Galactic Foresight Required: NASA's Proposed Rule Limits Advance Waivers to Yet-to-Be-Conceived Inventions
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.23.14
Earlier this month, NASA proposed to amend its patent regulations to require contractors requesting an advance waiver of the government's domestic rights in inventions made under a NASA contract to identify with specificity any inventions or classes of inventions that the contractor "believes will be made under the contract." Thus, in order to obtain an effective waiver, the contractor must predict what "inventions or classes of inventions" the contractor might make under aNASA contract, which, given the unpredictable nature of R&D efforts, may not cover the inventions that the contractor actually develops.
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Client Alert | 4 min read | 03.05.26
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed another revision to independent contractor regulations, one that would provide for more leeway in classifying workers as contractors. DOL’s proposed rule, published on February 26, 2026, would rescind the Biden DOL’s March 2024 independent contractor regulation and reinstate a framework substantially tracking the prior Trump rule of January 2021. The proposed rule would also apply the narrower analysis to worker classifications under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA). The comment period closes in late April 2026; until then, the 2024 rule remains in effect for purposes of private litigation.
Client Alert | 8 min read | 03.05.26
Client Alert | 4 min read | 03.04.26
Sixth Circuit Finds EFAA Arbitration Bar to Entire Case — Not Just Sexual Harassment Claims
Client Alert | 3 min read | 03.02.26
