The age of collaboration that the Internet has introduced is changing the rules of intellectual property protection, creating new copyright strategies and enabling a virtual online 'swap meet' for companies holding patents they no longer need and those searching for new technologies.
New York State's new ethical rules governing attorney advertising, which went into effect on Feb. 1, 2007, specifically address the use of Internet and electronic technology to advertise attorney services and serve as an example of how other states may revise their attorney advertising rules as well.
A suit filed recently in New Jersey could emerge as a test case of a landmark ruling that set standards for piercing Internet anonymity.
Confidential client records and work product are the core of any law firm's work product. Most firms understand the necessity of archiving computer and paper files in a safe, off-site location. But what about the active files on a computer? If they are compromised by a hacker, or otherwise threatened by criminal activity, how would it affect a firm's operation?
News about the people leading the e-commerce industry.
New amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ('FRCP') identify electronically stored information, tangible and intangible, as discoverable (relevant, non-privileged) information. This altered landscape, which took shape when the existing rules were amended and the amended rules took effect in December, is one that e-commerce enterprises must size up and become familiar with.
Everyone today is on high alert about the threats of Internet fraud, identity theft and white-collar crime ' or if not, they should be. Internet criminals are constantly cultivating new tactics, and law-enforcement agencies are doing everything they can to head them off.
The New York State Narcotic Bureau of Enforcement is investigating companies in New Jersey, Mississippi and elsewhere for facilitating Internet prescription-medicine transactions. These facilitators include Web site owners, database providers and Internet service providers ' none of which has New York offices, assets or residents. But any indictments or convictions resulting from such New York investigations might be barred by the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The situation is no better in today's competitive international and online economy than in 1949 when Arthur Miller penned his masterpiece 'Death of a Salesman' ' bleak and unforgiving. Whatever he or she might feel about a customer, the sales representative must follow the basic rule of sales: The customer is always right (even when the customer is wrong). With better and more readily accessible knowledge of competing sellers' pricing, customers can comparison shop for the lowest price almost without cost or delay. The lure of a slightly lower price online can make a customer forget the service and support that a good rep can provide. And all the goodwill established by the rep's prior work pales next to a slight price break, from the customer's perspective.
In the good old days, security concerns of tenants could generally be laid to rest simply by recourse to a good locksmith. In those simpler times, and without any association with security matters, landlords and property managers routinely gathered from tenants social security numbers and other information for purposes of protecting the landlord's interests when it came to tracking down miscreant tenants. Because this type of information was not subject to the widening panoply of privacy-related laws that are now becoming ubiquitous across the United States, no special arrangements were typically considered necessary to protect this information, and there was no particular risk or burden imposed on its holder. How things have changed. Nowadays, holding this type of information can constitute a double-edged sword, with any slip carrying with it the possibility of harm to the wielding hand.
