As franchise lawyers, we see hundreds of cases a year that impact our practice. Many are very important "bread and butter" cases, such as state court opinions dealing with parol evidence and integration clauses and federal cases involving trademark infringement. These are important cases that every franchise lawyer should know because they help in the day-to-day battles. Far more interesting to us, and we would imagine to most franchise attorneys, are the big cases that have happened maybe once or twice a year over the past 10 years that have made everyone wonder, "What in the world is going on?" We have selected 10 such cases that were decided in the past 10 years, made a substantial impact on franchise law, and have made most of the franchisor and franchisee legal community take a good, hard look at how to do business in the future. These are 10 cases that, at least at the time they were decided, changed the landscape for franchise attorneys and their clients.
- February 24, 2005Jeffery S. Haff and Andrew Scott
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
February 24, 2005Peter C. LagariasArmstrong Business Services, Inc., et al., Appellants v. H & R Block, et al., Bus. Franchise Guide (CCH) '12,485, 96 S.W.3d 867 (Mo. App. 2002). The Armstrong case involved H&R Block franchisees who sued their franchisor for, among other things, encroaching upon the franchisees' territories through the franchisor's Internet business. H&R Block then filed a counterclaim, alleging that all of the franchisees' franchise agreements were terminable at will by Block.
February 24, 2005Jeffery S. Haff and Andrew ScottHighlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.
February 24, 2005ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
February 24, 2005Julian S. Millstein, Edward A. Pisacreta and Jeffrey D. NeuburgerLaw firms use Internet technology to communicate in ways that were not possible 10 years ago.
This boon in client-to-counsel and internal firm communications has allowed lawyers to share information as never before. But, more important, the technology associated with the Internet allows law firms direct control over Net communications because they own the individual networks that allow information to be shared, a situation that brings increased liability for copyright infringement, unless firms comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The good news for practitioners is that compliance requires little investment of time or money. Similarly, e-mail protection is readily available at little or no additional cost.February 24, 2005Jonathan BickConsider this tempting business scenario: Your e-commerce marketing manager has a new, and effective, method to drive traffic to the company Web site ' purchase your competitors' trademarks as keywords to match Internet users' searches to a "sponsor" listing for your company. The sweet spot of the proposal is that as a sponsor, your listing will appear before all other relevant search results. That will give your company an advantage over competitors.
So, do you tell your manager to purchase third-party trademarks as keywords? And how have the courts dealt with this situation in this country and abroad? Most important in advising e-commerce clients, though, is this consideration: How can you reduce risks associated with buying third-party trademarks as keywords?February 24, 2005Monica B. Richman and Melanie BradleyCollecting taxes from remote sellers has long plagued tax collectors ' in fact, since well before e-commerce of any kind came onto the scene. On the seller side, everyone ' catalog and mail-order merchants, as well as e-commerce sites ' would all welcome relief from managing the rules of more than 7,500 taxing jurisdictions.
Many years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked states from requiring sellers to collect and turn over sales tax, unless the seller has sufficient in-state presence. But e-commerce has called new and very visible attention to the problem.February 24, 2005Stanley P. JaskiewiczWhat does the in-house lawyer need to be doing today to be prepared for the upcoming Proxy Statement season and to ensure that his client's deferred compensation plans and agreements are in compliance with (or exempt, ie, grandfathered, from) IRC '409A?
February 24, 2005Stephen W. SkoniecznyCorporations and law firms who manage large ongoing and mission-critical litigation, such as toxic tort or products liability cases, are supercharging the databases they rely on to track and manage the facts and documents in those cases. They are adding full text and linguistic pattern searching capabilities to enable them to gain better command and mastery of the facts and the documents in the case. It is, after all, difficult to have command and mastery of facts or documents you can't find, or to see relationships or patterns in documents you've never before reviewed as a group. Not only are the new databases more effective, but the costs of supercharging them are often offset by savings from avoiding the ongoing costs of the legacy databases.
February 24, 2005Joseph Howie