ABC Company buys XYZ Company and hires XYZ’s CEO to continue running “NewCo” (the former XYZ). The newly hired NewCo CEO can only be fired “for cause.” If NewCo fired the former XYZ CEO without cause, ABC would have had to pay the CEO a termination fee of $1.4 million. The relevant agreement defined “for cause” […]

Update (March 28, 2016): Very often cases end in ambiguous “mixed decisions” but apparently not Alotech v. North Star Imaging (“NSI”). Congratulations to Nilan Johnson Lewis (“NJL”) lawyers Scott Rusert and Ben Johnson for a decisive summary judgment knock-out in which NJL fought on behalf of defendant/counterclaim plaintiff NSI.  The facts of the case, as set out by Sr. […]

  In everyday life, emotion and reason are not separate, and both play a role in making decisions.  But we as lawyers like to think that reason and logic control in legal decision-making, especially in appellate work.  As lawyers, we train ourselves to look at things methodically and analytically.  Still, emotion plays a strong part […]

March 25, 2016 (update):  So spoke the Minnesota Supreme Court this week: “A domain name is intangible personal property subject to garnishment.” May 8, 2015 (Original post by Minnesota IP-focused lawyer, Paul Godfread): The Minnesota Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an appeal dealing with whether domain names and websites are “property” under a Minnesota garnishment statute, […]

Duane and Joe were in business together for a long time. Duane decided to cash out, essentially selling 50% of the business to Joe in return for 50% of the profits. Presumably, Joe would continue to work for the successor business and would get salary and benefits, the normal benefits of employment, on top of […]

Update (March 12, 2016): I told you so (the linked order denies JBT’s objection to Mag. Judge Thorson’s fee order, discussed below). Update (February 24, 2016): Is JBT a glutton for punishment? Unhappy with U.S. Mag. Judge Becky R. Thorson’s decision on JBT’s application for award of its fees and costs for responding to a Unitherm […]

U.S. Mag. Judge Steven E. Rau (D. Minn.) sanctioned a party to civil litigation for discovery violations: deletion of text messages, failure to produce emails, and other lapses (to put it charitably). This week, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz largely overruled the objections to Judge Rau’s sanctions. In response to the defendants’ finger-pointing […]

Check out the linked decision throwing out a defamation claim brought in Minnesota due to lack of personal jurisdiction. Back in 2012, I wrote: If….you bring a defamation lawsuit [as opposed to other kinds of civil cases] and you lose, or even if you quietly settle and call it a “win,” you may have taken whatever reputational harm […]

In the early 1990’s, the U.S. Congress noted that there was misuse of state drivers’ license records. People were accessing these databases and using the information for improper purposes like stalking people or harassing abortion providers or their patients. Very few people would condone such misuse of drivers’ license records nor criticize the law, the Driver’s Privacy […]

Most of us use Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., and pay nothing for these “software platforms” (or whatever we’re supposed to call them) and it has become a cliché to point out, “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” To put it another way, these businesses have to make money, of course. That’s […]