Did you read the title insurance policy jacket from your most recent real estate transaction? If so, it may have looked different. Title insurance policies are a staple of real estate transactions that are used by both owners and lenders to protect against covered property losses, up to a certain coverage amount, stemming from liens, encumbrances, third-party claims of ownership, and other defects pertaining to the insured property ...
American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule 4.2, the “no-contact rule,” provides that: “In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized to do so by law or a court order ...
A recent decision by a federal court of appeals found a New Orleans’ city code limiting short-term rentals of residential properties (such as AirBnB, Vrbo, Vacasa, etc.) to only landlords who lived inside the city was unconstitutional.In Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans, 46 F.4th 317 (5th Cir. Aug. 22, 2022), the Court held the city ordinance was an undue burden on interstate commerce ...
In re: Apple Inc., Appeal No. 2022-162 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 8, 2022) In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit granted Apple’s petition for mandamus, directing the District Court for the Western District of Texas to vacate a scheduling order that would require Apple and counter-party Aire Technology Ltd ...
On Wednesday, November 9, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held a three-hour oral argument in the Brackeen v. Haaland case. Brackeen involves constitutional challenges to the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) that could have far-reaching consequences on many areas of federal Native peoples’ law, from Tribal sovereignty to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. ICWA ...
A recent decision by a federal court of appeals found a New Orleans’ city code limiting short-term rentals of residential properties (such as AirBnB, Vrbo, Vacasa, etc.) to only landlords who lived inside the city was unconstitutional.In Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans, 46 F.4th 317 (5th Cir. Aug. 22, 2022), the Court held the city ordinance was an undue burden on interstate commerce ...
In March 2022, the Oregon legislature passed House Bill (HB) 4002, which imposes new overtime pay requirements for agricultural workers beginning on January 1, 2023. The bill also establishes a refundable tax credit for eligible employers to help offset all or part of the additional wage expenses attributed to overtime pay ...
Summary: On October 28, 2022, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement by prohibiting the award of any DoD contract to entities that require their employees to sign internal confidentiality agreements or statements that would restrict their employees from lawfully reporting waste, fraud, or abuse related to the performance of a DoD contract to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative who is authorized
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Motorola Mobility LLC, Appeal Nos 2021-1555, -1795 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 4, 2022) Our Case of the Week is ostensibly a case about whether a patent owner has standing to sue when that patent holder has granted an exclusive license. But the case turns on the application of collateral estoppel, when Uniloc, the patent owner, dismissed an appeal against Apple in an unrelated suit concerning the same facts. The case sounds like a cautionary tale about dismissing cases on appeal ...
ABC Corp. v. Tomoloo Official, Appeal Nos. 2021-2277, -2355, -2150 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 28, 2022) ABC Corp. v. eBay, Inc., Appeal No. 2022-1071 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 28, 2022) The following summary covers two decisions issued the same day, dealing with preliminary injunctions issued from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in a single litigation. In one of those decisions, the Federal Circuit examined the notice requirement under FRCP 65(a) and held it was not met ...
The Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration have announced the various retirement plan benefit and employment tax limits for 2023. Certain limitations will not change for 2023 because they are not subject to annual adjustments. However, limits tied a cost of living index have increased. The limits for 2023, as compared to those in effect for 2022, are set forth below ...
International Business Machines Corp. v. Zillow Group, Inc. et al., Appeal No. 2021-2350 (Fed. Cir. 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Rule 12(c) judgment on the pleadings that IBM’s U.S. Patent Nos. 9,158,789 (the ’789 patent) and 7,187,389 (the ’389 patent) are drawn to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 ...
On December 7, 2021, in Georgia v. Biden, Case No. 1:21-cv-163, a federal district court judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered contracts in any state or territory of the United States. This injunction was nationwide applied to all federal contractors ...
With the end of the year just around the corner, it’s a good time to reassess plans and action-items. When reviewing your year-end estate planning or business transition concerns, there are several things to contemplate and review, such as year-end gift giving and tax considerations. Below is a list of items we’ve identified that you might want to consider as you plan for the end of the year and future transitions ...
Weisner v. Google LLC, Appeal No. 2021-2228 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 13, 2022) In its only precedential patent case this last week, the Federal Circuit again revisited the thresholds for disposing of cases under Section 101, brought on a motion to dismiss. In a split decision, the Court affirmed the dismissal of two patents, but reversed the district court concerning two other patents, all of which shared the same specification ...
The Oregon legislature passing Senate Bill 1501 in March of this year set the stage for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s (ODF’s) rulemaking process to implement a comprehensive set of changes to Oregon’s Forest Practices Act (FPA). The rulemaking process is now nearing its conclusion. ODF held hearings and informational meetings on draft rules implementing changes to the FPA stemming from the Private Forest Accord Report throughout September ...
On Aug. 16, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. Although it garnered headlines mostly for its $80 billion commitment to the Internal Revenue Service, the IRA went a long way toward providing tax incentives to real estate and related industries. Selecting a few primary issues from the IRA, as with any large-scale legislation, can be a challenge ...
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a final rule amending its small-business size regulations to incorporate the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) revision for 2022 (NAICS 2022) into its table of small-business size standards ...
On October 7, 2022, the White House released its National Strategy for the Arctic Region, further developing the federal government’s approach to the northernmost region, which is under intergovernmental purview. The document is an update to a policy released in 2013, and is intended to express the federal government’s “affirmative U.S ...
The past two years have seen significant growth in the number of mergers and acquisitions nationwide with many business owners choosing to liquefy their assets and move on. At the same time, employers have had to cope with numerous challenges that have made the otherwise routine task of employee onboarding and I-9 preparation more difficult. Some employers (unlawfully) stopped preparing I-9s for new hires altogether ...
On October 5, 2022, during the Tribal Consultation session in Washington, D.C ...
Provisur Technologies, Inc. v. Weber, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2021-1942, -1975 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 27, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit reviewed an IPR decision and addressed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s consideration of certain evidence submitted to supplement a prior art disclosure. The Court also found that the Board violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by failing to sufficiently explain its rationale concerning its obviousness determinations ...
In April of 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14026, which increased the minimum wage for employees of federal government contractors to $15. The Executive Order provided that this minimum wage would be adjusted to account for inflation. On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the $15-an-hour minimum wage for federal contractors will increase to $16.20 because of inflation ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, questions about employee health-privacy-related symptoms, testing, and vaccination became prevalent in discussions about the workplace at all levels—from “the water cooler” to national news ...
On September 8, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the reserved right of the Metlakatlan Indian Community to fish in the off-reservation waters where Metlakatlans had traditionally fished, and held that Metlakatlans are not subject to an Alaska statute creating a limited-entry program for commercial fishing. Metlakatla Indian Community v ...
