the State Bar is now consi...

It is unclear how SB 115 would affect a situation where a teenager decides to seek out his or her natural parents. By Peter J....

With all of the recent discussion about fundamentally altering the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, it is easy t...

What I see in the quest to license nonlawyers is my State Bar trying to save our standards of living rather providing access t...

The high court's opinion in Gunn v. Minton appears to put an end to the fairly brief period of federal court "arising u...

Internal Revenue Code Section 409A governs these, and severely limits the ability of issuer to peg vesting to liquidity events...

The lesson from a recent case is clear: when you enter the sometimes complex post-trial world, know the controlling rules cold.

Gov. Brown's initial response has been to criticize the court decisions and to vow to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Bu...

New York's Amazon sales tax - requiring tax collected at time of purchase by online sellers with affiliate programs - has been...

SB 115 does nothing more than give the courts an opportunity to look carefully at the facts of each case and, based on those f...

On March 18, the arm of Treasury responsible for combating money laundering, FinCEN, released interpretative guidance regardin...

Many divorcing couples now prefer to do their talking directly or through counsel under the auspices of a mediator rather than...

A second look at the Senate Bill 115 reveals that the amendment, however unintentionally, would expose women to unwanted pater...

The U.S. high court acknowledged that its decision "will make it difficult, perhaps impossible, for publishers (and other copy...

The only thing worse than a difficult client is a difficult client with a gun. Whether or not you believe a threat, it is best...

Tips on how to have a successful mediation. ...

Erwin Chemerinsky discusses what should we look for at the gay marriage oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in which advoc...

UC Hastings law professor Rory Little on why liberals and and conservatives alike should embrace "standing" in the Prop. 8 sam...

Since U.S. business law is infinitely more developed than Chinese business law, being unprepared for the differences may have ...

The first Monday in April of 1996 was the last time my column appeared on April Fools' Day. Would it not be interesting to see...

It has been said that a hero is someone who "understands the degree of responsibility that comes with freedom." On Jan. 31, 20...

It seems little, if any, attention has been paid to the broader social implications of the outcome of the gay marriage cases. ...

The U.S. and California Supreme Courts are in the midst of deciding whether law enforcement may constitutionally collect DNA s...