Resolutions for the new year are typically serious and focused on important areas of our lives, such a health, exercise, career development, and being better organized

Although these are all noble initiatives, laughing more often also can improve the start of the new year. As ee cummings said: “ The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”

Those of a certain age remember the rallying cry when MTV launched. The cable channel would go on to change the music business. Only time will tell whether NFTs will change the art world; but it is worth examining at least one misconception that some people may have about NFT ownership.

A recent District of Columbia (D.C.) law offers employees of private employers in D.C. paid time off for COVID-19 vaccination-related leave, and provides unpaid COVID-19-related leave to eligible employees of employers with 20 or more employees in D.C. The COVID Vaccination Leave Emergency Amendment Act of 2021 (the Act) amends two existing leave laws: the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 (ASSLA) and the D.C. Family and Medical Leave Act (DCFMLA). Although the Act is currently in effect only until February 18, 2021, the D.C. Council will likely extend it.

Most commercial contracts include defined terms to improve readability and reduce ambiguity. In some cases, however, those definitions do not receive the same scrutiny as other clauses and their application throughout the rest of the agreement can be overlooked. For example, when a party to a contract is defined “together with its affiliates,” the language may seem innocuous, but this linking of entities significantly impacts the nature of the contract and can result in a host of unanticipated risks and liabilities not only for the contracting entities but for those unnamed entities who may be inadvertently bound to a contract to which they are not even aware they are a party.

On December 7, 2021, Judge R. Stan Baker, a federal judge for U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, issued a nationwide injunction to block the enforcement of a vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors issued in response to President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14042, “Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.”

In the copyright world, the general rule is that the creator of a work owns the copyright in that work. However, this general rule does not apply to all copyrightable works, including so-called “works for hire.” The copyright “work for hire” doctrine provides that the employer automatically owns the copyright in a work for hire created by its employee within the scope of the employee’s employment, absent a written agreement to the contrary. However, there are many misconceptions regarding “works for hire” under U.S. copyright law. First and foremost, the “work for hire” doctrine applies only to a very narrow category of works, as defined in Section 101 of the U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code). Moreover, it only applies to copyrightable works, and does not extend to works protected by trade secrets, patents, or trademarks.

Last month, New York Governor Hochul signed into law a bill that will require employers to notify new employees of electronic monitoring of telephone, email and internet access and usage, and to obtain their written acknowledgement of the notice. This new law (the “Act”), which goes into effect on May 7, 2022, applies to all private employers, regardless of size, with a place of business in New York State.

All U.S.-bound international air travelers must obtain a negative one-day COVID-19 test result, regardless of citizenship and vaccination status, prior to embarkation