Patent protection provides long-term Net strategy; 'State Street' allows start-ups to protect business methods and defend marketing niches

Article Abstract:

The article discusses State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., a 1998 ruling of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which made patents on methods of doing business possible and denounced the long-held business-method exception to patentability. Electronic commerce companies stand to benefit the most, as before State Street they had only trade secret laws to protect their business methods, and trade-secret protections were often not enough because of reverse engineering.

Electronic commerce, E-commerce, Intellectual property

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It's too soon to tell if PLI can reduce disputes; pollution liability insurance, meant to fill CGL gaps, has only recently come to prominence

Article Abstract:

Pollution liability insurance (PLI) law is relatively undeveloped but tends to indicate that disputes resemble those surrounding comprehensive general liability insurance of environmental liabilities. Case law indicates significant differences between PLI property damage and cleanup-cost coverage. Other important points include the onset of the contamination claimed for and other liability insurance owned.

Pollution liability insurance

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Liability; in-house risks

Article Abstract:

Corporate counsel sometimes face claims under federal and state acts, as well as those claiming fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation or tortious interference with a contract. An employer indemnification agreement will probably not adequately protect the counsel from claims by clients who received pro bono services or legal services from in-house counsel who moonlight.

Analysis, Corporate counsel, Indemnity against liability, Liability indemnity

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