South Carolina Business Law Blog

You may recall this post in April of last year about Robinson v. Wix Filtration Corp. , in which the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals determined computer problems in the Appellant's office resulting in the failure to receive notice of a motion for summary judgment did not warrant relief under either Rule 59 or Rule 60. Recently the 4th Circuit again had the opportunity to address a missed filing deadline where computer technology played a role. Symbionics v. Ortlieb  reversed a District Court determination that "a quirk in the functionality of counsel's computer calendar caused counsel to miscalculate the deadline to appeal" a judgment constituted "excusable neglect" under Rule 4(a)(5)(A) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure . Symbionics filed a notice of appeal one day after the expiration of the 30-day time limit, and then filed a motion for extension of time to extend that deadline by one day. According to the opinion, counsel calendared the inco...

By Jack Pringle Patents provide important intellectual property (IP) protection for inventors. Determining whether something you create is considered a patentable invention, and obtaining a patent through the USPTO is a complicated process. The University of South Carolina Office of Intellectual Property offers some Resources for Inventors that may be helpful in understanding the patent process and the way IP is licensed. I read from time to time about patent infringement litigation, and particularly those cases where a "non-practicing entity" (a company that owns a patent but has not developed a product that actually uses it) seeks damages from a company who (not coincidentally) has substantial revenues and market capitalization. Perhaps the most famous of these cases to date was NTP's action against Research In Motion , the maker of the Blackberry. Like many who follow these cases, I am interested in the legal and policy rationales for allowing an entity tha...

Mobile Applications ("Apps") are suddenly everywhere. Many businesses and software developers, having observed the success of these apps, are eager to join (i.e. cash) in. Often lost in the rush to bring these apps to market are the privacy and security concerns that go along with them. Friend of this Blog John Heitmann at Kelley Drye has a good post on this topic on the Ad Law Access Blog . This post even has a link to a webinar entitled Mobile Applications: Privacy and Data Security Implications .