TiVo hasn’t always been profitable, but today the company stands to make a small fortune after winning its patent suit against the Dish Network Corp over technology used in its remote controls. The decision would net TiVo about $300 million from Dish (about $100 million in damages and interest, and the rest in contempt sanctions).
From [...]
September seemed like a good month for Tiger Woods. Forbes magazine declared that Woods was “the first billion-dollar athlete.”1 The magazine calculated that with the $10 million bonus he received from the FedEx Cup,2 Woods reached the billionaire status that is usually reserved for the Waltons and hedge fund CEOs. What made Woods’ impressive earnings [...]
A transient Manhattanite usually has a certain amount of pretension that must be indulged. We’ve moved to the City because we identify, or at least aspire to identify, with a population at the vanguard of savviness and style, or at least conspicuous consumption. Unfortunately, for some of us, our Manhattan pilgrimage involved quitting our jobs [...]
On January 13, 2010, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in American Needle Inc. v. National Football League, et al.i The transcript of the oral arguments is available here.ii Though the NFL is a household name, not everyone is aware that the league is an unincorporated association of 32 distinct football teams that [...]
During the 2008 presidential campaign, you could barely go anywhere without seeing the Obama “Hope” image on a poster, t-shirt or bumper sticker. Since then, the iconic image has become the focus of an intense debate about fair use in copyright law. Critics of artist Shepard Fairey’s work call it mere theft, while supporters commend [...]
The ringing in of the New Year marked not only the end of a decade, but also the end of an era for New York landmark Tavern on the Green. January 1st marked the expiration of the operating license for the Leroy family, who had operated the restaurant since the 1970s, and had successfully maintained [...]
The Fairness Doctrine was originally implemented by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949 in order to ensure a balanced presentation of issues of public importance on broadcast news programs. According to author Kay Mills:
The FCC had laid out the doctrine in 1949 in its “Report on Editorializing by Broadcasting Licensees” to clarify confusion that existed [...]
The New York Metro Transit Authority (MTA), facing a budget gap of $400 million,1 has begun to go after copyright and trademark infringers who use or display any of the MTA’s protected symbols.2 Among these protected symbols are the train numbers and letters, maps of the NY subway system, photos of Grand Central Terminal and [...]
It is well-settled that the law has long afforded redress to individuals who have wrongfully suffered harm as a result of the injurious speech of another. By the common law, defamation has been recognized as a colorable action at law for those seeking remedy provided that their complaint is well-pleaded, timely, and establishes at least [...]
At the beginning of the recession, New York grand dames, fearful that their lavish spending habits might prove shameful in these difficult economic times, began scurrying out of Tiffany’s with baubles hidden in brown paper bags. One story holds that around Christmas last year, Kathy Fuld, wife of Lehman Brothers Dick Fuld, asked sales [...]