demand letter. A letter by which one party explains its legal position in a dispute and requests that the recipient take some action (such as paying money owed), or else risk being sued. • Under some statutes (esp. consumer-protection laws), a demand letter is a prerequisite for filing a lawsuit.
Sound Recording Amendment of 1972. A Copyright Act of 1909 amendment that established copyright protection for sound recordings.
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Geneva Conventions of 1949 (j[schwa]-nee-v[schwa]). Four international agreements dealing with the protection of wounded members of the armed forces, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the protection of civilians during international armed conflicts. • Common Article 3 of the Conventions proclaims certain minimum standards of treatment that are applicable to noninternational armed conflicts. The
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Bureaux Internationaux Reunis pour la Protection de la Propriete Intellectuelle. See INTERNATIONAL BUREAU FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
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featherbedding. A union practice designed to increase employment and guarantee job security by requiring employers to hire or retain more employees than are needed. • The practice stems from employees’ desire for job security in the face of technological improvement. Featherbedding is restricted by federal law but is an unfair labor practice only if, for
suspension. 1. The act of temporarily delaying, interrupting, or terminating something (suspension of business operations) (suspension of a statute). 2. The state of such delay, interruption, or termination (corporate transfers were not allowed because of the suspension of business). 3. The temporary deprivation of a person’s powers or privileges, esp. of office or profession; esp.,
drafting. The practice, technique, or skill involved in preparing legal documents — such as statutes, rules, regulations, contracts, and wills — that set forth the rights, duties, liabilities, and entitlements of persons and legal entities. — Also termed legal drafting.
sexual orientation. A person’s predisposition or inclination toward a particular type of sexual activity or behavior; heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. • There has been a trend in recent years to make sexual orientation a protected class, esp. in employment and hate-crime statutes. [Cases: Civil Rights 1012, 1191. C.J.S. Civil Rights §§ 2, 6–7, 9–10, 19,
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Trade secrets. Any method of discovering trade secrets that does not violate property-protection statutes or standards of commercial ethics. • Proper means include independent invention, reverse engineering, observing the product in public, and studying published literature. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 757 cmt. f (1977).
no-claim, n. The lack of a claim. • Legal philosophers devised this term to denote the opposite of a claim. As one jurisprudent has said apologetically, “there is no word in English which expresses the lack of a claim and therefore the rather barbarous ‘no-claim’ has been suggested.” George Whitecross Paton, A Textbook of Jurisprudence