At first glance, a California lawsuit filed north of San Diego appears to involve gangsters. After all, the suit was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Signed by President Richard Nixon, RICO was designed to battle the Mafia and other...


Eve Mazzarella
Hundreds of artworks enter the public domain in 2019
Silent films and other great works of arts published in the early 20th century had their copyrights and patents expire on Jan. 1, 2019. This marks the first year onwards to release registered intellectual property from the 20th century permanently into the public...
California IP lawsuit: Backpack Kid moves to protect his Floss
It was a star-studded night on “Saturday Night Live.” Tom Hanks and Dwayne Johnson appeared, as did Scarlett Johansson and Alec Baldwin. Singer Katy Perry was there, too, backed by an unknown 15-year-old wearing a backpack and doing his hypnotic, signature Floss...
Litigation resolved, resort north of San Diego ready to rise
If you take Interstate 5 north from San Diego for about an hour, you will arrive in Oceanside. The city of about 170,000 residents is the third largest in San Diego County, and is about to see some growth near its popular beach. After more than a decade of delays due...
Intel files trade secret theft lawsuit
The memory technology known as 3D XPoint is so promising that Intel Corp. has put more than $1 billion into its development. But details of the secret project were known to only a few employees in the technology giant headquartered in northern California. But...
Appellate court recognizes the “impossibility doctrine” in trusts
California's First District Court of Appeals has applied the doctrine of impossibility to a trust case in Schwann v. Permann. The doctrine of impossibility generally excuses one party from performing a specific condition of a contract, or in this case, a trust, if the...
Resort developer sues California firms for $1 billion breach of contract
Resorts World Genting is a sprawling resort complex of hotels, theme parks, casinos and shopping malls perched atop Mount Ulu Kali in Malaysia, not far from that nation’s capital and largest city, Kuala Lumpur. The resort’s developer recently filed a...
Southern California cardrooms sued by Luiseno, Chumash Indians
The Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians owns Harrah’s Resort Southern California, located about an hour north of San Diego, and other gaming and hospitality venues. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians owns the Chumash Casino Resort, which sits about six hours...
California sand-mining company prevails in lawsuit
San Diego beaches are some of the most beautiful and celebrated in Southern California. People travel from all over the world to walk our golden strands of sand. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand the devastation to our economy and quality of life if our...
IP protection of all that glitters
It can be easy to casually overlook the hard work, artistry and creative originality that makes jewelry beautiful, desirable and marketable. We sometimes admire a dazzling piece on a friend’s finger or neck and get caught up in the gleam of precious gems or...