Two forces shape unfair competition law in California – the Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) itself and 2004’s Proposition 64, which California voters passed to limit the right to sue on unfair competition grounds in certain circumstances. Additional details on unfair competition law are available from a Los Angeles business litigation lawyer. What constitutes unfair competition? The
As people who work at a tech company are well aware, the tech industry typically exists outside of the regular 9-5. When new ideas require developing or when a product is set to launch, employees can find themselves working at all hours of the day. They can also find themselves working away from the office,
In many ways, California tends to err on the side of workers. Non-compete agreements are generally invalid altogether in the state. When it comes to trade secrets cases, California courts have rejected the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, which claims that employees who go to work for a competitor inevitably disclose trade secrets to their new employer. Last week,
Some tech companies have not been shy about using legal tools to protect their intellectual property rights. Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Research in Motion are several of the biggest tech companies that have been known to take competitors and alleged infringers to court over intellectual property. In contrast, fewer video game companies have exhibited this same
Meta tagging presents an interesting case for intellectual property law. Meta tagging refers to tags, or words, that web site designers place into the source of a web page. If you right click on a website and select view source, you can see these tags. They are a way of describing what the web site
Much like businesses protecting their trademarks, celebrities similarly have to be aggressive protecting their publicity rights. While sometimes their actions may come across as a bit overbearing (Apple’s “appstore” lawsuits have received this criticism), companies and celebrities have to do this in order to protect their trademark and publicity rights. If they do not, a court
Trademark distinctiveness is the measure by which a court will determine whether you have a valid trademark. In a post last week, we mentioned the strong versus weak trademarks. Today, we discuss the scale that courts often use when determining where a trademark falls. At the top of the scale are strong trademarks like fanciful or
The Teachings of Don Juan is a 1968 anthropology book by Carlos Castaneda that continues to inspire many followers. Castaneda said that the book documents his time between 1960 and 1965 with a Yaqui sorcerer (the Yaqui are a Native American tribe from northern Mexico). Castaneda used a term “tensegrity” to refer to several meditative stretches
Towards the end of this past summer, our Los Angeles business litigation lawyers filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the maker of a rival sleep mask. The lawsuit stems from what is known as a utility patent. Utility patents are the most common types of patents that the US Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) grants. They cover
Copyright law usually excludes basic items like clothes, silverware or furniture from copyright protection because they are strictly utilitarian items. If the law protected these types of things, the fear is that it would limit people’s options to obtain basic items since there would be numerous copyrights covering forks and spoons, for example. The law refers
