Alert: Sunrise Registration for Trademark Holders
Ends April 9 for Dot-"us" ; Random Selection Begins
April 10, Registration, April 24, 2002. Dot-"us," a domain extension
created for US businesses, consumers, nonprofit organizations
and governments, is now in "sunrise" registration,
through April 9, 2002. Any owner of a trademark issued by or
pending before the U S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), is
entitled to register the trademark name as a dot-us domain. For
eligibility
requirements and a list
of the information needed for registration, see the information
posted at Neustar.com. Also, be sure to check the US
Nexus requirement for eligibility. If there is more than
one qualified registrant for any domain, a random selection process
begins on April 10, 2002. Normal registration of dot-us domain
names will proceed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning
April 24, 2002. For a list of accredited registrars and other
information, see Neustar.com.
Dot-"eu" - Coming
to a (European) Country Near You. Although the European Parliament
has approved the domain extension ".eu" (see our
March, 2002 issue), and the European Union (EU) Telecom Ministers
have voted to approve the selection of a nonprofit organization
to manage the domain (coverage at the Guardian,
and Wired.com),
before the domain is instituted, the EU must first enter into
a registry agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the Internet's worldwide
addressing system. ICANN
has already set aside dot-eu for possible use as the sovereign
domain of the European Union.
USSC I: Illegal Workers Not Entitled to Back
Pay For Wrongful Discharge.
Reversing a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Policy in place
since 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that illegal workers
are not entitled to back pay if wrongfully discharged. "Awarding
back pay to illegal aliens runs counter to policies underlying"
federal immigration laws, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
wrote in the Court's opinion. Hoffman
Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board,
USSC No. 00-1595,(March 26, 2002) See coverage at law.com.
USSC II: Employer Not Always Liable for Failure
to Post FMLA Notice. Contrary to a ruling of the 2d
Circuit Court of Appeals, as reported in our
February, 2002 issue, an employer's failure to post the requisite
Notice required by the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
is not always culpable, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ruling 5-4, the High Court ruled that part of a Labor Department
regulation that penalized employers for failing to post the required
Notice exceeded the mandates of the FMLA. However, the Court
stopped short of saying that companies never have to give workers
notice about leave. Ragsdale
vs. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., USSC No. 00-6029, (March
19, 2002). Coverage at law.com.
The Law & Email I: Service by Email Permissible If Recipient
Has No Physical Address. Citing infringement of its trademark,
a Las Vegas casino sued and served by email an off-shore company
with no physical address. "When faced with an international
e-business scofflaw playing hide-and-seek with the federal court,
e-mail may be the only means of effecting service of process,"
U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro of the Federal
District of Nevada held. The case, Rio Properties, Inc.,
v. Rio International Interlink, is not posted online. Coverage
at law.com.
The Law & Email II: Contract by Email Possible Where Parties
Include All Relevant Terms. A Massachusetts Superior Court
Judge has refused to dismiss a breach of contract action for
the sale of a multi-million dollar home, where the parties had
communicated by several emails. Plymouth Superior Court Judge
Ernest B. Murphy decided the e-mails, taken together, constituted
a legally binding purchase and sale agreement that outlined all
the necessary terms of the contract. Although the Seller may
not have realized that what he said in the emails was binding,
the Court concluded that he intended to make the sale. The case,
Shattuck v. Klotzbach, was not found online. Coverage at Boston.com
Real Estate.
Close Corporation's Set-Off
Claims Upheld For Shareholder's Breach of Fiduciary Duty. Citing the corporate maxim that
corporate directors must "act with absolute fidelity [to
the corporation] and must place their duties to the corporation
above every other financial or business obligation," the
1st Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a director of
family-owned corporation. Since the director of the debtor corporation
caused his own wholly-owned company to pay down a debt owed to
him, while ignoring a much larger debt owed to the family-owned
corporation, the director breached his duty of loyalty. Therefore,
his claims against the debtor corporation for prepetition indebtedness
were properly disallowed, and the debtor corporations' counterclaims
for set-off were properly allowed. Haseotes
v. Cumberland Farms, Inc., No. 01-1344 (1st Cir. March 27,
2002).
Profits Not Established Where
Contract Did Not Require Defendant Hospital to Make and Keep
Specific Records to Show Calculation of Profits According to
Contract. Construing a contract between plaintiff
HMO and defendant hospital, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that where the contract called for payments whenever defendant
made a certain profit from the HMO, and plaintiff
failed to establish that such profits actually occurred, summary
judgment for defendant was not error. The fact that the defendant
arguably failed to produce adequate records from which to show
the existence or non-existence of profits was irrelevant where
the contract did not place a specific duty on defendant to make
and keep such records. Quantum
Management Group, Ltd. v. The University of Chicago Hospitals,
No. 00-3765 (3/25/02). Appeal, N.D. Ill., E. Div. Aff’d.
Arbitrator's Fraud Conviction
Not Grounds to Set Aside Award. Even
though the neutral member of a 3-member arbitration panel who
authored and signed the award had plead guilty to income tax
fraud, and had been removed from the roster of arbitrators before
he signed the award, the award would not be set aside. United
Transportation Union v. Gateway Western Railway Co., No.
01-2150, (March 21, 2002). Appeal, S.D. Ill. Aff’d.
Employer's Posting of "Wanted
Poster" Regarding Former Employee Covered Business Activity
Under CGL Policy .
Employer's actions of terminating an employee, and then posting
a "wanted poster" warning about the employee for the
benefit of building tenants were consistent with its duties as
a property management firm, and therefore such actions were covered
under the plain meaning of the phrase "business activity"
in the employer's Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) Policy,
and the insurer could not deny coverage. St.
Paul Guardian Insurance Co. vs. Centrum GS, Ltd. No. 00-11339,
( March 11, 2002).
Ratification & Incorporation
of Previous Lease, Which Included Gold Payment Provision, Mandated
Payment in Gold. The amendment, in 1988, of a 1906
lease with a gold payment clause,
which ratified and incorporated the previous lease, mandated
that tenant pay its rent in the 1906 value of gold. In 1933,
the US Congress adopted a resolution that made unenforceable
all obligations requiring payment in gold, but that resolution
was amended in 1977 to make obligations requiring payment in
gold enforceable if issued after that date. Since the parties
lease amendment was entered into after 1977, and since it materially
altered the parties' agreement, it was a new agreement which
revived the gold clause in the lease. Therefore, Lessor was entitled
to summary judgment, and is owed rent in the 1906 value of gold.
Nebel,
Inc. v. Mid-City National Bank, No. 1-01-1309, 1st Dist.,
4th Div. (HARTMAN) (March 21, 2002) Reversed and remanded.
Spammer Shocked, Sues List
Seller - List Contained Names of People Who Did Not Want to Receive
Spam! Contending that the list providers
misrepresented the nature of the data they were selling, an email
marketing firm has sued two list sellers, saying that the lists
contained non-existent email addresses, as well as the names
and addresses of many people who had not agreed to receive spam.
Coverage at
newsbytes.com.