First enacted in 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) was created as an alternative to the high costs and delays of litigation. Up until that time, states were permitted to require disputants to litigate despite the existence of a signed…

Proprietary information, such as confidential business information, trade secrets, and intellectual property, may be worth millions of dollars. Public exposure or use by others may potentially dilute or destroy the value of such information. Nevertheless, at times, necessity requires businesses…

Generally, “intellectual property” is any intangible property, such as knowledge of a process, a musical composition or a trademark associated with a product. There are typically four specific areas of intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Since there…

Trademark owners generally have exclusive rights to use their mark to label or identify their goods and/or services. Accordingly, trademark rights in a business name give the mark owner the right to use the name for commercial purposes, and to…

A reverse mortgage is an arrangement under which a homeowner may get a loan representing a percentage of home equity. The homeowner will not be required to make payments or repay the loan so long as she continues to reside…

Credit repair clinics generally promise consumers that they will permanently remove negative information from credit reports, for a fee. A record of bankruptcy will appear on an individual’s credit report for 10 years, which can make the promise by credit…

The principles of product liability provide consumers with some protection against injury from defective products and a means of recovering damages for injuries resulting from the use of defective products. The protection is in general provided by state laws. As…

“Product liability” is the area of the law enabling recovery for those injured by defective products. Some commentators suggest it reflects a balance between the benefits that society as a whole reaps from technological developments versus harm to consumers when…