On Monday, in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, No. 13-1010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ambiguous provisions in union contracts should not be automatically interpreted in favor of a company’s retired workers. The case concerned a union contract from the 1990s that provided free health care benefits to the retirees of ...
Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) is a trial proceeding established by the America Invents Act that started in September 2012. Conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (“Board”), IPR allows an interested party to challenge claims in a patent for obviousness or lack of novelty, based on prior art patents or ...
By Carl Eppler
It may not seem intuitive to connect intellectual property rights with a human tragedy, but indeed, the two intersect more often than we realize. This is likely not the proper forum to opine on the propriety of such an intersection, or the motives of those who mine its connections, but it is a topic ripe for discussion because it is so ...
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulations concerning the companionship services exemption to the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). See Home Care Association of America v. Weil, No. 14-cv-967 (D.D.C. 2014 ...
On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, the Sixth Circuit issued a published opinion in Ruffin v. MotorCity Casino, affirming the district court’s decision that security guards at MotorCity Casino were not entitled to overtime payments under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 207(a). In doing so, the Sixth Circuit held that ...
By Edwin S. Hopson
On January 5, 2015, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and several other business groups filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. against the National Labor Relations Board attacking the NLRB’s recent final rule which significantly changes the NLRB’s representation procedures to speed up the holding of ...
The NLRB's general counsel announced on December 19, 2014 that he will proceed with thirteen (13) cases involving seventy-eight (78) charges against McDonald's USA, LLC and its franchisees. The alleged violations took place against McDonald's workers in several cities throughout the country, including: Detroit, St ...