Cloud-based services have exploded in popularity over the last decade due to their ability to provide the convenience of on-demand resources along with generating efficiencies. However, given the importance of IT to most modern entities' operations, companies must balance the benefits of such outsourced cloud services with the risks associated with entrusting data and critical business processes to third parties.
In May 2015, the streaming music service Pandora acquired the music industry data collection company Next Big Sound, which extensively tracks sales, social and streaming data. In the Internet era, the entertainment and other industries are awash with data, all of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. The Pandora/Next Big Sound deal presents a good moment for a primer on this copyright protection.
Following in the footsteps of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) holds out the potential to link risk and legal data to enable the global enterprise to proactively mitigate legal risk, streamline the legal process, and make insightful decisions in response to market or regulatory changes.
The Federal Circuit has now ruled that advertising a service that the applicant intends to provide in the future, but is not actually providing on the date of the application, is not "use in commerce." Thus, advertising submitted to the USPTO with a use-based application as a specimen of use of the mark in commerce, must relate to existing services already being provided to customers.
Both financial and strategic investors often instinctively reject the idea of acquiring unionized companies. This can be a mistake. Healthy, unionized enterprises can turn out to be excellent investments. The key is analyzing them correctly.
Federal regulations requiring producers of pornographic material to keep records of their models' ages don't violate the First Amendment, but the warrantless searches they authorize violate the Fourth Amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled.
Law firms are as much at risk for cyber attacks as any other industry. Because of the lack of reporting requirements in the industry, it is unclear how many breaches have actually occurred. This article describes some of the reasons law firms are cyber-attack targets, steps they can take to reduce their risk, and what clients are doing to encourage law firms in those efforts.
Data is a rich source for evidence in litigation and, for many companies, a valuable asset. What is less apparent, however, is exactly how to properly manage information and its privacy and security. However, over the past several decades, best practices have been developed for establishing and managing a comprehensive privacy, data protection and information governance program. This article summarizes those learnings to suggest an approach for how to design and run a program that is right for your company.
The registry that owns the controversial domain name ".sucks" has put the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on notice that its criticisms and actions against the company could lead to legal action.
The DOJ Tax Division and the IRS have been ramping up an intense crackdown on offshore tax evasion, and the IRS's reduced resources due to new budget cuts is having no effect on IRS enforcement initiatives in this area.
