USPTO Throws a Lifeline to the Life Sciences Industry May 9th, 2016Life Sciences/Pharma, Patents/IP, Recent Legal News By Mary An Merchant, JD, PhD, & Richard T. Timmer, PhD U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Alice Corp., Myriad, and Mayo invalidated claims in critical life sciences and computer technology areas in finding that many inventions are not eligible patent subject matter, meaning that a patent cannot be granted for certain types of technologies. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has applied these decisions to patent examination, and in doing so, many pending patent application claims have been rejected as not being patent-eligible subject matter. On May 4, 2016, the USPTO published guidance that updates the Read More
Washington State Applies Money Transmission Act to Payment Processors May 3rd, 2016Bitcoin, Recent Legal News By Austin Mills Money transmission licensing (and related compliance) can be an expensive and time-consuming process. To further complicate things, it is often difficult to determine where a particular state draws the line on whether or not a particular payments-related activity constitutes money transmission. The state of Washington’s Department of Financial Institutions (“DFI”) recently clarified one of these grey areas (“payment processing”) with an interpretive statement (the “Statement”) regarding the Washington Uniform Money Services Act (the “Act”). The statement concludes that “payment processing” is money transmission. According to the statement, payment processing includes activities where an entity “receives[s] Read More
Status of the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework April 26th, 2016Data Security-Privacy The eagerly awaited successor to the defunct EU US Safe Harbor Framework for transfer of personal data of EU citizens into the United States was approved by regulators from the United States and the European Union (EU) on February 2, 2016. The new framework, however, does not become effective until approved by the EU member states. The new framework – known as the “EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework” — was designed by U.S. and EU regulators to provide a framework for transfer of personal data from the EU to the United States that supported transatlantic commerce while giving significantly stronger Read More
TAG Corporate Development Presents: Positioning Your Tech Company For M&A April 21st, 2016Entrepreneurial Info, Events & Associations, M & A Events A panel discussion, moderated by John Yates, featuring three experienced technology executives: David Northington (CEO of CloudSherpas, sold to Accenture) Steve McGraw (CEO of ReachHealth; formerly CEO of Compliance360, sold to SAI Global) Dede Wakefield (CFO GT Nexus, sold to Infor) Topics will revolve around preparing your company for exit, identifying strategic buyers, planning technology roadmap to maximize value at exit, identifying and creating competition for your company, and much more. Contact for event questions: Michael Bosarge michael@tagonline.org 404-817-3333 Read More
CONTRACT DRAFTING PRACTICE POINTER: CONFIDENTIALITY OBLIGATIONS April 20th, 2016Recent Legal News, Resources & Tools Last week, Microsoft sued the U.S. government. Microsoft is seeking the right to tell its customers when the government requires Microsoft to disclose customer information, such as emails. Since at least the enactment of the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, the government has been able to issue a search warrant and prohibit the information provider from telling the party whose information is being sought about the search warrant. Contracts in technology frequently have nondisclosure clauses in them. After the basics of the clause are covered — identifying the confidential information and establishing obligations for nondisclosure and limited use — there Read More
Presentation: Emerging, Disruptive and Sharing Technologies: What Is The Sharing Economy and Where Is It Going? April 15th, 2016Events & Associations, Resources & Tools John Yates, chair of the Technology group at Morris, Manning & Martin, recently presented at twonational conferences. Practising Law Institute (PLI), a leading provider of continuing legal education, hosted events titled TechLaw Institute 2016: The Digital Evolution, in San Francisco and New York. Click HERE to view the presentation. Read More
MMM Now Represents SmartC2 Drone Software Company April 11th, 2016Drones/UAV Atlanta (April 2016) – Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP, is now representing SmartC2, which develops and licenses software to manage commercial drone operations. SmartC2 produces VirtualAirBoss™ software. The product’s Comply and Fly™ software infrastructure is designed to manage aerial fleets with multiple cameras and sensors, while automatically complying with FAA regulations and corporate policies. Preconfigured templates let users of various skill levels easily use the software for scheduling, maintenance, payload management, FAA compliance, cost allocation and more. SmartC2 President and CEO Stuart Rudolph says MMM is the logical choice for a cutting-edge company. “From the start, I have Read More
TAG Corporate Development Presents: Positioning Your Tech Company For M&A April 4th, 2016Events & Associations, M & A A panel discussion, moderated by John Yates, featuring three experienced technology executives: David Northington (CEO of CloudSherpas, sold to Accenture) Steve McGraw (CEO of ReachHealth; formerly CEO of Compliance360, sold to SAI Global) Dede Wakefield (CFO GT Nexus, sold to Infor) Topics will revolve around preparing your company for exit, identifying strategic buyers, planning technology roadmap to maximize value at exit, identifying and creating competition for your company, and much more. More information/registration HERE. Contact for event questions:Read More
Florida Amends Trade Secret Statute to Include Financial Information March 11th, 2016Florida News, Patents/IP, Recent Legal News By: Carl Erhardt, Larry Kunin & Alex Woollcott Recent changes in two Florida statutes exempt financial information that is a trade secret from mandatory disclosure under Florida’s otherwise broad Sunshine Laws. Florida has amended statute § 812.081, Florida’s criminal trade secret act, to expressly include “financial information” among the examples of trade secrets. Citing to such new definition, Florida also amended several other statutes resulting in the exemption of financial information from mandatory disclosure under the Florida Sunshine Laws. The broadening of the public disclosure exclusion was the result of lobbying from private companies involved in “P3s” – public, private partnerships. In Read More