Monitoring the Nasdaq Capital Gains
December 01, 2003
We are at a wonderful period in time in many ways. We are enjoying the year-end holiday season with our family and friends, the Dow index has crested the…
Trends in Deal Terms
December 01, 2003
Set forth below are our findings based on a review of the 34 publicly-reported venture capital financings that took place in the Mid-Atlantic region during…
Are Anti-Trust Laws About to Bite Europe on Its IP Assets?
December 01, 2003
In the Nov. 11 edition of <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>, Ian Harvey, chief executive of tech firm BTG plc, said "if the European Commission were looking for a way to cripple technological innovation in Europe, it could hardly have come up with a better proposal than its proposed rules on technology transfer." Indeed, that proposal will no longer govern merely patents and know-how, but also software-copyright licenses - a move that might very well have a big impact on a variety of e-commerce business models.
Canadian MP and Senator Champion Anti-Spam Bills
December 01, 2003
Two bills aimed at establishing strict national anti-spam legislation in Canada expired when the last session of Parliament ended in November without them being enacted, but the legislators who introduced the measures vowed to reintroduce the bills in the next session of Parliament, which is expected to begin Jan. 12, 2004. The bills, as drafted, would subject people who violate the laws to hefty fines, imprisonment, or both.
Enron Versus Wall Street
December 01, 2003
In late September 2003, Enron Corp. and Enron North America Corp. sued more than 40 banks and financial institution defendants for knowingly participating with insiders of Enron in a "multi-year scheme to manipulate and misstate Enron's financial condition." Complaint at '1.
Patent Protection or <i>Per Se</i> Antitrust Violation?
December 01, 2003
As the winter months approached, a storm was brewing in the antitrust world. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Eleventh circuits have split over the per se illegality of Hatch-Waxman patent-settlement agreements by which a patent-holding drug maker pays a generic drug company to delay its entry into the market. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has harshly criticized these agreements, and now the Supreme Court has an opportunity to calm the fury.
Study: Forget the 'Blockbusters'
December 01, 2003
A study whose results were reported December 8 asserts that the pharmaceutical industry's "blockbuster" approach to developing new drugs is no longer viable in today's marketplace.
Nonprofit Corporate Governance
December 01, 2003
In November, the Associated Press reported that HealthSouth's directors, outside auditors and investment bankers had been called to testify before Congress concerning why they failed to detect the massive conspiracy, allegedly led by chief executive Richard Scrushy, to overstate earnings of the one of the nation's largest providers of health care services. The case has already seen more than a dozen former executives of the HealthSouth Corp. plead guilty.
Spam Gets Canned Federal Anti-Spam Law to Take Effect January 1
December 01, 2003
More than 35 states have enacted laws regulating spam in some form or fashion. Legitimate marketers and businesses adapted to these various state laws, gravitating toward a fairly uniform best practices model, which stopped short of the sort of true "opt-in only" model strongly preferred by consumer and anti-spam groups. Mailers could be fairly confident that they would avoid liability under state spam laws and not overly alienate Internet service providers (ISPs) or their own customers by simply including valid contact information, honoring "opt-out" requests, providing accurate headers and routing information, using nondeceptive subject lines and (in a few states) labeling the messages as advertisements. This widely followed compliance strategy became unworkable in September 2003, however, when California instead enacted a true "opt-in" approach to commercial e-mail marketing. Marketers were faced with a January 2004 compliance deadline and sweeping new prohibitions on marketing to or from any California e-mail address unless the sender had the recipient's "direct consent" or had a "pre-existing business relationship" with the recipient (and the recipient had not "opted out" of such mailings). In response, legitimate marketers aggressively lobbied Congress to accelerate final passage of federal legislation to pre-empt at least the more disruptive aspects of California's new law prior to its effective date. Congress responded to the call, and the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Dec. 16, 2003.
A Look Back and A Look Forward
December 01, 2003
Four months ago when I was asked to become Editor-in-Chief of <i>Marketing The Law Firm</i>, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to engage a wonderful group of authors; select an outstanding Board of Editors; and moderate the first of what I hope will be many exciting and interesting Web audio seminars. As I look back on the last four months, I think the one thing that stands out in my mind is the fact that we had so many wonderful contributors to the newsletter. So I thought that we might take a look at the last 4 months and some of the highlights. Although I would love to be able to select all of the articles we've published, given the constraints of space, I am only able to pick two from each issue to feature. In case you missed reading these issues, we'll give you a nutshell version of these articles. I would also be remiss if I didn't say how much I appreciated the efforts of Russ Lawson and Mike O'Horo, whose monthly columns provided all of us with a look at the intricacies of marketing both in a law firm setting and to smaller firms and solos. And as we look forward, we'll take a look at what's coming up and a preview of our editorial calendar.
