Last month Rasta Imposta, a costume manufacturer, sued Kmart for copyright infringement and other claims based on Kmart's sale of banana costumes. For several years, Kmart has bought Halloween costumes, including banana costumes, from Rasta Imposta, but this year, Kmart purchased its costumes from another supplier. In its complaint, Rasta Imposta claims: The Kmart Totally Ghoul Costume has the same [...]
Did you know that your failure to retain all relevant materials after litigation is "reasonably anticipated" could result in you losing the lawsuit or being fined or sanctioned by the court? A few months back, a Colorado federal judge blocked a meatpacking company from arguing that giving prayer breaks to Muslim workers would significantly slow production, because the company lost [...]
A couple of months ago, we notified you of Washington's new Driving Under the Influence of Electronics (DUIE) Act, which took effect on July 23rd. Oregon has now enacted a similar law, which will become effective October 1. Texting and holding your cell phone to your ear are already illegal, but the new law specifically forbids all handheld uses of [...]
A recent decision by a federal court in the state of Washington serves as a reminder that employees who fail drug tests cannot automatically be fired for their drug use. The employer was ordered to pay a former employee $1.8 million for failing to accommodate her disability. The plaintiff, Cynthia Stewart ("Stewart"), had worked as a customer service representative for [...]
The news the last couple of weeks has included stories about businesses firing employees for reasons unrelated to the quality of their work. First, Google fired James Damore for his controversial memo about gender and employment practices, which stated, among other things, that one "possible non-bias cause" of the gender gap in tech is the fact that women are more [...]
Washington's new Driving Under the Influence of Electronics (DUIE) Act takes effect on July 23rd. Texting and holding your cell phone to your ear are already illegal, but the new law specifically forbids all handheld uses of personal electronic devices, including composing and reading any kind of message or data, and taking or viewing photographs - even while at a [...]
Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) cannot reject trademark applications merely because the trademark being applied for is disparaging. Section 2(a) of the federal Trademark Act provides that registration can be denied to any mark that "Consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage persons, [...]
This month, Oregon became the latest state to outlaw pay discrimination based on protected classes and compensation history. The new law applies to all employers in Oregon (except for the federal government), regardless of size. The Equal Pay Act prohibits Oregon employers from paying employees who perform "work of comparable character" different pay rates because of their race, color, [...]
Although the US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, recently issued a memo stating that the federal government will no longer take the position that Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination protects transgender employees, this doesn't mean that employers are now free to discriminate based on sexual identity. A number of federal courts, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), [...]
One of the most valuable assets a business has may be its trade secrets, but, until last year, this form of intellectual property was protected only by a patchwork of state laws. Effective May 11, 2016, the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) created a private right of action for misappropriation of trade secrets. The DTSA doesn't replace state laws, [...]