Media & Entertainment Law

Search ?Flinch? in Google and You?ll Likely Get ?Microsoft? as Result #1

Posted on June 20, 2007
Apparently, Microsoft flinched at the prospect of a multibillion dollar Google legal team pushing the Netscape train through its front doors. Essentially, Vista repeated the Netscape play made by Microsoft with XP (Netscape complained that an integrated Internet explorer made it difficult if not impossible for users to install Netscape as their preferred web browser) by making it difficult for users to use Google?s desktop search software, which of course is non-native and third party...

Google Deja Vu at DOJ

Posted on June 12, 2007
The NY Times ran an interesting article on the apparently friendly stance the DOJ has taken towards Microsoft. The article compellingly outlines the shift in the DOJ's composition and tactics towards the now iconic antitrust ruling that nearly tore the software giant asunder...

Log on and Prosper

Posted on May 30, 2007
The chicken and the egg dilemma never looks as daunting as it does in the startup scenario. Where does the aspiring entrepreneur turn to for capital for a business that doesn't exist yet? How does he or she get past the look of sheer skepticism beaming from the face of the loan officer? The traditional routes for startup capital are exactly that, traditional...

A Harvard Education at DSL Prices

Posted on May 19, 2007
The players involved in emerging growth and venture capital often steer their ships by their gut and the light of the stars. The sure truth is that most don't have any monopoly on crystal balls and any discussion of "process" or methodology is thinly veiled marketing speak...

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Mob Pyschonnectivity

Posted on May 02, 2007
Mob PyschonnectivityIt?s my new catchphrase (not a genius work I admit, but work with me). It refers to the now common occurrence of repetitive information deluge that begins on the corners of the net and becomes a trillion crows cawing to blot out the sky...

Advising e-Commerce Business Startups: A Crib Sheet Part II

Posted on April 19, 2007
W&M Partner, Olivera Medenica, recently penned an article for the e-Commerce Law & Strategy Newsletter, a publication geared for attorneys to advise their clients. We thought it might be helpful for the readers of this blog. This is the second part...

Advising e-Commerce Business Startups: A Crib Sheet

Posted on April 09, 2007
W&M Partner, Olivera Medenica, recently penned an article for the e-Commerce Law & Strategy Newsletter, a publication geared for attorneys to advise their clients. We thought it might be helpful for the readers of this blog. It is split into two parts...

Where?s my Wiki Pedigree?

Posted on March 09, 2007
If information is the reflection of a society that produces it, shouldn?t we spend some time gazing at the original? Apparently Wikipedia thinks so?now. The twists and gasps keep coming from Wikipedia, the world?s most famous online encyclopedia, oracle, and cyber soap opera...

Right of Publicity in the US a Franken-Mess

Posted on February 23, 2007
The ?right of publicity? in this country is a Frankenstein pastiche of state rules with unique and perverse interpretations abounding. The fact that other major intellectual property rights possess a federal scheme (trade secret as a contractual right notwithstanding), while rights to one?s own persona is a state?s issue is perplexing with a side of vexing...

Warning: Get Yo' Self a New TV

Posted on January 27, 2007
As HDTV becomes a reality, the reality of being forgotten in time by DTV will become apparent to those couch potatoes who buy analog only TV?s. Always vigilant against consumer terror, US Representatives Joe Barton (R-Texas), Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), and Fred Upton (R-Michigan) have proposed a Surgeon General style sticker...

Freedom of Wiki--1st Amendment Skirmishes over Zyprexa Documents Leaks Online

Posted on January 15, 2007
On January 16, the Eastern District of New York will host the legal battle over the controversial prescription Drug Zyprexa and wiki users? First Amendment right of free speech. The battle revolves around the ?side effect? of an ongoing lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and how some documents, meant to be sealed by court order, found their way to various web servers and a wiki (www...

Kaiser Wahab to Speak on PPM's in Film on an Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF) Panel

Posted on December 19, 2006
Many apologies for the slow pace of entries. The end of the year has gripped all in the legal firmament of the city and I am struggling to free of myself of its many tendriled grasp. One bright spot, I will be giving a lecture on how Private Placement Memoranda work in the film industry...

Customs--Your Intellectual Property Angel at Our Nation's Border

Posted on November 24, 2006
Most businesses know the value of intellectual property, trademarks, service marks, trade names, patents, copyrights and trade secrets (?IP?). However few understand the interplay between those rights and the United States Customs Service and Border Protection Department?s ("Customs") role in enforcing those rights...

Representing the Fashion Client CLE

Posted on November 15, 2006
W&M Partner Olivera Medenica to be part of a CLE panel tonight on IP and business issues in fashion.Representing the Fashion ClientWednesday, November 15, 2006, 6:00 - 9:00PM Member Price: $125 Non-Member Price: $165 Intended Audience: Attorneys in all practice areas seeking to develop the skills necessary to represent their clients more effectively...

Compartmentalizing Risk with Entity Planning

Posted on October 17, 2006
Often clients are overly preoccupied about taxes they will save or incur as a result of a certain business structure, without giving thought as to how to allocate their operating liabilities. This is particularly true where a business operation consists of multiple locations and/or revenue streams...

Fashion Copyright Bill Analysis by WM Partner Published in National Law Journal

Posted on October 11, 2006
Olivera Medenica recently had an article on the impact of a pending Copyright bill on the commercial fashion world published in the National Law Journal. It is an excellent primer on the interplay (or lack thereof) of copyright and fashion in the United States...

Looking at DRM through a Non-CRAP Prism

Posted on September 20, 2006
The focus on digital rights management software not should be viewed only through the prism of greedy copyright owners playing digital dictator. True enough, there are numerous well founded gripes about the state of DRM and the patchwork of control mechanisms that frustrate and undermine the enjoyment of many a title (see ZDNET?s editor talk about DRM as ?CRAP...

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