PREPARING FOR FIC (II)
Food supplements are classified by EU law as foodstuffs. As such, the legal provisions that apply to regular food generally apply to food supplements too. This News Alert looks at FIC rules which...
View ArticleOIG Report: Questionable Billing for Medicare Part B Clinical Laboratory...
Perhaps not coincidentally, immediately following the release of the Questionable Laboratory Payments Special Fraud Alert by the OIG, posted yesterday on the Med Law Blog, the OIG has followed up with...
View ArticlePoker runs are finally legal in Illinois
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed into law the Poker Run law, which ended a two-year crusade to make it easier to use poker runs to raise money for charities....By: Thompson Coburn LLP
View ArticleThe Very Idea! Federal Circuit Rules Widely Used Java Code Is Copyrightable
A central doctrine in copyright cases is that only expression is copyrightable, not the idea itself. An idea may be expressed in many ways. It might be said, for example, that William Blake, through...
View ArticleInternet of Things and Cybercrime – what risks?
The Internet of Things is expected to lead to 50 billion connected devices by 2020 collecting and exchanging personal data about their users, their lives, their preferences and tastes. This will lead...
View ArticleNew OIG Special Fraud Alert Aimed at Laboratory Payments to Referring Physicians
On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Special Fraud Alert entitled "Laboratory Payments to Referring Physicians."...By: Akerman...
View ArticleAdvertising News & Analysis - July 2014
In this issue: - Bet You Didn't Hear This About Dr. Oz's Visit to Congress - Don't be Blinded by the Risks of Celebrity Ad Campaigns - It Pays to Watch Your Back End - Think Twice About Claims in...
View Article"STOP THE ISLAMISATION OF AMERICA" Is Disparaging
In re Pamela Geller and Robert B. Spencer - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) refusal to register the mark “STOP THE ISLAMISATION OF...
View Article3 Questions to Ask About Free-File Hosting Services
The landscape of data storage and maintenance is shifting. Despite significant company investments in secure, onsite data storage systems, today’s data storage environment can create challenges for...
View ArticleEU Cloud Standardisation Guidelines
In November 2012, we wrote an Alert about the European Commission’s Communication on Cloud Computing intended, it said, to “... unleash the potential of cloud computing in Europe”. Sceptics were...
View ArticleGeneral Ideas Protectable as Trade Secrets in California
Altavion, Inc. v. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory Inc. - Clarifying case law that distinguished the protection available under patent law from that available under trade secret law, the California...
View ArticleOnline Privacy: Friend or Foe to the American Public?
A recent court ruling in Europe will present new challenges to online corporations such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Not only will this directly affect their operations in the E.U., but it will...
View ArticleIP Quarterly - Summer 2014
In This Issue: - Supreme Court Hears Six Patent Cases This Term - Is Implied License the New Fair Use? - Navigating the Murky Waters of the Domestic Industry Requirements in the International Trade...
View ArticleInferring Trade Secret "Use" Based on the Potential for Harm
Aspen Tech., Inc. v. M3 Tech., Inc. - Addressing the question of what constitutes “use” of a trade secret absent direct evidence, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the jury’s...
View ArticleSupreme Court: FDCA Compliance Does Not Bar Lanham Act Claims
POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co. - In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic...
View ArticleThe ethics of children's advertising - are "Trix" at work?
It seems that through the years, popular kids characters have had leading roles in television advertisements geared towards young Canadians, spotlighting quite often, unhealthy foods. Have you ever...
View ArticleHealth Alert (Australia) - July 14, 2014
In This Issue: Judgments; Legislation; and Reports. Excerpt from Judgments: Commonwealth - 4 July 2014 - Angelos v Minister for Health [2014] FCA 706 - This was an application made to the Federal Court...
View ArticleOIG updated work plan adds focus to information security, compensation, and...
The most notable items added by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to its work plan, updated as of July 7, 2014, are audits of the CFPB’s information security program, pay and compensation program,...
View ArticleNinth Circuit Court of Appeals TCPA Ruling: Thomas v. Taco Bell Corporation
In Thomas v. Taco Bell Corp., No. 12-56458 (9th Cir. June 6, 2014), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in favor of Defendant Taco Bell Corporation, holding that Taco Bell...
View ArticleDefeating “Libel Tourism” under Mississippi law and the SPEECH Act
In Trout Point Lodge, Ltd. v. Handshoe, 729 F.3d 481 (5th Cir. 2013), the Fifth Circuit became the first appellate court in the country to interpret the Securing the Protection of Our Enduring and...
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