5 Key Takeaways | Making Sense of §102 Public Use and On Sale Bars to Patentability
Eminent Domain: First Principles, Kelo, and In Service of Infrastructure Buildout
Newsflash: Rockweed Not a Fish
A “dedication” is an uncompensated transfer of an interest in private property to the public. Dedications can occur pursuant to statute or common law. Statutory dedications follow the path set forth in the Subdivision Map...more
Although employers are welcome to support their employees’ ability to meet with their union representatives, they are not required to grant nonemployee union representatives access to their property to do so....more
Hinckley Allen claimed an important win for private property rights in Rhode Island last week. In Roth v. Rhode Island, Hinckley Allen challenged the constitutionality of newly enacted state legislation that significantly...more
In June 2023, the Rhode Island General Assembly enacted legislation granting the public expanded “privileges of the shore,” including but not limited to the right to fish from the shore, to swim in the sea and to pass along...more
The U.S. Supreme Court often makes headlines with its decisions, but even in its inaction, the Court can have an impact on the law. Such was the case with Eychaner v. The City of Chicago, which the Court declined to hear last...more
A New York Appellate Court (Fourth Department) (“Court”) addressed in a November 8th Order an action filed by a potential purchaser of a 50 acre parcel of property against the Town of Carroll, New York alleging a taking...more
On November 25, 2019, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the public’s use of a road for more than half a century to access Martin’s Beach was permissive, and therefore “did not ripen into a public dedication that would...more
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The California Constitution contains a similar provision. Reading these constitutional...more
This Fall, the California Coastal Commission (“Commission”) was handed down two significant victories, further cementing its authority and jurisdiction within California coastal zones. These cases demonstrate that, in certain...more
In this episode of Verrill Voices, environmental attorneys Gordon Smith and Scott Anderson discuss how private property rights could save the world, or at least the coast of Maine, when the fate of ecologically vital rockweed...more
After deliberating for a year and a half in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has unanimously held that rockweed, a type of seaweed that grows on rocks in the intertidal area all over the North...more
In an interesting twist, eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court agreed on June 23, 2017, in the case of Murr v. Wisconsin, No. 15-214, that state regulations making two adjoining lots held in common ownership into a single...more