305 articles
The Pirate Bay trial
The Pirate Bay trial: 2009 Swedish criminal copyright case against founders Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström; one-year sentences and SEK 30 million damages, reduced on appeal to SEK 46 million and shorter terms.
TM
TM is a two-letter abbreviation with meanings across many fields: the trademark symbol ™, the element thulium, DNA melting temperature, Turkmenistan's country code, and the Turing machine.
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, also known as the Master Settlement Agreement or Tobacco MSA, is a 1998 settlement between four major US cigarette makers and 46 states.
Trade name
Trade name (DBA, fictitious or assumed name, trading name): the name identifying a business itself, unlike a trademark which identifies goods or services; registered at state level, not registrable under the Lanham Act unless used as a mark.
Trade secret
Trade secret: intellectual property right in confidential business information that is secret, commercially valuable because secret, and protected by reasonable measures; no registration, indefinite duration, no protection against reverse engineering or independent invention.
Trademark
Trademark: any word, phrase, symbol, or design identifying the source of goods or services; the most widely used intellectual property right, protected through national registration and the Madrid System, with rights tied to specific goods.
Trademark symbol
Trademark symbol: the notices ™, ℠, and ® placed beside marks. ™/℠ signal unregistered claims to goods/services marks; ® is legally reserved for registered trademarks.
Trevor Milton
Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of Nikola Corporation, the hydrogen and electric truck maker, was convicted of securities and wire fraud in 2022 for false claims about the Nikola One truck, hydrogen production, and the Badger pickup, sentenced to four years, pardoned by Trump in 2025.
Trump v. Internal Revenue Service
Trump v. Internal Revenue Service: 2026 Florida federal lawsuit by Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and his sons seeking $10 billion from the IRS over the Charles Littlejohn tax-return leak; settled May 18, 2026 with a $1.776 billion fund and an audit bar.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), independent federal regulator created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; protects investors, maintains fair markets, facilitates capital formation; five commissioners, oversees exchanges, broker-dealers, FINRA, and NRSROs.
UCC-1 financing statement
UCC-1 financing statement: the standard form filed with state offices under UCC Article 9 to perfect a security interest in personal property collateral; effective five years, renewable by UCC-3 continuation within a six-month window.
Ultra vires
Ultra vires (Latin, "beyond the powers") is the doctrine that acts exceeding a company's or public authority's granted powers are invalid; largely abolished in corporate law, still central in administrative law.
Uniform Commercial Code
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC): joint ALI–Uniform Law Commission model code governing US commercial transactions, adopted in some form by every state and DC; first offered 1951, Pennsylvania first adopter; 2022 amendments add Article 12 on digital assets.
United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods
The CISG (Vienna, 1980) is the UNCITRAL treaty providing uniform substantive rules for international sale-of-goods contracts between businesses; adopted by 94 States, in force since 1 January 1988, successor to the 1964 Hague ULIS/ULF.
United States antitrust law
United States antitrust law: federal statutes, chiefly the Sherman Act (1890), Clayton Act (1914), and FTC Act (1914), enforced by DOJ and FTC to promote competition, curb monopolies, review mergers under Hart-Scott-Rodino, and allow treble-damage private suits, distinct from EU competition law's integration-focused regime.
United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), federal civil rights agency enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws including Title VII, ADA, ADEA, and GINA. Established under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, opened July 2, 1965, headquartered in Washington, D.C., with 53 field offices.
United States labor law
United States labor law: federal and state rules governing workers, unions, and employers. Centered on the 1935 NLRA (Wagner Act, creating the NLRB) and 1938 FLSA (minimum wage, 40-hour week), plus OSHA, Title VII, and WARN Act.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the Commerce Department agency that grants U.S. patents and registers trademarks, with over 13,000 employees, headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, and a history dating to the 1790 patent statute.
United States v. Live Nation Entertainment
United States et al. v. Live Nation Entertainment (S.D.N.Y. 1:24-cv-03973) is the 2024 DOJ and state attorneys general antitrust suit alleging Live Nation and Ticketmaster monopolized primary ticketing, concert promotion, and amphitheaters, settled by DOJ in 2026 but won by states at jury trial.
United States v. Microsoft Corp.
United States v. Microsoft Corp., the 1998 federal Sherman Act antitrust case over Internet Explorer and Windows, tried before Judge Jackson, appealed to the D.C. Circuit, and settled with conduct remedies in 2002.
Use of copyrighted works by the second Trump administration
Use of copyrighted works by the second Trump administration: official videos using artists' music without permission, a DOJ statement of interest backing OpenAI's fair-use defense against The New York Times, the AI Action Plan, and the firing of Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter.
VAT identification number
A VAT identification number, also called a VAT number or VATIN, is a unique number identifying a business registered for value added tax, issued by national tax administrations.
Volcker Rule
The Volcker Rule, also known as the Volcker plan, is a 2010 United States banking regulation barring banks from proprietary trading and from sponsoring hedge funds.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (WLRK) is a New York corporate law firm founded in 1965, known for takeover defense, the poison pill invented by Martin Lipton, and leading profits per equity partner among US firms.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
The WEEE Directive (Directive 2002/96/EC, recast as 2012/19/EU) is EU legislation requiring separate collection, treatment and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment, with producer financing, a 65% collection target, and a 2024 amendment fixing retroactive cost rules.
Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing: reporting suspected organizational wrongdoing to internal channels, regulators, or the public. Key frameworks include the US False Claims Act (1863), Sarbanes-Oxley (2002), Dodd-Frank SEC awards of 10-30%, OSHA anti-retaliation enforcement, and EU Directive 2019/1937.
White-shoe firm
White-shoe firm: American term for a prestigious, long-established law firm, investment bank, or accounting firm tied to Ivy League, WASP elite culture; examples include Cravath, Davis Polk, and Sullivan & Cromwell.
Work made for hire
A work made for hire is a US copyright category in which the employer or commissioning party, not the creator, is treated as the author and copyright owner.
Workers' compensation
Workers' compensation is state-regulated no-fault insurance in the United States paying medical, wage-loss, and rehabilitation benefits for occupational injuries in exchange for limited employer liability. It began with Bismarck's 1884 German laws, a 1908 federal act, and Wisconsin's 1911 program.
Write-off
Write-off: colloquial term for a tax deduction, an amount subtracted from taxable income for costs, losses, or depreciation; distinct from a credit, and also used for accounting write-offs and cancellation of uncollectible tax debt.