By Scott Hervey

Those in the wine industry regularly traverse a vast array of statutes, rules and regulations in an effort to get their grape from the vine into your glass. One set of regulations all wine producers deal with are those governing wine labeling. The federal government, which regulates wine labels through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (the TTB), imposes rules which state what must and what may not be included on a wine label. A winery or wine producer must obtain federal approval of each wine label before bottling wine in the United States. In addition to federal approval, some states have their own wine label approval process wine producers and or distributors must go through prior to a wine being sold within that state. Most of the time the federal and state wine label approval process is straight forward. However, every so often a situation arises which shows the process can be complex and subjective.

 

Continue Reading Wine’s “Full Bodied” Label Not To State Regulator’s Liking

By Jeff Pietsch

On June 30, 2009, the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles affirmed the judgment of a lower court and held that internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by adults they meet through the website.   The plaintiffs representing the four minor “Julie Does” and their parents or guardians brought suit against MySpace for negligence, gross negligence, and strict product liability claims.  They contend that MySpace should have instituted “reasonable, basic safety precautions” such as using age-verification software or setting the default security on minor’s accounts to “private” to protect minors from sexual predators.  The court, however, found that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects MySpace from liability, and ruled that what the plaintiffs want—to restrict or make available certain material—is expressly covered by Section 230 and provides immunity to MySpace.

Continue Reading MySpace Not Liable For Sexual Assault of its Users

by W. Scott Cameron

Section 505 of the Copyright Act provides that the court may, in its discretion, award full costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, to the prevailing party in a claim arising under the Copyright Act.  17 U.S.C. § 505.  In 1941, the Ninth Circuit ruled that when a party voluntarily dismisses her claim without prejudice after the court ordered a more definite statement, the defendant is the prevailing party, and therefore entitled to attorneys’ fees.  Corcoran v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 121 F.2d 575, 576 (9th Cir. 1941).  The Corcoran court expressly rejected the plaintiff’s contention that the dismissal without prejudice does not confer prevailing party status on the defendants. 

Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Changes Its Definition of “Prevailing Party” In Copyright Cases

by Audrey Millemann

Patent law is a complicated area of law governed by a confusing set of statutes and regulations that are interpreted by Patent and Trademark Office examiners and federal courts.  Patents themselves are often almost unintelligible and, if intelligible, require many hours of reading and comparing drawings in order to understand.  It is no wonder that clients (and non-patent attorneys) have a lot of misconceptions about patents.  Here are a few of the most common ones.

Continue Reading Patent Misconceptions

by Dale Campbell and Emily Hirsekorn

State rules concerning electronic discovery just got clearer. On June 29, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Electronic Discovery Act (the “Act”), which became effective immediately. Just last year, the Governor vetoed an almost identical version of the Act in order to focus more attention on the budget crisis. Of course, we see how well that plan worked. The Act is modeled after the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The new rules govern the discovery procedure for electronically stored information (“ESI”) in California civil actions.

Continue Reading Updating California’s Discovery Rules with the Electronic Discovery Act