Law Commons^™

Professional And Academic Employee Inventions: Looking Beyond The Uk Paradigm, Justine Pila

Justine Pila

The vast majority of inventions are devised by employees, raising the question who is entitled to patent them? Under the UK Patents Act 1977, the right to patent an invention lies primarily with its inventor(s). However, an exception exists for employee inventions to which section 39(1) applies. The recent decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in UWA v Gray raises the question of the applicability of this provision in the university context, in respect of regular academic employees. In that case, the Court relied on UK authorities to support its conclusion that the University of …

‘Sewing The Fly Buttons On The Statute:’ Employee Inventions And The Employment Context, Justine Pila

Justine Pila

Section 39(1) of the Patents Act 1977 governs the ownership of inventions devised by employees in the course of their employment. Introduced ‘to codify in a few lines the accumulated common law experience’ prior to 1977, it does not expressly differentiate between employment fields, and has been widely assumed to apply indiscriminately, without regard to the particular context of employment. The purpose of this article is to revisit that assumption. In the argument made, section 39(1) was built around a private sector paradigm the courts’ departure from which is supported by a ‘rational reason’ in the Shanks v Unilever plc …

Issues Of Law And Religion, In The News -- Non-Catholic Teachers Fired For Fertility Treatments, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

Two non-Catholic teachers had been fired from Catholic schools, for breaching Catholic doctrine when it comes to acceptable fertility treatments. Has the Catholic Church breached its employment contracts with these teachers? If so, would it still be protected under the ministerial exception?

Employer Neutrality?, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

It is for workers alone to decide whether to organize for purposes of collective bargaining. However, this does not mean that employers are strictly obligated to remain neutral. Within the at times imprecise limits of Art. ?8(a)(1), an employer can mount a campaign against its employees’ efforts to organize. Once issues pertaining to this were quite dull – but they are no longer so today. Today, employer neutrality is a very lively and hotly contested topic. The NLRB has been heavily criticized by congressional Republicans; the future of its drafts and rules is hazy. The legitimacy of collective bargaining has …

Whistleblowers And The Obama Presidency: The National Security Dilemma, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

As a candidate for President, Barack Obama promised to protect whistleblowers because they are, in his words, “watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance.” Three years into his Presidency, Obama’s record often demonstrates strong support for employees who disclose government misconduct. He appointed whistleblower-rights supporters to key administrative posts and fought to include robust whistleblower protections in his key legislative accomplishments, such as the economic stimulus package, health care reform and the financial reform bill. However, the Obama Administration’s treatment of national security whistleblowers has been decidedly less emphatic and more nuanced. His Administration aggressively prosecuted unauthorized disclosures related to …

The Supreme Court 1997- 1998 Labor And Employment Law Term (Part Ii): The Nlra, Takings Clause, And Ada Cases, Marley S. Weiss

Marley S. Weiss

No abstract provided.

The Employment Relation And Its Ordering At Century's End: Reflections On Emerging Trends In The United States, Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

The enormous success of the United States economy in producing new jobs has focused world-wide attention on the flexibility of the American labor market, and on the malleability of the legal order that regulates it. Despite our reputation for sparse public regulation of the employment relationship, however; the past decade has been a period of unprecedented judicial and legislative activity. The United States now has more formal employment regulation than ever before. The following piece places these developments in the context of a decline in the practice of private law-making, and identifies four movements that have emerged and which characterize …

The Impact Of Regionally Differentiated Entitlement To Ei On Charter-Protected Canadians, Sujit Choudhry, Michael Pal

Sujit Choudhry

Under Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program, access to unemployment benefits varies according to the regional unemployment rate. Previous studies have shown that this regime works to the disadvantage of certain provinces and urban areas. In this paper we measure the impact of the variable regional entrance requirements on specific minority workers, including visible minorities, linguistic minorities, recent immigrants, and naturalized citizens. We find that over the period 2000-2010, the regional variation in access to EI results in certain minority workers being required to work modestly more hours to qualify for EI than the average worker. Though the findings with regard …

Enforceability Of Covenants Not To Compete In At-Will Employment Relationships In Texas, Eric G. Behrens

Eric G. Behrens

Abstract of: The enforceability of covenants not to

compete in at-will employment relationships in Texas

Although non-compete covenants are restraints against trade, the Legislature provides they are enforceable if they comply with the criteria outlined in the Covenants Not to Compete Act, TEXAS BUSINESS & COMMERCE CODE § 15.50(a), et seq. This article traces how the Texas Supreme Court has interpreted those criteria between 1994 – 2009, the steps for crafting an covenant and the considerations given by courts in determining if it is enforceable, and the trend toward greater enforcement of such covenants.

For roughly twelve years, Light v. …

Ricci V. Destefano And Disparate Treatment: How The Case Makes Title Vii And The Equal Protection Clause Unworkable, Allen R. Kamp

Allen R. Kamp

ABSTRACT

Ricci v. DeStefano and Disparate Treatment: How the Case Makes Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause Unworkable

Although early commentators have focused on Ricci’s discussion of disparate impact, I see what Ricci is saying about disparate treatment as being more important. The majority and concurring opinions make proving disparate treatment much easier than under prior law, in a way that may utterly defeat that cause.

One can see Ricci as the case in which the Court came down in favor of one of two competing interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause and Title VII, “anti-subordination” and “anti-classification.” The …

"But He Told Me It Was Safe!": The Expanding Tort Of Negligent Misrepresentation., Alissa J. Strong

Alissa Strong

When more information is available, everyone benefits. Rather than having to rediscover basic wisdom at each crossroad, people can learn from one another’s actions, inactions, failures and successes. However, the availability of shared information is deeply threatened by laws and judicial doctrines that favor blind reliance on advice and then encourage suits against faulty information providers, if, in following the advice, the listener is harmed. One such law is the doctrine of negligent misrepresentation leading to physical harm as codified in the Restatement (Second) of Torts Section 311. Because it is largely written in broad language, it has been applied …

Is Labor Really "Cheap" In China? Compliance With Labor And Employment Laws, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro

marisa pagnattaro

Abstract: This article details China’s the growing body of labor and employment laws. Specifically, this research analyzes major labor and employment law developments in China, including the newly adopted Labor Contract Law, employment discrimination sexual harassment, wages, workplace health and safety, worker privacy, and dispute resolution. The ramifications of this developing legal landscape on U.S. companies doing business in China are also discussed.

Putting The Blue Pencil Down: An Argument For Specificity In Noncompete Agreements, Griffin Toronjo Pivateau

Griffin Toronjo Pivateau

Perhaps no contractual clause invites as little respect as the noncompete agreement. In a few states, the agreement is void and unenforceable. In the remaining states, a noncompete agreement scarcely seems to rise to the level of a legally enforceable agreement. Too often, neither the parties to a noncompete agreement nor the court system believe in enforcement of the agreement as actually written. In most jurisdictions, courts routinely “blue pencil” or reform covenants that are not reasonable. The blue pencil doctrine gives courts the authority to either strike unreasonable clauses from a noncompete agreement, leaving the rest to be enforced, …

Restatement - Technique And Tradition In The United States, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

This paper considers the meaning and development in a historical perspective of what Americans mean by labour law. The author highlights the fact that employment law in the United States consists of a patchwork of state regulation with a variegated federal overlay. He also discusses the development of the restatement tradition in the United States and examines the course and the current status of the Restatement of Employment Law project promoted by the American Law Institute (ALI), taking account of the fact that the character of employment has changed radically in the past two decades, and has yet to reach …

Protecting Whistleblowers By Contract, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

Numerous statutes and the tort of wrongful discharge purport to prohibit companies from retaliating against employee whistleblowers. However, whistleblowers often lose retaliation lawsuits because these statutory and common law tort protections depend upon a variety of nuanced factors, such as the employer for whom the whistleblower works, the kind of wrongdoing reported, the way in which the employee blew the whistle, and, under some laws, the willingness of an administrative agency to investigate the whistleblower’s claim. Given these difficulties, this Article explores an alternate route for whistleblower protection: enforcing the existing contract protections that private employers currently provide employees when …

Religion In The Workplace: Faith, Action, And The Religious Foundations Of American Employment Law, Thomas C. Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

Employers On The Fence: A Guide To The Immigratory Workplace, Natalie Prescott

Natalie Prescott

The Article discusses potential problems employers across the nation face when hiring, promoting, or employing foreign workers. It gives practical advice to employers on how to prevent discriminatory practices and avoid discrimination lawsuits and penalties and serves as an abbreviated employer's manual to immigration law.

English Only At Work, Por Favor, Natalie Prescott

Natalie Prescott

Whether or not employees can be required to speak only English at work is a very delicate question. This issue has caused considerable disagreement among courts and legal scholars and gained greater prominence in 2006, when the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals created a circuit split by allowing for the possibility that an English-only rule may violate Title VII. Some scholars have attempted to address the legality of an English-only rule, mostly arguing that the rule violates Title VII. This Article, however, explains why Title VII does not apply to an English-only rule. The Article addresses a wide range of …

Addressing Segregation In The Brown Collar Workplace: Toward A Solution For The Inexorable 100%, Leticia M. Saucedo

Leticia M. Saucedo

This article suggests a theoretical and analytical framework for rethinking the causes of and remedies for workplace segregation. Taking lessons from civil rights and women’s rights struggles to eradicate segregated workplaces through existing anti-discrimination frameworks, it reviews the historical paradigm approaches to segregation, and their limited ability to eradicate segregation completely, as is evident in the continued existence of workplace segregation. Despite public perceptions to the contrary, segregated workplaces exist in greater numbers today, mostly because of the influx of newly arrived immigrant workers in low-wage industries throughout the country. These “brown collar” workplaces provide a good testing ground for …

Retaliation After Burlington, David G. Karro

David G. Karro

This paper was written for a talk given to the District of Columbia bar on Title VII retaliation, generally, and on the Supreme Court's decision in Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. Petitioner v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006). I took the position that the decision promised much more for plaintiffs than it was likely to deliver.

Unfulfilled Expectations: An Empirical Analysis Of Why Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblowers Rarely Win, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

Scholars praise the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 as one of the most protective anti-retaliation provisions in the world. Yet, during its first three years, only 3.6% of Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers won relief through the initial administrative process that adjudicates such claims, and only 6.5% of whistleblowers won appeals through the process. This Article reports the results of an empirical study of all Department of Labor Sarbanes-Oxley determinations during this time, consisting of over 700 separate decisions from administrative investigations and hearings. The results of this detailed analysis demonstrate that administrative decision-makers strictly construed, and in some cases …

Immigration Reform Fuels Employment Discrimination, Natalie Prescott

Natalie Prescott

This Article addresses the tension between two conflicting IRCA provisions: 8 U.S.C. § 1324a, which authorizes sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants, and 8 U.S.C. § 1324b, which provides that employers cannot ask foreign job applicants for proof of work authorization beyond what is specified on the I-9 form.

Sarbanes-Oxley's Structural Model To Encourage Corporate Whistleblowers, Richard E. Moberly

Richard E. Moberly

Recent corporate scandals demonstrate that rank-and-file employees often remain silent in the face of significant fraud. This silence is unfortunate because corporate employees have inside knowledge of misconduct that gives them an information advantage over more traditional corporate monitors, such as independent directors and government regulators. To address this problem, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act utilized a new approach that encourages employee whistleblowers to disclose information about corporate wrongdoing. This approach, which Professor Richard Moberly labels the “Structural Model,” requires that corporations provide a standardized channel for employees to report organizational misconduct to official monitors within the corporation. This Article offers an …

"Lifestyle" Discrimination In Employment, Stephen D. Sugarman

Stephen D Sugarman

This article examines instances in which employers fire or refuse to hire workers because of their conduct off of the job (their lifestyle). It explores employer reasons for such practices and considers employee objections on the basis of their privacy rights. Then it considers a range of legal protection that is or might be given to protect employees from such discrimination.

Comparative Advantages? The Protection Of The Employment Bond In German And American Law, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Employee E-Mail: Efficient Workplaces Vs. Employee Privacy, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

Employer monitoring of electronic mail constitutes an emerging area of the law that is clearly unsettled at this point in time. This iBrief demonstrates that the privacy rights of non public-sector employees are relatively unprotected by the federal and state constitutions, broad judicial interpretations of enacted privacy legislation favor legitimate employer-monitoring practices, and many of the elements of common law claims are difficult for employees to prove.

Editorial, Improving The Game: Professional Golf Will Benefit, Not Suffer, From Martin Decision, Mary Kate Kearney

Mary Kate Kearney

No abstract provided.

Conditioning Expectations: The Protection Of The Employment Bond In German And American Law, Thomas Kohler, Michael Kittner

Thomas C. Kohler

According to many observers, one of the critical factors accounting for the unprecedented economic growth that the United States enjoyed during the past decade is a regulatory regime that places few restrictions on an employer's ability to shed unwanted employees. Similarly, the slower economic growth that Germany and Europe experienced during this period often is attributed to elaborate employment protection schemes that restrict the ability of employers to discharge undesired workers. These protections are blamed for making countries like Germany less attractive places for foreign investment. This piece examines in comparative perspective the restrictions the American and German regulatory schemes …

Autonomy And Personhood: The Implications For Labor And Employment Law, Thomas Kohler

Thomas C. Kohler

No abstract provided.

The Ada, Respiratory Disabilities And Smoking: Can Smokers At Burger King Really Have It Their Way?, Mary Kate Kearney

Mary Kate Kearney

No abstract provided.