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| Intellectual Property Protection, Procurement & Counseling |
Powell Goldstein Adds Hadley to Biz Practice - Roy Hadley featured
Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MSNMoney
March 24, 2008
Roy E. Hadley, Jr.
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Magazines Tussle Over Name - Ryan Pumpian & John Bush quoted
Fulton County Daily Report
June 22, 2007
John C. Bush
Ryan T. Pumpian
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Motivating Inventors to Submit ROIs
How Can Companies Encourage Engineers to Participate Cosntructuvely in the Patent Process
October 5, 2006
Ron Gerber
Reprinted by permission of Optical Society of America, OPN
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Suit: Blogger Posted Target Trade Secrets: Bernstein Is Quoted in the Atlanta Business Chronicle
September 15, 2006
Jason A. Bernstein
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Insurance Policies Entitled to Copyright Protection
Aflac vs. Assurant, Inc. et al
March 27, 2006
Ryan T. Pumpian
Damon J. Whitaker
Joel C. Williams, Jr.
John Harbin, Joel Williams, Ryan Pumpian, Damon Whitaker and others at Powell Goldstein represented American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus ("Aflac") (NYSE: AFL) in enforcing its copyrights in certain of its supplemental health insurance policies against Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ) and two of its subsidiaries, Fortis Insurance Company and John Alden Life Insurance Company.
A hearing on Aflac's motion for preliminary injunction was held December 22, 2005. Shortly thereafter, on January 11, 2006, federal district court judge Beverly Martin issued a 45-page opinion finding that all four of the Aflac policies at issue were original works entitled to copyright protection and that Defendants had infringed the cancer and accident policies, Aflac's two biggest sellers. Finding that, at least with regard to these two policies, the "evidence of defendants' copying is remarkable," the Court issued a nationwide injunction preventing Defendants from selling any more of their infringing cancer and accident policies, with the amount of bond to be posted by Aflac to be determined.
The ruling is significant because, while it has long been the law that contracts like insurance policies are capable of receiving copyright protection, Defendants' counsel repeatedly claimed that there are no reported cases finding such policies infringed.
Joey Loudermilk, Aflac's Executive Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs was very pleased with the Court's decision and stated "While we welcome fair competition, there should be no shortcut to the marketplace or easy route for developing the best insurance products."
Defendants recently filed an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.
The style of the case is American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus v. Assurant, Inc. Fortis Insurance Company, and John Alden Life Insurance Company, United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Civil Action No. 1:05-CV-1462.
The full text is posted online by BNA at http://pub.bna.com/ptcj/1051462Jan11.pdf.
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PoGo's 43 2006 Georgia Super Lawyers
March 16, 2006
43 of our outstanding Georgia attorneys have been selected as 2006's Georgia's Super Lawyers.
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