Bryce Pilz
One of the more complicated issues in patent law is determining the correct inventors to name on a patent application.  This issue can be counterintuitive to those familiar with the more liberal standards governing naming authors to a scholarly publication.  Determining inventorship, on the other hand, is rigidly dictated by patent law and severe […]

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

Congratulations to the UM Solar Car Team, which won the 2008 North American Solar Challenge.  Truly exciting!  Crossing the finish line in Alberta, Canada ten hours ahead of the next team.  Truly impressive!
Until a few years ago, I thought that the Solar Challenge was fundamentally an engineering challenge.  Then, in 2004, […]

Bryce Pilz

A federal court ruling last week requires Google to turn over to Viacom’s lawyers information about every user that accessed YouTube content since 2005.  The order relates to a billion dollar copyright infringement suit brought by Viacom against Google.  It again raises significant issues about user privacy on the Internet.  It also raises for […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com
Many companies, start-ups and mature, and many nonprofit organizations, have advisory boards.  They differ from your board of directors in several ways, including the fact that they are never management, and they typically do not own stock.   You will want to consider the following qualities in an advisory board member:

education
experience
expertise
judgment
style of interaction
honesty
ethics
critical thinking
strategic thinking
technological knowhow
commitment to […]

Bryce Pilz
No class of patents has received as much criticism as “business method patents” – a term that came to the forefront of public attention in 1998 when the Federal Circuit ruled (in the “State Street Bank” case) that there was no such thing as a business method exception to patentability.  After this decision, applicants […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com
Bryce’s blog (June 18) on open source addresses an issue that has a fascinating history.  I attended a meeting twenty years ago when Richard Stallman, the father of open source, addressed a group of computer law attorneys who stared at him as though he was delusional.  Give away source code?  You mean […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com
Robert Burck is “The Naked Cowboy.”   He is a street entertainer in New York City’sTimes Square.  His costume is comprised only of a white cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and underpants, and he carries a guitar strategically placed to give the illusion of nudity.

http://www.nakedcowboy.com/n_images/pics5.htm
Last year, Mars, Inc. launched a campaign to promote M&M’s candies, […]

Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
skornfield@bodmanllp.com
There should be a course on entrepreneurship and corruption.  I don’t mean that the entrepreneurs are corrupt, I mean that they can get exposed to unethical conduct ranging from unintentional conflicts of interest to out-and-out extortion attempts.
In the past 24 hours I have heard stories about entrepreneurs thinking they were engaging in […]