Blog
Foiling the Hyenas
The plunge from the easy money of the 2004-2008 era to The Great Recession hurt a lot of people. The easy credit of plastic morphed into a nightmare of bills and the inability to make even minimum payments. People who lost their jobs or were unable to afford finance charges that, in some cases, exceeded 20% annually, were saddled with debt that they couldn’t pay back, and no one game them a break. However, the banks that initially extended the bad debt, at worst case, were folded into healthy banks, and usually sold their bad debt at a deep discount – as low as 1%-2% of the total value – to companies that make their living suing those who can’t pay back their debt. How does someone in tough circumstances fight back against the hyenas?
July 5, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Business Law, Consumer Credit, High Technology Law, Political Tagged CACH, CACH LLC, Cal. Civ. Proc. Code sec. 1030, credit card, credit card debt, Fight, great recession, Hyenas, LLC, Midland Funding, Portfolio Recovery Leave a comment
What Season Is It? It’s Duck Season!
By: Andrew K Jacobson Look at the picture: what is it? A duck? A rabbit? Both? Depending on what hunting season it happens to be, a lot can depend on the answer. The same is true in copyright. Cable companies rebroadcast transmissions to their customers from broadcasters. Originally, the Supreme Court ruled that was acceptable, […]
June 26, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Business Counseling, Business Law, Copyright, Intellectual Property Tagged ABC, Aereo, Breyer, Copyright, performance, retransmission, Scalia, Supreme Court Leave a comment
What Flavor is your NDA?
By Andrew Jacobson Ah, the conundrums of a child’s summer: butterscotch, or strawberry? Mint chocolate chip, or triple fudge? Cone or cup? Businesses have their less-tasty choices, but they are still there: what flavor is your non-disclosure agreement? There are almost as many options for NDAs as there are at your local ice-cream store. […]
June 23, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Business Counseling, Business Law, Employment, High Technology Law, Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets Tagged Destroy Information, ice cream, NDA, NDAs, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Trade Secrets Leave a comment
Employment Law Update – How up to date are you?
By Daniel Richardson Is your employee handbook up to date? An up to date employee handbook is important because it outlines for the employee the employer’s policies and procedures as well as establishing the expected standards. Using an employee handbook from the outset of the employment relationship to establish expected standards can be invaluable […]
June 13, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Business Law, Employment, High Technology Law, JOBS Act, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Political, Uncategorized Tagged employee, employee comission, employment law, handbook, technology, working from home Leave a comment
Game of — Pawns?
The FBI tells the story of Glenn Shriver, a former college student from Michigan who learned Mandarin and lived in China in 2004. He made some friends who encouraged him to find a job with the US government. He received some $70,000 merely to apply for such a job, but by the time the FBI arrested him, he realized that his friends were actually intelligence agents wanting to place a mole inside US agencies.
National agencies are not the only targets. US companies are also subject to foreign espionage. Just last month, the Justice Department announced indictments of five members of China’s military for stealing US companies’ trade secrets.
June 6, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Business Counseling, Business Law, High Technology Law, Political, Trade Secrets Tagged espionage, FBI, Game of Pawns, Genn Shriver, Trade Secrets Leave a comment
DESIGN PATENTS — The IP Solution for Many Small Businesses
By: Sharon Adams The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently commemorated the issuance of the 700,000th design patent for a “Hand-Held Learning Apparatus” currently assigned to the Emeryville, California-based LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. A design patent often is an excellent intellectual property solution for many small businesses, especially businesses selling a product. If the […]
May 23, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Intellectual Property Tagged 000th design patent, 37 C.F.R.1.153, 700, design patent, hand held learning apparatus, leapfrog, Michelle Lee, USPTO Leave a comment
Phishing Scam Alert
Our friends at Boyer & Conniff shared this warning about IRS scams: Important reminder The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers to request personal or financial information by email, texting, or any social media. The IRS has been alerted to a new email phishing scam. The emails appear to be from the IRS and include a […]
Trade Secrets Done Right
A recent San Mateo County case, Altavion v. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc. , shows how a plaintiff can identify trade secrets with reasonable particularity on the way to winning a $4.8 million trade secret misappropriation case.
May 16, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business Law, High Technology Law, Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets Tagged 2019.210, Altavion, digital stamping machine, DST, KMSL, Konica, reasonable particularity, secrecy, trade secret misappropriation Leave a comment
“Who Gave You Permission to Make That?” The Intellectual Property Implications of 3D Printing.
Although 3D printing has been around since the early 1980s, recent improvements and price decreases of 3D printing technology has made it available to an increasing number of businesses and consumers. Advances in the technology have allowed designers to 3D print designs virtually impossible to make just a few years ago, from an assortment of materials ranging from plastic to living cells. The price barrier to 3D printing has finally lowered to a point where regular consumers have begun entering the marketplace and companies such as Stratasys and 3D Systems have begun making relatively inexpensive lines of 3D “desktop” printers targeted at consumers. 3D printing, much like the PC in the early 1980s, is poised to make the leap from the domain of big businesses, researchers, and hobbyists to everyday consumers and small businesses.
May 13, 2014 Posted in Business Law, Copyright, High Technology Law, Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademarks Tagged 3D, 3D printing, IP Law, Makerbot, penrose triangle, printing on plastic, Samsung, The Economist, Thingiverse Leave a comment
Where Exceptional Becomes Normal
by: Andrew K Jacobson Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon is famous as the place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” Exceptional gets defined down when it applies to everyone. Last month, the US Supreme Court has defined down the term exceptional regarding patent […]
May 8, 2014 Posted in Articles, Business, Patent, Political Tagged 17 U.S.C., Attorneys' Fees, exceptional, Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon, patent trolls, Supreme Court Leave a comment
