Get Back to the Real World of Security
June 26, 2007
Properly securing physical data before, during and after litigation often can be eclipsed by concerns about online 'virtual' security issues. Agreed ' firewalls, data encryption and password protection are vital safeguards. But another part of the story is how to properly secure and dispose of your hard drives, CDs, backup tapes, and obsolete hardware such as laptops, PCs, PDAs and thumb drives. Ignoring physical data-security considerations is not only careless and irresponsible ' it is just plain dangerous.
When the CEO Wants His Hotmail
June 26, 2007
Not only do most of us not have a secretary tidying up our e-mail inbox each evening, but we also have many alternative inboxes for our business correspondence. For work, a busy executive may have an office e-mail account, a Blackberry for around-the-clock access and an online mail account (such as through Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo!) for convenience when traveling. He or she probably also has a personal account for non-business e-mail, like jokes, that must be kept out of the firm's accounts. Going through 'the file' has become an exercise not only in finding the appropriate messages and attachments, but in simply identifying all places and accounts where 'the file' might exist. Indeed, multiple accounts often are created by employees to bypass the hassles of security measures and record-retention policies diligently created by IT departments who often diligently enforce these polices and whose employees read and apply the information in publications like this one.
e-Commerce for Credit Managers
June 26, 2007
Collecting bills from firms that exist only on a computer server and monitors is becoming as much a part of Main Street in the 21st century as selling to the corner store was in the19th, and as selling to the mall store was in the 20th century. Suppliers to e-commerce firms, whether of inventory for resale online, or of servers or other equipment used in operations, must be paid, or they will cut off credit or sell only C.O.D.
e-Commerce Continues to Grow
June 26, 2007
The economy racked up another apparent e-commerce activity record in the first quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. The government says that e-commerce sales, which include Internet and other electronically conducted transactions, rang up at a little more than $31.5 billion from January through March, plus or minus a 1.3% margin of error.
Coordinating Traditional and Internet Sales
June 26, 2007
Manufacturers and distributors use traditional stores and Internet sites to sell goods and services. But too often, when identical items are offered simultaneously through these channels, Internet price advertisements divert so much business from the traditional stores that those traditional outlets stop offering the items. MAP ('minimum advertised price') agreements, which prevent items from being advertised below some specified amount (the minimum advertised price), are often employed to maintain access to traditional and Internet sales channels.
Calendar Complications for Patent Attorneys
May 30, 2007
Last month's article addressed patent attorneys' subservience to deadlines and WIPO help. This month's installment concludes with unplanned events and the virtual world.
Lawyer Ads in Cyberspace
May 30, 2007
Nearly 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided <i>Bates v. State Bar of Arizona</i> (433 U.S. 350 (1977; holding that 'blanket suppression' of attorney advertisements was an unconstitutional interference with First Amendment rights. However, the Court also recognized that some regulation of attorney advertising was necessary to protect consumers who lacked legal sophistication. Thus, the Court ruled that statements in lawyer ads that might pass muster in other industries could be misleading and were subject to reasonable regulation as to time, place and manner. The conflict between the First Amendment right to speech and the necessity and reasonableness of regulation of attorney advertising has continued to evolve since <i>Bates</i>, responding not just to changing mores regarding professional conduct, but to the challenges of new technology media.
24-Hour News Cycle? Not on a Blogger's Life
May 30, 2007
Amid the screaming and righteous indignation of the Don Imus incident, communications crisis managers were learning their own lesson. And it wasn't that TV networks, hit in the pocketbook, can get very moral (we already knew that); it was that speed really does kill.
