e-Commerce and Canada
April 30, 2009
With a recession taking a chunk from some e-retailers' sales, U.S. entrepreneurs are looking to expand their e-sales base north of the border, onto Canadian consumers' computer screens. But reaching that wider shopper base can present problems, particularly when a Web retailer attempts cross-border transactions into Canada. Many retailers may be surprised to learn that a number of legal differences exist that can present thorny issues to even the smallest boutique U.S.-based Web site selling to customers who make their purchases online in Canada.
e-Discovery of Structured Data
April 30, 2009
At the outset of an investigation, timelines and custodian-created information assets can all be garnered from extracts of accounting data, e-mails and documents through traditional discovery and disclosure. None of this tells you how, specifically, an event or series of events occurred. Were the alleged claims the result of system control errors, malicious employee action, fraud or simple misrepresentations by management as a means of covering up systemic losses by cooking the books to avoid audit concerns?
Social Media Policies: Your Firm Needs One
April 30, 2009
Being engaged in social networks has enormous value for your firm. Through them, you can establish thought leadership, find new recruits, provide a more efficient way for potential clients to find you online, and participate in and monitor discussions about the issues that impact your clients and your firm. The first thing you must do is create a social media policy ' or modify an existing policy that is free and available for you to borrow.
TTAB Fraud Standard
April 29, 2009
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ("Board") of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") has routinely invalidated trademark registrations based on findings of fraud following its decision in 2003 in <i>Medinol v. Neuro Vasx, Inc.</i> The Board's fraud standard does not require proof of scienter or intent to defraud, but rather a mere showing that the applicant knew, or should have known, that certain statements made in trademark applications or renewal declarations were inaccurate.
News Briefs
April 29, 2009
News items of importance to you and your practice.
Inventory Management
April 29, 2009
Clients withholding payments directly impacts partners' bottom lines. As such, law firms are always focused on billing and collecting as much as they can in the last quarter of the year. The current crisis has trumped even the most diligent efforts of law firms to bring in cash, and it illustrates the importance of having sound inventory management practices that are followed throughout the year.
2008 Law Firm Compensation Program Survey Results
April 29, 2009
Incisive Legal Intelligence Surveys (formerly Altman Weil Publications') recently released its sixth look at the methods and philosophies of compensation in private law firms: The Survey of Compensation Programs in Law Firms. Data were collected during the last quarter of 2008. This article provides commentary on highlights from the partner compensation portion of the study.
Unitary Business Taxation Principles
April 29, 2009
For at least the last two decades, law firms have continually expanded their operations across state lines (and national boundaries as well). Thus, today's law firms have to confront the intriguing and difficult questions of the power of the several states to tax operations that extend across state lines.
