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THE ANNALS OF COPYRIGHT NUMBER 3
What Is Copyright Infringement? Copyright infringement has two sides: a) protecting your own copyrighted material and b) avoiding violations of another’s copyrighted work. The U.S. Copyright Act, section 106, gives a copyright owner exclusive rights to the control of an original work, including reproducing it, publicly displaying it, publicly performing it, making derivative works, and […]
AIN’S NO SUCH THING AS “FREE CALL”
Employer Must Pay Portion of Employee’s Unlimited Data Plan for Work-Related Calls The California Court of Appeal has ruled in favor of employee Colin Cochran on his class action lawsuit on behalf of 1,500 customer service managers against Schwan Home Service for reimbursement for work-related use of personal cell phones. Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, […]
THE ANNALS OF COPYRIGHT NUMBER 2
You May Have a Copyrighted Work and Don’t Know It If you have ever written a story, poem, novel, essay, research paper, or song, taken a photograph or video, performed music, or been in a play or a film, you were at some point a copyright owner. However, you may not still own those rights […]
BRINKER CASE SETTLES FOR $56 MILLION
California Restaurant Workers Settle High Profile Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit After waging a 10-year legal battle, Brinker Restaurant Corp., the parent company for Chili’s and Maggiano’s restaurant chains, has settled its wage and hour class action lawsuit. On August 6, 2014, the parties reached a preliminary agreement to resolve all 120,000 class members’ […]
WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?
Have you ever created anything? Invented something? Designed something? Created a logo or a name that identifies your products or services? Written a song? Painted a picture? Taken a photograph? Perhaps you are a sculptor or a songwriter or you write blogs or screenplays. If you’ve done any of these things, then you have owned […]
BANNED BOX AND BEYOND
San Francisco Employers Must Give Former Convicts a Fighting Chance Joining a growing movement of 12 states and more than 60 cities with “ban the box” laws, i.e., deleting the typical criminal history check box often seen on employment applications, San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance (FCO) goes into effect August 13, 2014. Arguably the strictest […]
WAKE-UP CALL ON INSIDE SALESPERSONS
California Supreme Court Narrows Eligibility for the Commissioned Salesperson Exemption California employers may qualify commissioned inside salespersons as exempt from overtime if they earn at least 1.5 times the state minimum wage for each hour worked with more than fifty percent of that total from commissions. Some employers have considered an employee eligible if he or […]
FEDERAL AGENCY WEIGHS IN ON PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION
EEOC Publishes Controversial Enforcement Guidelines On July 14, 2014, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its first “guidance” on pregnancy discrimination since 1983. EEOC enforcement guidances are the agency’s interpretations of law. This set offers EEOC views on what constitutes unlawful pregnancy-based discrimination under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), […]
WILL CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS HAVE TO COUGH UP PAID SICK LEAVE?
Constructive Remedy or a Job-Killer? The California Assembly passed earlier this year the “Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014” (Assembly Bill [AB] 1522), sending it over to the Senate for consideration. If passed into law, the measure would mandate all employers to provide at least three paid sick days per calendar year to all […]
“CALIFORNIA WAGE THEFT RECOVERY ACT” NAVIGATING HEAVY LEGISLATIVE SEAS
Assembly Bill 2416 Would Permit Employees to Impose Liens on All Employer Property for Alleged (but Unproven) Wage Claims California’s controversial Assembly Bill (AB) 2416, the “Wage Theft Recovery Act” continues to make progress through the Legislature. Patterned on a unique Wisconsin law, the Act, if passed, would enable an employee to create a lien […]