Cape Law Firm Blog

by Joel Cape

Government Flexing Its Muscle in Federally Funded Inventions
Legal News

Government Flexing Its Muscle in Federally Funded Inventions

Might the Government March-In to Control Federally Funded Inventions? Federal funding has historically been a major driver of U.S. innovation which has funded innumerable inventions over the years, especially at universities and small research institutions. But until the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, many federally funded inventions went unused because the government either retained ownership or required inventors to assign ownership of the inventions to the government. The Bayh-Dole Act largely cured this problem by allowing inventors to own federally funded inventions or obtain exclusive licenses. However, the Act also gave the government potentially powerful “march-in” rights to patented inventions, i.e., the right to require the owner (or an exclusive licensee)

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The Major Federal Reporting Requirement | Cape Law Firm
Legal News

The Major Federal Reporting Requirement | Cape Law Firm

Corporate Transparency Act Mandates Reporting for Millions of Businesses On January 1 this year, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) went into effect, a federal law that requires companies to file reports with the U.S. Treasury Department identifying the direct and indirect “Beneficial Owners” of the company. Never heard of it? Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger – Congress passed the law in 2021, but it just went into effect at the beginning of this year. It is estimated that the new reporting requirements will affect more than 32 million existing entities, many of whom are still unaware of the new law, or are just now learning about it. Besides existing

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The Great Glyphosate Experiment | Cape Law Firm
Agriculture

The Great Glyphosate Experiment | Cape Law Firm

GAO Examines Crop Insurance Economics The federal crop insurance program has long been a critical safety net for farmers of coverage-eligible crops and provides risk management tools not otherwise available in the private market. According to the Government Accounting Office (GAO), this successful program could be less expensive without undermining benefits to policyholders. Federal crop insurance has two main mechanisms that drive the program: (i) the government pays private insurers to sell and service policies, including subsidies for administrative and operating expenses, and (ii) the government also subsidizes premiums for policyholders. A recent GAO report on the federal crop insurance program identified several opportunities to reduce the government’s expenses in

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Secret Fudge, Hemp Farmers Barred from Cannabis and More
Cannabis

Secret Fudge, Hemp Farmers Barred from Cannabis and More

Bitter Mess Over Chocolate Trade Secret Turns Out Sweet for Fudge Maker A recent jury trial over a secret fudge recipe found that the ex-wife of the fudge maker had misappropriated the recipe and owed royalties for its use. In 1988, Chris Warman purchased a fudge recipe from another fudge maker and made various changes and improvements to the recipe and the fudge-making process. Warman shared the recipe with his then-wife, Christine Falvo, and it was used for a time in their joint business for fudge. The parties’ early business ventures in the fudge-making world didn’t pan out, resulting in defaults, bankruptcies, and a general shuffling of assets (including the

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Ag Economy Insights | Cape Law Firm
Agriculture

Ag Economy Insights , and other Legal News

Ag Economy Insights from Dan Basse This week we attended the American Seed Trade Association’s Field Crop Seed Convention, the updated format of ASTA’s traditional Corn, Soybean, and Sorghum Expo. One of the highlights of the Convention is a keynote presentation by Dan Basse of AgResource Company, a research and risk advisory firm for agricultural markets. Some of the take-aways from Dan’s presentation are below. As the U.S.’s largest customer for Ag products, China remains an important trading partner, but at the same time it is a dilemma in many other areas of domestic and global policy. As tension in the U.S.-China relationship intensifies, it will impact the U.S.’s largest export market for

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Happy Almost Thanksgiving! | Ultra-Processed Convenience
Agriculture

Happy Almost Thanksgiving! | Ultra-Processed Convenience

HAPPY ALMOST THANKSGIVING! We hope you’re looking forward to a little rest and relaxation next week, and giving thanks for friends, family, and being alive another day on earth. We would like to give a Big THANKS to our friends, clients, and acquaintances, both new and old. Ultra-Processed Convenience While it may be rarely discussed among Ag interest groups, on occasion we catch an inkling that should make us ponder whether the American Ag sector is producing products consumers want or need. That was the case with Andrea Petersen’s recent Wall Street Journal report describing growing concern with ultra-processed foods. The concern is that ultra-processed foods are unhealthy and make people fat and

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