Articles

The Limited Availability to Employers of Additional Claims for Relief in Noncompetition Disputes

Written By Jeremy M. Wilson

The North Carolina Business Court has recently issued an opinion suggesting that, in most cases, an employer's claim for breach of a former employee's noncompetition agreement will be the employer's only possible remedy.&n…

Proposed Patent Fees Under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act: Be Prepared for Sticker Shock

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act ("AIA") was signed into law on September 16, 2011, amid much fanfare, or at least as much fanfare as patent legislation can muster.  The AIA rep…

I've Been Sued for a Preference (and don’t feel preferred at all)

Written By Paul A. Fanning

My business received a demand letter from a bankruptcy trustee for a bankrupt customer asking me to return payments I received for goods and services provided to the customer.  Do I have to return the payments? Bewar…

Taxpayers Have One More Chance To Avoid Trouble: IRS Announces New Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program

On January 9, 2012, the IRS announced a third Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program ("OVD") for taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets.  The IRS has collected approximately $4.4 billion from taxpayers who participa…

Distressed Real Estate Developments and Declarant Rights: Potential Traps for Foreclosing Lenders

Written By Samuel B. Franck

One of the most complex and challenging categories of OREO assets is distressed real estate developments.  An unsettling number of stalled residential and commercial condominiums, subdivisions, and planned communities…

Tracing the Comet's Tail: Metadata is now Discoverable Information in Litigation

Written By Allen N. Trask, III

Today it seems that all information eventually finds its way into an electronic form of one kind or another.  Thoughts are put into words via word processing programs, numbers are organized in spreadsheets, and slides…