Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com

If you are serious about starting a company and you spend five hours reading business law articles trying to figure out whether you should be a C-corp, an S-corp, a limited liability company, or a partnership, you may not be ready to start a company.  You have not grasped a fundamental law […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com

Jammie Thomas, the RIAA’s most high-profile target, has decided to appeal the jury verdict of $220,000 for possessing 24 songs on her hard drive in a filesharing folder.  (See my posting of Oct. 6.) 
She is appealing based upon the following legal theory:  the U.S. Copyright Act does not make possession of songs in a filesharing folder illegal, […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com

Software users and IT managers, are you losing sleep yet?
Don’t think that the huge statutory damages award against Jammie Thomas for downloading copyrighted music is only applicable to downloaders of music.  The legal framework used to smack her for having copies of 24 songs that she couldn’t explain does not apply just […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com 
Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, the primordial soup of technology, are also suffering consequences of its innovation – espionage.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, last month two Bay Area men were charged with conspiracy to steal the trade secrets of their employer, NetLogics Microsystems, and from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com 
William Shakespeare hid a message about U.S. patent laws in his play “Romeo and Juliet:”
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”
OK, perhaps he wasn’t thinking 500 years into the future, but the theme of his pronouncement was recently adopted by the U.S. Court of […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com
By now, you have heard that on Thursday, October 4, 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America won its first jury trial against a music downloader. The jury found Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, liable for having 24 songs on her hard drive that she could not explain. The jury […]