Technology Media and Telecom

Features

A federal magistrate's order that stops a Web site from routinely tossing relevant data could, if replicated, carry broad e-discovery implications. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian's ruling in late spring required TorrentSpy, a widely used indexing Web site that provides users with forums for comment and operates on a peer-to-peer protocol, to turn over customer data only ephemerally kept in its computers' random access memory, or 'RAM.' The ruling could result in floods of similar requests in other civil cases.

Features

The latest study on CRM projects (known as the CHAOS Chronicles), conducted in 2006, shows that close to 50% of projects fail, much lower than the over 74% figure that has been circulating for years. This is good news: It means, in part, that many industries are learning to manage CRM as a living entity that changes and grows as an organization does. It also reveals that we are getting wiser about our approach to CRM projects, heeding the advice that the best way to 'eat an elephant' is one piece at a time.

Features

As Director of Technology and Marketing, much of the responsibility of selecting, maintaining and upgrading to the most powerful technology available is mine. My department also helps coordinate the firm's marketing efforts, such as mailings and events. As part of the firm's mission to provide expertise in multiple practice areas, we have come to understand how vital it is to encourage flexibility and mastery of the latest technology among its attorney users. To achieve results efficiently, a firm must have a streamlined approach to stay competitive and run efficiently.

Features

When introducing new technologies or processes, managing the challenge of change requires a clear vision, ongoing two-way communication with the affected stakeholders and an understanding of people's levels of influence and commitment to the change. A law firm's culture can impede the adoption of new processes. When employees are accustomed to performing tasks in a certain way, you are bound to come up against some resistance if the new processes translate into a loss of their routines and comfort levels. Therefore, it is imperative that you get the appropriate people involved early in the planning to make sure they understand the new systems and processes ' and how the changes will affect them and the firm.

Features

It seems that information flows unabated onto the desktop or into the PDA 24/7. For many years, information was contained by fee-based access to aggregators, like LexisNexis and Westlaw, or obtained through the services of a third party. In the last few years, the governmental units and private data creators have begun to distribute information directly through the Internet. Much property information now comes from freely available, or reasonably priced, sources on the Internet. And it is available 24/7.

Features

Before the Supreme Court's April 30, 2007 decision in <i>KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc. et al.</i>, 127 S.Ct. 1727 (2007) virtually all patent attorneys were on the edge of their seats. The decision was a clear indication that the Supreme Court disfavored the current state of the law that had been developed by the Federal Circuit for determining whether a patent is invalid for obviousness under 35 U.S.C. &sect;103. The Supreme Court pointed to numerous errors in the Federal Circuit decision and characterized as 'rigid,' 'formalistic,' 'narrow,' 'constricted,' and 'flaw[ed]' the Federal Circuit's requirement that there be proof the claimed combination of elements was arrived at due to a teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine features from prior art references. <i>Id.</i> at 1739, 1741-42. Instead, the Supreme Court imposed a more flexible approach that sought to emphasize its earlier decisions on obviousness over tests the Federal Circuit had developed to apply the law set forth in those decisions.

Features

If a music file is downloaded to a computer, and no one is there to play it, does it constitute a performance? This is not some question from a digital-age freshman philosophy seminar ' it was the legal issue recently facing Judge William C. Connor in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York in <i>United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ('ASCAP')</i>.

Features

From a veritable river of digital information ' including e-mails, documents, voice mails, video files, databases and other more obscure data sources ' lawyers need to extract only those specific pieces of data that will be relevant to their case. Litigators seek the e-mails, documents or other digital objects that will help exonerate their client. Knowledge of the data that a client has, good or bad, helps counsel properly build a case.