Legal - HospitalityLawyer.com®

The Patent Troll Problem: U.S. Public Transit Agencies Targeted by Patent Assertion Firms

by admin in Legal. Posted May 14, 2015

July 3, 2013 Patent trolling, a fairly new method of coercing money from large companies, has put several U.S. transit agencies in an uncomfortable spot. So-called patent trolls, otherwise known as patent assertion agencies, are companies that don’t actually produce anything for income; instead, they purchase patents and then demand licensing fees from other companies ...

The Perils of Hotel Balconies

by admin in Hotel Development, Legal, Lodging, Safety & Security. Posted May 14, 2015

Many people enjoy having a balcony when staying at a hotel; between the outside air and sweeping views, there isn’t much to dislike. However, apart from general security concerns, this favorite amenity has a dark side that rears its head from time to time when tragic accidents permeate the news. On September 1, in St. ...

Recent Development in FTC vs. Wyndham Underscore Importance of Cybersecurity Vigilance in the Hospitality Industry

by Post & Schell in Legal, Technology. Posted April 23, 2015

On Friday, March 27, the parties in FTC vs. Wyndham – a key data security case with the potential to deeply impact the hospitality industry’s cyber-security practices – filed special supplemental briefs that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals requested during oral arguments earlier in the month. A key question at issue in the case: is the industry ...

Don’t Forget Copiers, Scanners and Fax Machines in Your Data Security Program

by Benjamin Lambiotte in Legal, Safety & Security, Technology. Posted March 23, 2015

Current generation multifunction printer/scanner/copier devices are convenient, inexpensive, and very popular. Often overlooked is the fact that most modern printers, copiers, and scanners have many of the same attributes of computers, and are just as vulnerable to the same kind of cyber exploits and attacks as computers. A truly comprehensive data security and privacy risk ...

Every Case Is an e-Discovery Case in Today’s Litigation Environment

by Thomas Tobin in Legal, Technology. Posted February 3, 2015

Lawyers routinely negotiate the scope of litigation discovery demands. One such lawyer was recently faced with a wildly broad discovery demand for relevant emails from the time a product was manufactured more than fifteen years ago to the present. The lawyer deftly negotiated the demand down to five years before the incident at issue and ...

Hospitality Industry Remains in the Cross Hairs of Department of Labor Following Wage Violation Study

by Andrea Kirshenbaum in Food & Beverage, Human Resources, Legal, Lodging. Posted December 26, 2014

A December 2014 study of the effects of minimum wage violations commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found associated violations to be “concentrated in the leisure and hospitality industry” and “most prevalent in the service occupations.” The study analyzed the financial and economic impact of minimum wage violations in California and New York on such areas ...

Overseas Business Travel Liability and the Duty of Care in Times of Ebola

by Don Dowling in Legal, Safety & Security, Travel. Posted December 5, 2014

As of late 2014, the United States faced no Ebola pandemic whatsoever. The odds of catching Ebola in an American workplace remained statistically zero. Only a handful of Ebola cases had made their way to the United States, and a few hospitals aside, every American workplace remained Ebola-free. Only two employees had caught Ebola on an American job site—both ...

Employment Law Toolkit for Cross-Border M&A Deals

by Don Dowling in Human Resources, Legal. Posted November 23, 2014

Some years ago, a leading London corporate lawyer told The New York Times that in “merging two regular companies…you just do it and sort out the people issues afterwards.” (A. Sorkin, “A Lawyer’s Lawyer: Bridging Borders,” March 26, 2000) If that was ever true, it no longer is. In any merger or acquisition between two employers, especially in ...

An Employer Should Never Ask About Disability Or Religion. Except When It Should.

by Robin Shea in Human Resources, Legal. Posted October 12, 2014

Everybody knows that an employer should never, ever, ever ask an applicant about religion or disability until after a conditional offer of employment has been made. And maybe not even then. Right? Right? Well, mostly right. But, as a couple of EEOC lawsuits show, there may be times when you have to make an exception ...

The Path to Supply Chain Transparency

by David Linich in Legal. Posted October 6, 2014

In 1904, Upton Sinclair spent two months in Chicago’s “Packingtown” uncovering horrific details about the meat-packing industry, which he portrayed in the classic book The Jungle. Public outrage over The Jungle prompted two new laws—the Food and Drug Act1 and the Meat Inspection Act2—that became early drivers of supply chain transparency in the United States. More than ...

Legal ( Page 40 )