Latest news with #attorneys
Entrepreneur
24-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
4 Signs It's Time to Abandon Your Patent
How to make smart, strategic calls on when to abandon patents — and why doing so is essential to long-term innovation and budget health Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Patents are often filed early, before a startup knows what the market really wants. That's smart, but it comes with a challenge: Not every idea turns out to be worth protecting. Markets shift. Products pivot. And eventually, founders ask: Should we keep paying for this patent or cut our losses? It's a tough call. Abandoning a patent midway can feel like giving up. But continuing just because you've already spent money? That's the sunk cost trap, and it quietly drains your budget. Many startups keep prosecuting every idea, paying rejections, annuities and attorney fees. But a smart IP strategy means knowing what to keep and what to walk away from. Here's how to make that call strategically. Related: How to Identify the Patent-Worthy Innovations in Your Business Built-in checkpoints in patent lifecycle — use them Roughly, you can split a patent's entire lifecycle cost into three parts. The first third goes to drafting the application, another third is for arguing the patent through issuance, and the final third covers patent maintenance fees for the next 20+ years. In a way, these financial checkpoints are decision checkpoints, too. When drafting, consider whether the invention aligns with your core business or is just a side experiment that may never get to market. During prosecution, evaluate whether it's still worth the legal wrangling, as each round of argument is costly. And when renewal fees come due, ask if the patent still supports your product, blocks competitors or adds leverage against others in the market. Unfortunately, many startups treat these pivotal stages as administrative formalities. Instead of evaluating whether continued investment is justified at each stage, many companies default to pushing forward — whether by extending prosecution unnecessarily, filing continuations without a clear purpose, or simply paying maintenance fees — without assessing strategic alignment. That's how portfolios get bloated with low-impact patents. The only solution here is patent pruning: Abandon some patent filings at the right checkpoints. Related: Don't Let Patent Costs Crush Your Startup — Here's How to Protect Your IP Without Breaking the Bank What are the signs that it's time to abandon a patent? Every dollar spent defending or maintaining a weak patent is a dollar not spent protecting something truly valuable. Therefore, you must look for the signs at different checkpoints to spot a patent to discard. Here are some signs to look for: 1. No market validation A patent is only valuable if the protected product actually sells. If your invention fails to gain customer traction, the patent will be a failure. Experts emphasize focusing on "high-impact" problems with real demand. Without that market pull, even a granted patent is a dead weight. For example, Google Glass — once hyped as the future of AR eyewear — never found a viable consumer market. It was pulled from sale in 2015 (and again in 2023) due to poor adoption, illustrating how patents tied to unvalidated products offer no return. 2. Shifting industry direction Industries evolve, and a patent can lose value if the tech horizon moves on. In practice, companies are advised to ask whether their invention still aligns with "the target industry and market." If adjacent innovations eclipse your solution (for example, cloud services replacing old networking hardware), the patent's relevance vanishes. In that scenario, it makes little sense to keep paying maintenance fees. Better to refocus on protections for innovations that fit the new direction of your field. 3. Prior art kills the novelty Sometimes, what initially feels like a breakthrough ends up being something others have already attempted or fully disclosed. If prior art eclipses your claims, the chances of securing meaningful protection drop significantly. At that point, even if you receive a patent, it may be so narrow that it offers little real-world value. Continuing to prosecute a case like this can quickly become a drain on time and legal budget. 4. Weak business use case Every patent in your portfolio should earn its keep through business impact or the potential to do so on your current roadmap. If it's not protecting a revenue-generating product, blocking a competitor or supporting licensing efforts, its value is questionable. Startups often hang on to patents without a clear path to monetization or strategic use. But unless a patent strengthens your market position or serves a legal or commercial purpose, it's just another expense on the books. To actively prune your patent portfolio, just looking for signs isn't enough. As the portfolio grows, you need a deliberate, repeatable process for patent abandonment assessment. Build a patent pruning system: Health checks and ranking framework An effective patent pruning system should take two things into consideration: 1) lifecycle stage and 2) multiple perspectives. For the first one, you want to start by ranking each patent across key lifecycle stages: At the idea stage : Is this innovation aligned with your product roadmap or market differentiation? Post-filing : Has the landscape shifted? Is the application still strategically relevant? Pre-renewal: Is the granted patent still supporting revenue, blocking competitors or enhancing leverage? The higher a patent scores at a certain stage, the more you want to invest in it. Please note that not only your legal counsel team but also others, such as product, technology, marketing and finance, must contribute to this ranking system, as pruning cannot be undone. The goal is to ensure that patents are evaluated through a business lens, not just a legal one. Consider using patent management tools that provide full portfolio visibility and enable seamless collaboration as part of your patent pruning process. Related: 4 Surprising Patent Myths That Could Cost You Big — What You Need to Know Now Pruning a patent portfolio isn't just about saving money; it's about fueling what's next with the reclaimed budget. In 2020, IBM stepped back from chasing patent volume. "We're no longer pursuing patent leadership," they said. "We're being more selective." The result? Fewer filings, stronger focus and more investment in high-growth areas like AI and quantum computing. That's the lesson: Pruning isn't cutting back. It's reallocating toward where your business is growing. Because IP should follow your future, not fund your past.
Forbes
22-07-2025
- Forbes
What Every Trucking Attorney Must Know About Cell Phone Forensic Data Extractions
Truck driver using mobile phone. When a multi-million dollar trucking case hinges on what happened in the thirty seconds before impact, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to the quality of your cell phone forensic extraction. Yet many attorneys assume all forensic extractions are the same, unknowingly undermining their cases from the start. This confusion stems partly from the digital forensics community itself, which sends mixed messages about what's acceptable in trucking accident cases. Many experts who handle other types of cases assume a basic extraction will suffice, but they don't understand the unique demands of trucking cases, and they mislead attorneys as a result. The harsh reality is this: not all cell phone forensic extractions are created equal, and the most important evidence for trucking cases on the smartphone will be gone in days or weeks. The extraction method your expert chooses determines whether you uncover the evidence that wins your case or whether that same evidence vanishes forever. Cell Phone Forensics: Extractions Explained A cell phone data extraction is the digital forensic process of retrieving and preserving data from mobile devices to create legally admissible evidence. But many attorneys don't realize that when you request a "cell phone extraction" from a digital forensics expert, you're not ordering a standardized service with predictable results. Think of it this way: asking for a "forensic extraction" is like ordering "food" at a restaurant. You might get a snack, a full meal or a feast depending on what the kitchen can deliver. The same uncertainty exists when you request a cell phone forensic extraction from a digital forensics expert. You might receive a surface-level scan or a comprehensive deep-dive. Modern smartphones don't just make calls and send texts. They create a detailed digital diary of user interactions. This evidence can prove or disprove liability in those crucial seconds before impact with unprecedented precision. For example, phone records from the cellular provider might tell you if a message was received or if a phone call ended at a certain time, but only a cell phone extraction performed on the physical smartphone itself can reveal whether the driver was actively typing a message, scrolling through social media or responding to a notification during the same critical time period. Modern smartphones contain layers upon layers of data, much like an archaeological dig where the most valuable artifacts are often buried deepest. The surface layer contains obvious evidence: text messages, call logs, photos and other data that any user can see by browsing their phone normally. But the deeper layers contain the digital artifacts that reveal the truth about driver device interaction in those critical moments before impact. The extraction method your expert chooses determines how many of these layers they can access. Choose wrong, and you'll get a comprehensive report of surface-level data while the evidence that could win your case remains buried and eventually gets permanently deleted by the phone's normal operation. Cell Phone Logical Extraction: Why It Fails Trucking Cases A logical extraction represents the most basic approach to cell phone forensics, equivalent to examining a building only from street level. This method primarily accesses the active file system and user data that the phone's operating system makes readily available, much like browsing files when you connect your phone to a computer. This extraction method recovers information that sits on the surface: active files currently stored on the device, user-accessible data and settings, and basic app information. However, what it cannot capture often proves far more significant than what it can. The critical limitations of logical extraction create dangerous blind spots in your case preparation. This method recovers minimal amounts of deleted data, system files and application-related data. Most importantly, it mostly accesses information the operating system allows standard access to, meaning it will miss the most valuable evidence for proving or disproving distracted driving. For trucking cases where liability can hinge on a phone interaction seconds before impact, logical extraction provides an incomplete and potentially misleading picture. Relying on this level of extraction in a serious trucking case when higher-level extraction is possible is like conducting a murder investigation by only examining what's visible in the living room while ignoring the rest of the house. Cell Phone File System Extraction: Still Inadequate for Transportation Litigation File system extraction represents a significant improvement over logical extraction by accessing the device's file system directly. This approach bypasses certain operating system restrictions and can recover substantially more data, including deleted files and application databases that logical extraction would miss entirely. This enhanced method captures more comprehensive file access, retrieving deleted files and app databases that contain valuable user activity information. It provides deeper system information and better app usage data, offering a more complete picture of how someone used the device during critical timeframes. However, file system extraction still faces important limitations that can leave significant gaps in your evidence. While it recovers some deleted items, it still misses many others, particularly those stored in protected areas of the device's memory. Think of it as being able to search the main floors of a building but still being locked out of the basement and attic where crucial evidence might be stored. Cell Phone Physical Extraction: The Digital Forensics Gold Standard Blocked by Modern Security In an ideal world without modern security constraints, physical extraction would represent the ultimate forensic method. This technique creates a complete bit-by-bit copy of the device's entire memory, including all system files, deleted data and unallocated space. It creates an exact duplicate of every piece of data stored on the device. However, modern smartphone security has made physical extraction nearly impossible on current generation devices. Apple's iOS devices and newer Android phones employ sophisticated encryption and security measures that block this level of access. While these security features protect user privacy, they also prevent forensic experts from accessing the complete data picture that physical extraction would traditionally provide. The practical result: while physical extraction remains the theoretical gold standard, it's largely unavailable for modern smartphones involved in trucking cases. Cell Phone Full File System Extraction: The Only Acceptable Standard for Trucking Accident Cases Given the limitations imposed by modern smartphone security, full file system extraction has emerged as the most advanced and comprehensive method currently available for encrypted devices. This sophisticated technique represents the highest standard of data recovery possible on today's smartphones, working within security constraints to provide the most complete evidence picture available. Full file system extraction recovers significantly more data than other methods by accessing protected areas of the file system that basic methods cannot reach. It retrieves deleted data to the maximum extent possible given current hardware limitations and provides the most complete timeline available of user activity on the device. Most importantly for trucking cases, this method captures digital artifacts that reveal precise device usage patterns during critical timeframes and evidence of incomplete actions and interrupted activities that other methods would never detect. This includes data from protected file system areas, recovered deleted information and user interaction data that can definitively establish or refute distracted driving claims. In trucking litigation, this isn't just the best option. If this level of extraction is supported for a smartphone, then it's the only option that provides adequate evidence preservation and spoliation protection. Trucking Accidents: Cell Phone Forensics Is Risk Management Your choice of extraction method isn't just a technical decision. It's a strategic litigation choice that can determine your entire case's trajectory. In an era where trucking cases routinely involve millions of dollars in potential liability, the difference between adequate and inadequate digital forensics can mean the difference between protecting your client and exposing them to catastrophic financial consequences. You rarely get second chances when it comes to digital evidence preservation. When thirty seconds can determine liability in a multi-million dollar case, and when the evidence of what happened in those thirty seconds exists for only days or weeks before automatic deletion, there's simply no room for compromise on forensic extraction quality.
Globe and Mail
21-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Shamayev Business Law Launches Client Onboarding System to Streamline U.S. Visa Process
Navigating the U.S. immigration system involves a maze of legal complexities and paperwork – a daunting task for those without specialized knowledge. According to the U.S. Department of State, more than 152,000 immigrant visas were issued to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens in the first six months of the 2024 fiscal year – a record-setting figure. Yet, approval rates for work-related petitions, such as the EB-2 NIW category, dropped sharply from 80% to 43%, underscoring the growing importance of precision and completeness in immigration filings. Shamayev Business Law (SBL), a Florida-based legal corporation, that specializes in legal support for talent, business and investor immigration to the U.S. since 2015, in July 2025 announced the rollout of a client onboarding system designed to reduce the risk of procedural delays – a common and costly issue when a client is not in time with information or documents requested for the case filing. 'The onboarding process is a step-by-step engagement plan that establishes a six-month framework for legal partnership,' the firm's press office stated. 'It ensures timely, structured information exchange to build a strong evidentiary foundation. By improving our internal workflow, we're minimizing case preparation delays and enhancing overall efficiency'. SBL's attorneys emphasize a structured, end-to-end approach to each case. The first month of the immigration process is considered particularly critical – it's the stage where the client's full involvement is essential. Some information may need to be clarified; other materials may prove irrelevant or insufficient. The new onboarding model breaks the process into manageable phases, supported by pre-designed templates and document tables that applicants must complete within specific deadlines. Shamayev Business Law notes that the new onboarding system not only improves client interaction but also marks a strategic step toward internal process automation. About the firm: Founded in 2015, Shamayev Business Law focuses on talent and business immigration. Over the past decade, the firm has helped secure more than 3,400 visas for clients ranging from entrepreneurs and investors to tech professionals and creatives. In the last three years alone, SBL has received inquiries from individuals across 44 countries, reflecting the enduring global appeal of the United States as a hub for business and professional growth. The firm also offers free preliminary case evaluations, allowing prospective clients to assess their eligibility, understand the risks involved, and explore the most suitable visa strategy based on their profile. Media Contact Company Name: Shamayev Business Law Contact Person: PR team Email: Send Email Country: United States Website:
Forbes
18-07-2025
- Forbes
Attorneys—Track AI Hallucination Case Citations With This New Tool
This database tracks hallucinated case citations for attorneys. The legal profession has a new essential resource that could save your reputation, your career and your clients' cases. It's not filled with actual case law, but rather with cautionary tales that every attorney needs to understand. The AI Hallucination Cases database, maintained by legal researcher Damien Charlotin, systematically tracks every documented instance where attorneys have submitted artificial intelligence-generated fake legal citations to courts worldwide. With over two-hundred cases documented and counting, this represents a valuable resource for attorneys on how AI tools create fictional case citations that look completely legitimate. Each entry provides detailed information about the specific court, the nature of the AI hallucinations, the sanctions imposed and the monetary penalties assessed. It's practical intelligence that can help you avoid making the same mistakes that have already caused reputation damage to other attorneys, and in some cases, their careers. Tracking AI Hallucination Cases: Why Attorneys Should Bookmark This Database Understanding why this database exists requires grasping the fundamental challenge that AI tools present to legal practice. When attorneys use AI like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok for research, these tools sometimes generate citations that look entirely legitimate but correspond to cases that never existed. The database illustrates that this is more than just a rare glitch. It's a systematic problem affecting attorneys across all practice areas and experience levels. The database serves two primary functions that make it essential for legal professionals: The database is designed to be searchable and filterable, allowing you to find information most relevant to your practice. You can search by jurisdiction to see how courts in your area have handled AI hallucination cases, filter by practice area to understand risks specific to your field, or examine cases involving particular AI tools you might be considering using. AI Hallucination Cases: Patterns Every Attorney Should Understand The database reveals several consistent patterns that every legal professional should understand. One of the most striking findings is how sophisticated AI hallucinations can be. These aren't obviously fake citations with nonsensical party names or impossible dates. Instead, they often involve plausible case names, proper citation formats and legal reasoning that sounds entirely legitimate. AI tools frequently generate citations that include all the elements attorneys expect to see: believable party names, appropriate court jurisdictions, realistic dates and even fabricated quotations that align with the legal arguments being made. AI Hallucination Cases: Geographic and Practice Area Scope AI hallucinations in legal practice are not confined to any particular jurisdiction or area of law. Cases have emerged across the United States in federal and state courts, and international entries include incidents from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Israel, Brazil and several other countries. The practice area coverage is equally comprehensive. The database includes cases from family law, criminal defense, civil rights litigation, personal injury, immigration law, corporate law and virtually every other area of legal practice. This broad scope means that no attorney can assume they're immune from AI hallucination risks simply because they practice in a particular field. Your Next Steps: How to Access The Tracker The AI Hallucination Cases database is freely accessible online and regularly updated as new cases emerge. Legal professionals should bookmark this resource and check it regularly to stay informed about new developments and trends. The database's search and filtering capabilities make it easy to find information relevant to your specific practice area and jurisdiction. When evaluating AI tools for your practice, use the database to understand the track record of different platforms and the types of verification procedures that have proven most effective. If you're developing AI use policies for your firm, the database provides concrete examples of what can go wrong. Most importantly, treat the database as an ongoing educational resource rather than a one-time consultation. The legal profession's relationship with AI technology is evolving rapidly, and the database provides real-time documentation of that evolution. Every legal professional who wants to use AI tools safely and effectively should make this resource a regular part of their professional development routine.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Inside Joy Taylor's downfall: Lurid confessions, her endless 'need' for sex... and the year from HELL that came before Fox Sports exit
An already difficult year for Joy Taylor hit a new low this week after it was revealed the controversial sports presenter is out at Fox Sports. News of Taylor's shock departure after nearly a decade at the network was first reported on Monday, with official confirmation still yet to emerge from either party. The Daily Mail contacted Taylor's attorneys for comment.
