Features
Safe-Harbor Considerations For Web Videos
From YouTube's perspective, taking burdensome steps to prevent the posting of potentially infringing content could destroy the business model and consumer goodwill upon which it relies. [Although YouTube recently announced it was tesing a new copyright filtering process.] This information sharing/rights protection dilemma is not solely limited to YouTube ' many Web sites and other service providers face decisions every day concerning the propriety of user-generated content. The U.S. Copyright Act may provide a critical solution to that dilemma.
Features
The China Syndrome: Will the U.S. Legal System Deal with Tainted Chinese Imports or Meltdown?
The 'classic' product liability lawsuit against the Chinese manufacturer raises many issues, including, but not limited to, jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, and the uncertainty as to whether traditional U.S. product liability or tort defenses apply. Probably the most important issue, enforcement of any judgment in China, is also either unchartered or risky territory for a claimant.
Features
Selling Your e-Commerce Company For Private Equity Money
Entrepreneurs have traditionally dreamed of creating family businesses that would last for generations. Certainly, everyone has seen the stickers and other marketing testifying to a firm's and its founding family's decades of service, and their stability and track record. But in today's constantly changing e-commerce world, a business often must reinvent itself several times in one generation, much less plan to last for several.
Features
Subleasing Pointers: The Perspective of a Prime Landlord, Sublandlord, and Subtenant
This three-part article provides a pointers for the Prime Landlord, Sublandlord, and Subtenant to consider when negotiating provisions relating to subleasing.
Features
In the Spotlight: Things to Think About During Review of a Lease
To review another party's form commercial retail lease adequately and completely, one must analyze all the attached exhibits. Do the exhibits to the lease either supplement the lease or potentially modify its terms and conditions. This article covers: 1) commencement date memorandum; 2) estoppel certificates; 3) exclusives and prohibited uses; and 4) rules and regulations.
Features
Creditor's Rights Vindicated: Bad Faith Chapter 11 Dismissed By Appellate Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has often declared that the bankruptcy court is a place strictly reserved for 'honest debtors.' And while that connotes individuals, there is no escaping the implication that it is just as applicable to businesses that should only be seeking to advance legitimate ends via the bankruptcy process. Yet, an even more direct admonition to all who may file a bankruptcy case is the requirement of 'good faith,' a concept general enough to be adaptable, but strict enough to require entrants to come into the proceedings with the proverbial 'clean hands.'
Features
e-Commerce Communities Employ Medieval Justice
It's an apparent contradiction, or maybe an irony, but it's a fact that e-commerce merchants, like their medieval predecessors, often use their own lex mercatoria, or merchant law, in lieu of traditional law. Online marketplace managers, like those who managed medieval fairs, regularly require participants to change their behavior or face banishment. Medieval merchants resolved difficulties in accord with notions of fair dealing rather than invoking a specific body of substantive principles. As an anachronistic consequently, e-commerce participants might find that the substantive law of merchants is applicable to e-commerce, and e-commerce counsel may, in some instances, want to recommend that clients take this tack.
Features
When Real Estate Isn't Real
For years, e-commerce writers have distinguished the 'bad, old bricks-and-mortar' world from the 'new and improved' e-commerce economy. But recently, the marketing, purchase and sale of real estate have all begun to join online.
Features
The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007: Are the Days of Mandatory Arbitration Provisions Numbered?
A 'consumer protection' bill that would bar as invalid and unenforceable mandatory arbitration provisions relating to, among other things, franchise disputes is presently referred to the Senate's Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary and its Subcommittee on Commerce and Administrative Law. If passed by Congress, the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007 ('AFA') (S. 1782 and H.R. 3010) introduced by sponsors, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), would significantly, in both the eyes of franchisors and their franchisees, amend the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. '1, <i>et seq.</i> ('FAA') to not only invalidate mandatory arbitration provisions in the context of franchise disputes, but also for consumer and employment disputes as well.
Features
Injunctions in the Franchising Context: Comparing the Canadian and American Systems
Franchisors often seek injunctions to enforce non-competition and other covenants contained in their franchise agreements, sometimes during but most often after the end of the franchise relationship. A common example is an injunction to enforce a covenant in which the franchisee contracts to not compete in a similar business for a specified period of time and within a specified geographic area. If successful, the moving party-franchisor is granted an injunction forcing the former franchisee to abide by its contractual obligations for the specified time period. Given the time it generally takes to reach trial, the non-competition clause often will expire before the trial occurs. As such, a successful interlocutory injunction motion often will finally decide the issues for the franchisor, rendering the trial moot. Given this reality, parties frequently settle after a successful interlocutory injunction, or the case may be abandoned after an unsuccessful one.
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