Year: 2014

Here is a situation every employee dreads: you are wrongfully accused of workplace misconduct such as sexual harassment or discrimination by a subordinate at work and your boss tells you that your job is on the line if you don’t fully cooperate in the company’s investigation. You may feel betrayed, frustrated and unwilling to oblige…

Employers Generally Cannot Withhold Payment From An Employee’s Paycheck. One of the questions that our employment lawyers receive most often from our employment law clients is whether an employer is permitted to deduct from an employee’s check any amount that the employee owes the employer. As a general matter, the employer has very limited rights…

This year, the California appellate courts decided several cases that involved “mixed-motive” terminations.  For example, in Harris v. City of Santa Monica, an employee, a bus driver for the City of Santa Monica, was terminated after informing her employer that she was pregnant. The employee also had a history of on the job negligence which included…

Signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in October and taking effect on January 1, 2014, SB400 makes it unlawful for an employer to terminate or otherwise discriminate against an employee based on his or her known status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.  The law also entitles victims to reasonable safety accommodations…

With over 300 million users of its iPhone worldwide, Apple is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers. As a result, Apple is often the subject of intellectual property lawsuits. In a series of lawsuits between the biggest smartphone producers in the world, dubbed “the smartphone wars,” Apple, Samsung, and Motorola have been embroiled in a…

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. Works protected by copyright, patent, and trademark are intellectual property and preserve the intellectual property owner’s legal rights in the protected work. There are several types of protections for intellectual…

While the process may appear daunting at first, registering a copyright is an essential first step in protecting your legal rights in your work. The benefits that are associated with copyright registration are abundant and far outweigh any difficulties that may come with the registration process. There are numerous legal benefits to registering a copyright…

Title 17 of the United States Code includes the Copyright Law of the United States. Title 17 defines what type of work is protected under the Copyright Law. Under Title 17, owners whose works are tangible, meaning that they may be expressed in writing, pictures, physical acts, and sound recordings have exclusive rights to their…

In what is being viewed as a push toward gender equality in the workplace, President Obama signed two executive orders on April 8, 2014, relating to fair pay for women.  The actions, which were signed on what Obama commemorated as “National Equal Pay Day,” were enacted in an attempt to bridge the national wage gap…

California Labor Code Section 1102.5 was enacted in 1984 to protect employees who report violations of state and federal laws by their employers. Under this law, employers are prevented from enforcing policies which prohibit employees from reporting the illegal activities of employers to governmental agency, essentially “blowing the whistle” on the employer’s violations of the…