Articles/News
Spotify Settles $1.6B IP Suit Brought By Tom Petty’s Publisher
Law360 (December 20, 2018, 5:05 PM EST) — Spotify Inc. and the music publisher representing Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and other popular songwriters announced Thursday an end to a $1.6 billion copyright infringement dispute that accused Spotify of cheating artists out of millions of dollars in royalties. In a joint statement, Spotify and Wixen Music […]
Read »New Court of Appeals Decision Calls Non-Solicitation Provisions Into Doubt
The Court of Appeals found that the anti-raiding provision, which prohibited former employees from “directly or indirectly” soliciting or inducing any AMN employee to leave AMN for a one year period was void. The Court of Appeals also rejected arguments that information about the names, contact information and compensation packages of the recruited employees were […]
Read »Impacts of the New Revenue Recognition Rule (ASC 606)
Current Rule: ASC 952-605 New Rule: ASC 606 Franchisors recognize initial franchise fees when (or shortly after) the franchisor has performed its material pre-opening and opening obligations to a new franchisee (typically, when the franchisee commences operations). Depending on its operations and nature of the initial services a franchisor provides to its franchisees, the franchisor […]
Read »Donahue Fitzgerald Ranked in Top Tier of 2019 “Best Law Firms”
Firms included in the 2019 “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. To be eligible, a firm must have a lawyer listed in The Best Lawyers in America©, which recognizes the top 4 percent of practicing attorneys in the U.S. receiving a Tier 1 ranking […]
Read »Employment Agreements: New Restrictions on Non-Disparagement, Release of FEHA Claims, and Sex Harassment Confidentiality Provisions
It prohibits employers, in exchange for a raise, bonus, or as a condition of employment, from requiring employees to sign a release of claims under FEHA, or a non-disparagement agreement that inhibits the ability of an employee to disclose illegal acts in the workplace, including but not limited to sexual harassment. To be added section […]
Read »Associate Samantha Tran Joins Donahue Fitzgerald
Sam joins Donahue Fitzgerald’s Intellectual Property and Franchise practices. Prior to joining Donahue Fitzgerald, she worked at California Lawyers for the Arts as a Senior Law Fellow. She worked with creative artists, independent inventors, national law firms and corporate in-house legal teams on a myriad of pro bono art related matters. Since 2012, she has provided […]
Read »Senior Counsel Kate Friend Joins Donahue Fitzgerald
Kate joins Donahue Fitzgerald’s Employment and Litigation practices. As an experienced litigator, she assists clients in all phases of the litigation cycle from pre-litigation advice, up to and including serving as a second chair at trial. Prior to Donahue Fitzgerald, she practiced extensively in high-stakes, complex litigation, much of it in the toxic tort arena. […]
Read »Senior Counsel Yen P. Chau Joins Donahue Fitzgerald
Yen joins Donahue Fitzgerald’s Employment practice. A seasoned employment law litigator, Yen handles claims involving FEHA/ Title VII violations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and wrongful termination. She also represents her clients in cases involving trade secret misappropriation and wage and hour violations. She litigates in state and federal courts, as well as […]
Read »The Bounds of the Work for Hire Doctrine
Both the House and Senate Reports have the same four paragraph summary of the intent of Congress in enacting the “new” work for hire provisions in the 1976 Act.[1] In pertinent part, those reports state that the work for hire provision: adopts one of the basic principles of the present law: that in the case […]
Read »The Continuing Impact of PhoneDog v. Kravitz on the Ownership of Business-Related Social Media Accounts
It’s been almost seven years since PhoneDog v. Kravitz, a pioneering case that helped establish that business social media accounts could constitute trade secrets. In PhoneDog, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss the trade secret misappropriation claim. During these past seven years, the use of social media has only […]
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