Longstanding patent law holds that the obligation to pay royalties to a patentee under the terms of a contract ends when the subject patent expires, typically after 20 years. This rule was recently challenged in a suit involving a patented Spiderman toy. The owner of the patent sought to continue to collect royalties for sales
Many industries rely on relationships to generate sales and use restrictive covenants to protect these relationships. However, in the construction industry, contractors and lawyers frequently limit themselves to what appears in the forms provided by the American Institute of Architects. The construction industry can benefit from restrictive covenants to protect trade secrets, and confidential information integral to those particular
