Insight and Information on Louisiana Law, Litigation, and Legal Culture
As discussed in the recent New York Times article, federal and state officials, many facing record budget deficits, are starting to aggressively pursue companies that try to pass off regular employees as independent contractors.
President Obama’s 2010 budget assumes that the federal crackdown will yield at least $7 billion over 10 years. More than…
On January 27, 2010, the SEC voted 3-2 to issue an interpretive guidance “on existing SEC disclosure requirements as they apply to business or legal developments relating to the issue of climate change.” Chair Mary Shapiro emphasized that the interpretive release is not intended to create new legal requirements, but is to clarify the requirements already applicable for reporting material risks on public disclosure statements. She was careful to avoid arguments on the science, stating: “We are not opining on whether the world’s climate is changing, at what pace it might be changing, or due to what causes. Nothing that the Commission does today should be construed as weighing in on those topics.”
Continue Reading Securities and Exchange Commission Issues Interpretive Guidance for Reporting Risks Due to Climate Change
On January 22, 2010, President Obama signed a law which allows taxpayers to claim a charitable deduction in the 2009 tax year for cash donations made through March 1, 2010 for the relief of victims in areas affected by the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The IRS notice on this new law indicates that…
Effective July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour for all non-exempt employees. The 2009 increase in the federal minimum wage was the third and final increase to the federal minimum wage pursuant to Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. Under the 2007 Act, the minimum wage established by the Fair Labor Standards Act increased in three steps from $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007, to $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 per hour effective July 24.
Continue Reading Final Increase to Federal Minimum Wage in Effect Pursuant to the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007
Recent court decisions show that patent infringement opinions are still important for any person or entity that becomes aware of a United States patent that is similar to their products, methods or processes.
Under federal patent law, anyone who either makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention in the United States or actively induces another to do so is liable for patent infringement. In addition to regular damages, courts may award up to three times the damages for willful infringement. Under the 1983 Underwater Devices Inc. v. Morrison-Knudsen Co. opinion, if a party had actual notice of another person’s patent rights, then that party had an affirmative duty to exercise due care to determine whether that party was infringing those patent rights. This affirmative duty included the duty to obtain patent infringement opinions prior to engaging in any potentially infringing activities.Continue Reading Patent Infringement Opinions Continue To Be Important
On July 7, 2009, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed Act 442 (SB 9) into law, preserving Louisiana’s long-standing law excluding purchases, rentals and repairs of component parts of immovable property from state and local sales/use tax. Under a law enacted in 2008, purchases of several items previously considered non-taxable component parts of buildings and other immovables (e.g., installed commercial refrigerators and other commercial and industrial fixtures) could have been subjected to state and local sales/use tax. Many taxpayer representatives questioned the constitutionality of the 2008 Act and legislators agreed that it was not their intention to increase sales/use taxes during the 2008 Legislative Session. Act 442 became effective when it was signed by the governor and applies retroactively to all transactions occurring after the July 1, 2008 effective date of the 2008 Act.
Continue Reading Definition of Component Parts Clarified for Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Purposes
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time), on Saturday, June 13, 2009, members of the social networking website, Facebook, will be able to claim usernames to associate with their Facebook accounts and Facebook pages. This will allow Facebook pages to be accessed by using a url such as, http://www.facebook.com/unitedairlines, or something similar.
Facebook is…
June marks the beginning of Hurricane Season and should serve as a reminder to review your personal and business property insurance coverage. The effect of recent Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast generally and Louisiana specifically have been significant with respect to both damages and the insurance covering those damages.
Continue Reading Insurance and Hurricanes
The judge overseeing Chrysler LLC’s bankruptcy entered an order on June 1, 2009 approving Chrysler’s motion seeking permission to sell substantially all of its assets to a new company. The procedure by which this sale was accomplished, and by which a similar sale in the GM bankruptcy will likely be accomplished, is known in the bankruptcy and finance worlds as a “363 Sale,” after the relevant provision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
(For those well-versed in 363 Sales, see Stephen Sather’s thoughtful post about practical and ethical concerns with the Chrysler sale here. )Continue Reading 363 Sales of Assets in Bankruptcy – Chrysler and Beyond
As we continue our shift to a more knowledge-based economy, frequently the greatest assets of a company reside in the creativity of its employees. This is especially true for service companies in which the services can be repeated for multiple customers (example: software). Whether or not a company owns something that has been created by one of its employees will depend to a great extent on the category of intellectual property into which the creation is classified. Generally, the creations or discoveries of employees will fall into the intellectual property categories of copyright, patent, or trade secret.
Continue Reading Great Ideas by Employees – Who Owns Them?
