China's Great Leap In-House
June 12, 2006
These days China is full of Silicon Valley wannabes, but Alibaba.com, headquartered in Hangzhou, is way ahead of the pack. In a headline-grabbing deal last August, the company acquired Yahoo Inc.'s China business (it now operates the Yahoo brand in China), plus a $1 billion investment from the venerable Internet company. Now a $4 billion privately held concern, Alibaba.com is best known for its business auction site (www.alibaba.com, which the company claims is the leading Web site for business-to-business trade in the world) and Taobao.com (www.taobao.com), a consumer auction site that's giving eBay.com a run for its money in China. (Alibaba.com is in English, Taobao.com is in Chinese.)
First Global IP Forum in China Sparks Interest
June 06, 2006
Just days before the U.S. government declared China one of 2005's worst infringers of intellectual property, two Needle & Rosenberg attorneys traveled to Beijing for what they say is the country's first-ever international intellectual property rights conference.
Dismantling the 'Great Wall' of Risk <i>Part Two of a Two-Part Article</i>
June 06, 2006
<b><i>Part Two of a Two-Part Series.</i></b> This two-part article (based on a 2005 white paper issued by ELA's Equipment Leasing Foundation, 'Knocking Down (Great) Walls') looks at the key legal and regulatory issues surrounding investing in the Chinese leasing market. Last month's installment provided a market history and analysis of the current legal and regulatory climate. This month's conclusion examines the experiences of lessors currently operating in China.
News Briefs
May 31, 2006
Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.
Court Watch
May 31, 2006
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
IFA Legal Symposium: Franchise CEOs Emphasize Importance of Legal Counsel in Wide Variety of Business Issues
May 31, 2006
Legal counsel to franchise systems have responsibilities that range from drafting and updating UFOCs, to assisting with purchases of new systems, to monitoring legislative and regulatory activity. Which of these services are most needed by franchisors, and how can in-house or outside counsel maximize their value? A special CEO Roundtable session at the International Franchise Association ('IFA') Legal Symposium in Washington, DC, in May tried to answer some of those questions by bringing together four veteran franchisor CEOs who detailed how they work with inside and outside counsel and where they see legal flashpoints in franchising today.
FTC Proposes New Business Opportunity Rule
May 31, 2006
On April 12, 2006, the Federal Trade Commission ('FTC') published in the Federal Register (Business Opportunity Rule 71 Fed. Reg. 19054 (proposed April 12, 2006) (to be codified at 16 CFR Part 437)) a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the FTC's long-awaited business opportunity rule ('Bus Opp Rule'). The Bus Opp Rule will cover business opportunity sellers who now are covered by the FTC's franchise trade regulation rule ('Franchise Rule'), as well as sellers of certain business opportunities who are not now covered by the Franchise Rule. The FTC has long believed that the same regulation was not the best way to regulate both business opportunity sellers and franchisors. More specifically, the FTC has concluded that each group's special characteristics (such as history of consumer protection problems, sophistication of its target purchasers, required investment commitment, and complexity of business system) required a different regulatory approach. The Bus Opp Rule is designed to create a regulatory scheme to focus on the special characteristics of business opportunities. Until the Bus Opp Rule is promulgated, business opportunity sellers must continue to comply with the current and, if and when adopted, amended Franchise Rule.
IP News
May 31, 2006
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
New Antitrust Considerations for Tying Schemes
May 31, 2006
The Supreme Court has recently abolished the presumption that a patent confers 'market power' on the patent owner, ending the presumption of antitrust liability arising from the conditioning of a patent license to the purchase of unpatented articles. <i>See Illinois Tool Works v. Indep. Ink, Inc.</i>, 126 S. Ct. 1281 (2006). As discussed below, this decision will have wide-ranging implications to the field of patent licensing, where fear of antitrust liability has tended to dampen the creativity of patent license schemes.
