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, [...]
Trademark infringement and counterfeit products are a serious problem on the Amazon marketplace. In order to help combat these problems, Amazon updated its Amazon Brand Registry this year. The new Amazon Brand Registry allows trademark owners to more easily search for infringements on the site with text and image search and provides a streamlined method for reporting infringements. To qualify [...]
Communications between an attorney and his or her client are generally protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege. A communication covered by the attorney-client privilege can never ethically be revealed to anyone by the attorney and can never be subpoenaed by a court unless a specific exception applies. However, the privilege is lost if the communication is made in [...]
Fan fiction is fiction created by fans of another work, about characters or settings from that work. For example, a fan of the Harry Potter series might write a short story based on the Harry Potter character but with a whole new plot. Fan films are, as you might imagine, the same concept applied to film. Often, the creators of [...]
You may have heard that in the US there's no need to register your copyrights, because they're automatically protected. This is true, but misleading. While your work is automatically copyrighted once it's fixed in a tangible form, you can't enforce this copyright, because you can't bring a lawsuit for copyright infringement until you apply for or register the work with [...]
Businesses with employees in states other than those in which the business is headquartered often include choice-of-law provisions in their employment agreements, providing that the employment agreements are covered by the law of the state in which the business is headquartered. Such agreements also typically include venue provisions requiring that any lawsuits be filed in the state in which the [...]
Businesses are understandably upset when they discover that someone is posting negative online reviews or other disparaging comments about their products, services or operations on social media. Some companies have tried to protect themselves against negative reviews by adding clauses to their terms of service and other contracts that prohibit customers from making disparaging comments. Other companies take a different [...]
One of the most valuable assets a business has may be its trade secrets, and most businesses have them. Trade secrets include, among other things, customer lists, supplier lists, secret formulas, processes and the like. In order for an item to be considered a trade secret, it must be both kept confidential and provide the business with a commercial advantage. [...]