By Abby S. Busler In the aftermath of multiple school shootings across the country, Wisconsin lawmakers took action this past week in an effort to improve safety in Wisconsin Schools. On March 26, 2018 Governor Scott Walker signed into law provisions calculated to improve school safety. The new laws are backed by substantial grant monies for...
By Ryan M. Wiesner The courts have been busy lately reviewing federal trademark law. Understanding new decisions and recent trends is important for every growing business, since company brands, logos, and slogans are oftentimes its most valuable assets. Recent federal cases have broadened the types of trademarks that can be protected under...
By Bruce B. Deadman The Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently identified a loophole in the “grand bargain” which impacts all Wisconsin employers who use a staffing agency to provide them with temporary employees, or who “borrow” employees from another employer. Fortunately, the Legislature acted with unusual speed to close that loophole. In Estate...
By Jacqueline L. Messler Now that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts has passed and the estate tax exemption has been doubled, trusts are no longer advantageous, right? And perhaps, we can look to terminate existing irrevocable trusts, as discussed in Fixing Irrevocable Trusts. The answers are not so simple. First, revocable trusts have many uses in...
As we near the 2018 peak season for many construction projects, it is important for contractors to ensure adherence to OSHA’s new silica rules which were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court on December 22, 2017. OSHA began enforcing the new rules for standard construction as of September 23, 2017. For...
By Ann M. Rieger & Mark J. Andres Tax season is upon us. Individuals and businesses are collecting year-end tax statements and have begun the task of completing 2017 income tax returns. These returns will be filed under the “old” rules which predate the adoption of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed by Congress and signed by President...
By: Davis|Kuelthau's Intellectual Property Team Is the Doctrine of Equivalents (DOE) dead, once again? Effectively, yes. All an alleged infringer needs to do is raise an ensnarement defense (a claim that a DOE enlarged hypothetical claim reads on the prior art), and then show that the equivalent element was known in the prior art. Most equivalent...
By Thomas V. Rohan Early in my legal career, I did a considerable amount of commercial collection work. Some of the more routinely contested cases involved service contracts with automatic renewal clauses, that is, provisions that resulted in a contract being renewed for a new term, sometimes for as long as five years, if the customer did not...
By D|K's Labor and Employment Team While many changes that would have affected employee benefits were discussed as a part of tax reform in 2017, only a few made it in to the final bill. In particular, they include: the elimination of the employer deduction for parking and transit benefits; the extension of the deadline for an employee to roll...
By Anthony J. Steffek The Wisconsin Supreme Court has issued its decision in Manitowoc Company, Inc. v. Lanning, 2018 WI 6, a highly anticipated ruling focusing on the enforceability of non-solicitation agreements between Wisconsin employers and employees. This decision should prompt a review of your non-solicitation agreements to ensure they...
