Law Blog 
The Death Knell of A Noble Profession – Time for the Judiciary to Act
I remember it clearly, first night of Chanukah 2007, the major cuts to Very High Cost Cases were announced, and I arrived home in a funk to the welcoming news that my wife was pregnant with our first child. At that moment I knew that being the breadwinner as a criminal defense barrister (the wig [...]
Berne-ing Up Facebook
If you count yourself amongst the one billion-plus monthly active users of social media juggernaut, Facebook, chances are you have seen your newsfeed inundated with a certain “declaration” as of late. For those not privy, this trend consists of users of the online community copying-and-pasting a short passage into their Facebook statuses in an attempt [...]
Dodd-Frank’s Whistleblower Provisions
On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law. The Act, which marks the biggest expansion of government power over banking and markets since the Great Depression, sets its aims at remedying the perceived regulatory holes that permitted the financial crisis of the early twenty-first [...]
NCAA Scaping the Wrong Goat
Having grown up in a far off land I have always been slightly bemused by the furor and hype that surrounds US college sports. Maybe that’s because when I played rugby at university in the UK the only people that came to watch a match were the odd hopeful girl, two old men and a [...]
Cost. Quality. Time. Pick 2!
Any owner or developer will tell you that they want their project to be completed quickly, cheaply and to the highest quality. While this may sound good in theory, in the real world it is nothing more than fantasy. Most people are familiar with the game “rock-paper-scissors” and the strategic conundrum it places players in [...]
Hitting Facebook In Its Private Parts
It is not difficult to feel old, from a legal perspective, as one can remember testing the bounds of fingerprinting, skin cell shedding, DNA profiles (and databases, of course) in court. One of the more recent battles has been the use and accuracy of cell site evidence which also has the added benefit of being [...]
You May Be Young… Not For Long
While on a Sunday cruising down I-87, keeping abreast of developments in modern pop music, I was comparing by the track “We are Young” by Fun featuring Janelle Monáe to that of “What Makes You Beautiful” by the Cowellian outfit One Direction. Both, in their own way, fabulous pop songs, the latter being a decent, [...]
Louis Vuitton v. U Penn
Nothing is juicier than the squabbles of the elite. At least that would explain the recent national obsession with Downton Abbey. In keeping with that maxim, a squabble between luxury fashion designer Louis Vuitton (LV) and the University of Pennsylvania caught our eye this week. It started when the Penn Intellectual Property Group—a student club—began [...]
Branding a Name
When you think of New York City icons, who pops to mind? Donald Trump. Fran Lebowitz. Jerry Seinfeld. Woody Allen. A whole list of creative, business and media stars are associated with the city. New York being the legal capital of the world, you can bet that all of these celebrities are heavily invested in [...]
The Constitutionality of a Lie
This blog generally covers issues of intellectual property—one of the strengths of Garson, Segal, Steinmetz, Fladgate. But this week, we take a slight detour as the Supreme Court hears arguments in a really interesting question at the intersection of First Amendment and information law: Can Congress criminalize a lie? In United States vs. Alvarez, the [...]
Hot News to Meltwater
A battle is brewing in the media world. The protagonist is an established news organization, and the antagonist is an ambitious young Internet company. Oh wait, you’ve heard this one before? As even casual observers of the media industry know, this is not exactly a novel type of conflict. Ever since the rise of the [...]
Are First Sales Final?
If you’re in the business of software creation and distribution, a current California case is worth paying attention to. In Adobe Systems Inc. v. Hoops Enterprise LLC, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held on February 1, 2012 that Adobe’s distribution of certain software to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) was a [...]
The Blockbuster Case
This Supreme Court term is filled with blockbuster cases. What is a “blockbuster” case, you might ask? It’s a case of such significance, where the conflicting interests are so clearly articulated and the outcome so uncertain, that the general public actually begins to pay attention. Sure, every case the High Court touches really matters. But [...]
Some More on SOPA
Last week, as the Internet world was still reeling from the SOPA and PIPA controversies, the Department of Justice (DOJ) was busy enforcing existing copyright infringement laws. On Thursday, January 19, the government shutdown Megaupload, the massive file-sharing website. The site was one of the most popular on the web, receiving some 50 million unique [...]
Waiter! There’s A Fly In My SOPA
Most people believe that intellectual property is an arcane subject, relevant only to stodgy lawyers and judges. Apart from the occasional public controversies around Napster in 2001 and the scandal over the Mike Tyson tattoo in the Hangover II movie, IP is a field that mostly stays out of the public spotlight. That changed on [...]
Watching Football (Soccer) in Europe Is Greek to Me
In the UK, the Football Association Premier League Ltd (FAPL) markets TV broadcasting rights for the EPL and grants exclusive live broadcasting rights for territory, under an open competitive tender procedure. As a result of global reception each broadcaster is mandated to encrypt its signal so viewers can only watch the broadcast of their territorial [...]
Satellite Radio: A “Sirius” Threat to Artists’ Body and Soul?
Music Artists are facing a new threat to their royalty income, as satellite broadcaster Sirius/XM is seeking to bypass the standard system of paying royalties. If such bypass was granted, artists and producers would suffer substantial losses, as the value of performance royalties would be lowered, potentially creating unnecessary conflict between artists and their labels. [...]
Small businesses: How to raise money without going public?
Small businesses often face financial difficulties, due to a lack of capital. Developing a new project can indeed be costly, and banks can be reluctant to provide funding to small business owners. A good alternative to raise capital is to sell shares or “securities” of the company to external investors. However, offering securities to the [...]
Were you worth it? L’Oréal v eBay
Europe decided with quintessential clarity… We are still confused. A European judgment has been given which is going to cause cyber ripples throughout the matrix with the ECJ ruling against eBay for permitting and promoting sales of L’Oréal product without L’Oréal’s consent. Two years ago in [2009] EWHC 1094 (Ch) Arnold J. sitting in the [...]
New Trends In M&A Transactions: To Disclose or Not To Disclose?
Any corporate finance deal always carries a set of required disclosures. Target companies want to know as much as possible about the plans and financial capabilities of prospective acquirers and buyers want to make sure there are no undisclosed skeletons in the target company’s closet. This broad disclosure is also essential, in particular, for the [...]
THE UK BRIBERY ACT – Prevention is Better than the Cure
Businesses should be afraid, in fact they should be very afraid. On the 1st July 2011 the new Bribery Act came into force. It takes no prisoners. No facilitation payments are tolerated. Any and all corrupt business conduct is criminalized. And the Bribery Act is international. It is, like Apple Corporation’s “Cloud”, criminal legislation, which [...]
New FCPA Enforcement Trends: Towards An Intensification Of Prosecutions
Since 2008, the number of SEC and DOJ prosecutions of FCPA violations has increased significantly. More and more cases have been brought; penalties and settlement amounts have also skyrocketed, to the point that nine digit figure are becoming standard. While most of the attention was usually focused on companies, enforcement authorities do not hesitate to [...]
To Litigate Or Arbitrate?
The choice of dispute resolution forum should be of high importance to all parties because of the potentially vast differences in procedure, and even outcome, offered by the various dispute resolution bodies. In most cases the choice comes down to litigation or arbitration. What is the difference? Litigation involves using the relevant State and Federal [...]
The Bribery Act 2010, The English Are Coming
There are very few moments in the law when you are truly flabbergasted, last week I was struck sideways by one of them when attending the conference on Expanding Worldwide Corruption Standards, which featured many of the leading lights who were familiar from my time litigating white collar crime in the UK. When drafters of [...]
To EB or not to EB, that is the Question
Many of the clients and potential clients that we meet, looking to bring their pre-existing businesses to the US or to establish new ones, are bamboozled about the range of visas that are available to them. GS2, while not marketing itself as an immigration law firm, handles all of the immigration applications for its clients [...]
If you get smacked by the Interwebs, where does it hurt?
A two-year excursion to resolve that question has finally returned home to the District Court where it all began. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that, in certain circumstances, the “situs of injury” for the purpose of personal jurisdiction is where the plaintiff resides. In other words, when a fellow in New York [...]
You Aren’t Your IP Address
A simple point that may have been obvious to everyone apart from lawyers has taken years and millions of dollars to sort out … that a person and an IP Address are not one and the same. Why has something so basic at its very core taken so long to be decided by the courts, [...]
Press Release 3/22/11
New York based production company Dendron Motion Pictures is proud to announce major developments on its new feature film LIVES. The incomparable talent, Christian Slater, has come on board the project and is currently in talks with the production team about playing the lead protagonist Charlie. Christian can currently be seen on FOX’s new series [...]
Publication in Cardozo Magazine
Cardozo Life, the Magazine of Cardozo School of Law, published a column about the establishment of GS2. Click here to view it.
Mention on the French Music Newsletter
GS2 was mentioned on the June Newsletter of the Bureau Export for French Music (Page 9). Click here to view it.
Listed on UK Trade & Investment Website
Garson, Ségal, Steinmetz, Fladgate LLP has been listed on the Trade and Investment website of the British Government as a firm able to offer incoming companies support and advice on markets within the North America. Click here to view it
