Court Watch
July 31, 2006
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
Access to SBA Contracts
July 31, 2006
Under current U.S. Small Business Administration ('SBA') regulations, franchisees and licensees are not, by virtue of their contractual franchise and license agreements alone, ineligible to bid on small business set-aside procurement contracts or to apply for SBA loans. Although franchise or license relationships do not make franchisees or licensees automatically ineligible, they are cause for affiliation scrutiny by the SBA or protesting bidders if a franchisee or licensee is the successful bidder on a procurement or is an applicant for an SBA loan.
Anticipated New Federal Rules on Electronic Discovery
July 31, 2006
The following is a summary of key issues addressed by Paul Reeve and Jonathan Solish in a session about electronic discovery that they led at the 2006 International Franchise Association Legal Symposium in Washington, DC. The summary was prepared by the authors of the presentation.
Increasing Competition in China Causes Friction for Law Firms
July 31, 2006
To U.S. lawyers, Becky Xia's career move may not make much sense. <br>Earlier this year, the 27-year-old Chinese immigration lawyer leapt at the chance to join Littler Global, even though ' technically speaking ' doing so meant she could no longer practice law.
Increased Piracy Puts More Heat on China
July 31, 2006
The entertainment industry hoped the counterfeiting of movies, music, software and books would plummet after China agreed in 2002 to abide by the World Trade Organization's (WTO) standards for global intellectual property rights. Instead, the industry says piracy has increased dramatically, leading some American companies to view the Chinese government as unable ' or unwilling ' to curb it. And industry lobbyists are now helping the U.S. government prepare a case that could be brought…
Doing Business in China via the Cayman Islands (2006 Update)
July 31, 2006
Many companies doing business in China are using a structure that includes a company formed under the laws of the Cayman Islands (CI). Chinese technology and Internet companies listed on NASDAQ ' such as Actions Semiconductor, Baidu, CTrip, China Medical Technologies, Focus Media, Shanda, Suntech Power and Tom Online ' are actually CI companies. The primary business reasons for an offshore structure are flexibility in an exit strategy, whether in connection with an initial public offering (IPO) or an acquisition; the possibility of reducing U.S. taxes; and reducing the impact of China's currency exchange restrictions.
HIPAA Gets 'Teeth'
July 31, 2006
Memories of HIPAA Compliance likely have long faded for many HR and benefits professionals. You distributed your Privacy Notices, trained your staff, conducted a 'risk assessment' of your information systems under the Security Rule, and formally adopted a thick binder of HIPAA Privacy and Security policies. HIPAA, like Y2K, has come and gone, and health plan compliance has turned to bigger and more pressing issues, right? Not quite.
Compliance Programs for Private Companies
July 31, 2006
We all know that a proactive Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), combined with implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), and activation of the Public Company Auditor Oversight Board (PCAOB), has triggered intense scrutiny on corporate ethics and accountability. One by-product of this is that the public company has come to serve as a mentor of sorts to the private company in the arena of corporate compliance programs, offering certain 'best practices' that may also be useful to the privately held company, its management, and its shareholders or owners.
Security Breaches
July 31, 2006
There are as yet no direct equivalents of the mandatory security breach reporting legislation we have seen in the U.S., either at an EU level or within Europe itself. That is not to say there is no law on the reporting of breaches in Europe. While a number of countries have been looking at the increasing number of security breaches, in the main the response has been to use existing privacy legislation to take action.
