How many times have you wished that you could undo something from your past, perhaps a string of incoherent statements made at a client dinner while slightly under the influence, or an expletive-filled email composed and sent...more
Bankruptcy trustees and chapter 11 debtors-in-possession ("DIPs") frequently seek to avoid fraudulent transfers and obligations under section 544(b) of the Bankruptcy Code and state fraudulent transfer or other applicable...more
In a surprising move, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) has granted a petition for rehearing en banc on the issue of whether the test for determining obviousness of design patents has been overruled by the...more
On June 15, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bankruptcy Code barred an Indian tribe’s attempts to collect on a defaulted debt from a Chapter 13 debtor....more
On June 15, 2023, the United States Supreme Court held that “the Bankruptcy Code unambiguously abrogates the sovereign immunity of all governments, including federally recognized Indian tribes.”1 In other words, Native...more
Section 106(a) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code expressly abrogates the sovereign immunity of "governmental units" for purposes of certain bankruptcy-related litigation. A split of authority concerning whether that abrogation...more
On May 11, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Financial Oversight Board v. CPI, No. 22-96, holding that the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) does not abrogate sovereign immunity of the...more
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has recently clarified the legal standard necessary to strip government officials of their entitlement to statutory immunity. The ruling clarifies the misunderstanding reflected in...more
When there is a right, there is a remedy—or so the maxim goes. But when a state infringes upon your copyright, such a remedy may be more difficult to obtain. Just a year ago, the Supreme Court held in Allen v. Cooper that the...more
On June 7, 2021, the United States Supreme Court denied Seneca County’s (New York) petition for certiorari, thus leaving in place the Second Circuit’s decision in Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Seneca County, New York,...more
December 1, 2020 marked the five-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abrogation of Form 18—the model complaint that provided the minimum requirements for stating a claim of direct infringement. Following the abrogation...more
December 1, 2020 will mark the five-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abrogation of Form 18—the model complaint that provided the minimum requirements for stating a claim of direct infringement. Following the...more
Despite having a valid claim, a photographer’s attempt to hold North Carolina liable for copyright infringement failed under the doctrine of state sovereign immunity. Contractors entering agreements with states to produce...more
In Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that the copyright clause in the U.S. Constitution did not authorize Congress to abrogate states’ Eleventh Amendment immunity from copyright infringement. In addition, Congress’s...more
On March 23, 2020, a unanimous, if slightly fractured, Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. Cooper, 140 S. Ct. 994 (2020), that Congress did not properly abrogate sovereign immunity when it enacted the Copyright Remedy...more
In a remarkable decision, Allen v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court held on March 23 that the state of North Carolina can lawfully plunder a videographer’s copyrighted videos and photographs of the recovery of Blackbeard’s...more
In an increasingly desperate business climate, thousands of businesses are expected to apply for emergency loans created by the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) – but unionized employers may want...more
The Supreme Court has stricken a federal statute that abrogated a State’s immunity from copyright infringement lawsuits. The Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA) provided that States “shall not be immune, under...more
State governments can be creditors of individuals, businesses and institutions that are debtors in bankruptcy in a variety of ways, most notably as tax and fine collectors but also as lenders. They can also be debtors of...more
A unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of the United States in Allen v. Cooper affirmed a previous ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and held that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement,...more
ALLEN V. COOPER - Before Kagan, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Breyer, and Ginsburg. Appeal from the Fourth Circuit. Summary: States cannot be sued for copyright infringement as the Copyright...more
Mid-sized businesses (defined as 500 to 10,000 employees) impacted by the Coronavirus may be able to obtain relief loans under the COVID-19 stimulus law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”),...more
On March 23, 2020, in Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that Allen, who spent over two decades, photographing the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge, better known as the flagship for the pirate Blackbeard, cannot sue the...more
Edward Teach, more popularly known as Blackbeard, roamed the seven seas and terrorized merchant vessels off the U.S. and Caribbean coasts during the colonial period. He ultimately met his demise when the colony of Virginia...more