Confidentiality Controversy
August 01, 2003
By a slim 17-vote margin, the American Bar Association's House of Delegates during the association's annual meeting changed model rules governing the attorney-client privilege in the hopes of combating corporate fraud.
Risk Modeling, Not Patent Mining: Identifying the Best Patents for Licensing
August 01, 2003
Patent value increases when positive cash flow can be attributed directly to it. Ideal patents for licensing are those already being used (or, perhaps, abused) by others. Unfortunately, identifying unauthorized patent use can be like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. Random patent mining by bibliometric methods is an extremely inefficient method of identifying licensing candidates — but many patent owners continue to use such methods out of habit.
Maximizing Your Patent Prosecution Dollars: A Few Simple Considerations
August 01, 2003
According to the statistics released by the USPTO (available online at <i>www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm)</i>, approximately 326,508 utility patent applications were filed in 2001 in the United States and 166,045 utility patents were granted. The cost associated with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications last year was a multi-billion dollar business. In this era of cost controls, it is rare to find a patent prosecution department that is not subject to budgetary constraints. In-house patent counsel, as the gatekeepers for prosecution, need to select and work with outside patent counsel to maximize the return on their patent prosecution investment.
Counterfeit Drugs: A New Source of Product Liability?
August 01, 2003
Drug counterfeiting robs pharmaceutical manufacturers of their investment in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade dress. It robs pharmacists and consumers of money, for worthless and sometimes dangerous products. It undermines the integrity of and consumer confidence in the American health care industry and in the government's ability to regulate it. More troubling than all these systemic evils, drug counterfeiting has the potential to allow controllable illnesses to ravage patients unchecked, to spread rather than stop disease, and to injure and kill.
New Regs for Reprocessed Single-Use Devices
August 01, 2003
Single-use medical devices (SUDs) are designed and approved by the FDA to be used once and thrown away. The practice of cleaning and reusing disposable medical devices has resulted from hospitals' continuing search for cost-cutting alternatives. The safety and efficacy of reprocessing SUDs has been the subject of significant - and heated - debate.
Private Companies Join the Club
July 01, 2003
According to AMR Research, which recently surveyed 60 Fortune 1,000 companies, it is estimated that the Fortune 1,000 will spend $2.5 billion in 2003 alone in costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the Act) compliance. How much more will be spent by smaller public companies and by those in the private-company sector is a mystery, but the total costs - in cash, time, consulting fees, lost opportunities, and human resources - will surely be staggering.
Flight to Quality: Why Business Plans Don't Get Funded
July 01, 2003
Your business plan is very often the first impression potential investors get about your venture. But even if you have a great product, team, and customers, it could also be the last impression the investor gets if you make any of these avoidable mistakes.
Best Practices In Law Firm Marketing: Think Strategically and Tactically For Maximum Results Part one of two
May 01, 2003
If you've watched "That '70s Show" and lived through the era, you get a good chuckle out of reminiscing. If you're a bit younger, the music, clothing and situations may seem like strange rituals. So it is with the changing landscape of law firm marketing. For firms who market successfully, the promotional-based approach of the '80s has morphed into something that's far more strategic and owes more to long-range planning than it does to short-term tactics.
Firms Take Hard Line on Law Directories
May 01, 2003
What is the single biggest marketing expense at many large law firms? Not hip, computer-animated television commercials. Not bold, full-page ads in <I>The New York Times</I> or <I>The Wall Street Journal</i>. Certainly not pens and tote bags handed out to clients and law students.
You Are The Tea: The Crucial Role Of Image In Law Firm Marketing
May 01, 2003
Imagine, for a moment that, instead of being an attorney, you are a pile of tea. I'm fairly certain no one has ever asked you to do so before, but bear with me. You are a pile of tea. Not a big pile. A few ounces. And, truth be told, you aren't much different than any other pile of tea. You might be a slightly different flavor. You might be decaffeinated. And, while tea connoisseurs might disagree, to almost everyone else, let's face it, tea is tea. Now, here's your choice: You can put yourself in a generic box with the local supermarket chain's logo on it and sell on aisle 14 for $1.99, or you can pack yourself into a fancy white box decorated with Japanese higura characters with delicate cranes and bonsai trees, call yourself Tazo, and sell at Starbucks for $4.99.
