CM Report: Business Practice Group Report (2006)
2006 Volume 1
Business Practice Group Report
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Articles in this report
Building and Managing Your Corporate Patent Portfolio
A patent portfolio can be among a corporation’s greatest assets. This article will offer some basic suggestions as to how any company can build, manage and profit from its patentable innovations.
OSHA is Here
These are words that can make management personnel at the largest of companies stop and ask themselves, “now what do we do.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has compliance officers that enforce the OSHA regulations set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations. Typically, we receive calls from new clients after OSHA has already been there and the citations have been issued.
Office Paramours Create a New Twist in the Law
Q. Can an employee successfully allege that an office romance between a supervisor and co-worker creates a hostile work environment?
A. The California Supreme Court recently said yes. . . .
Q. But will other courts follow?
A. Read on….
In an ever-growing global economy, the increased mobility of information has, in most ways, made life simpler for businesses operating internationally; however, in other ways, it has made life extremely more complex. Privacy laws and data protection provisions of various nations often contradict one another and are as diverse as the countries that provide them. It can be a complicated process to establish which nation or nations’ laws apply and what liability a corporation may face for violations. This article will briefly address the rising security protections on personal data under the Directives of the European Union (“EU”) and the potential liability for non-complying businesses.
Unraveling the Complexities of Contractual Disputes
Getting immersed in a breach of contract dispute, as plaintiff or defendant, is like peeling an onion. There’s always another layer to slowly peel. Below is a practical checklist for deciphering which of the many layers you need to peel for defining the existence and parameters of the underlying promises, conditions and trigger points, and ways to establish or defend claims for breach.
Would Illinois Courts Protect Communications With Your Corporate Attorney?
Corporations may presume that communications with their attorneys concerning legal advice are protected from disclosure in litigation, particularly if those communications would be privileged in the state where they occur or corporate management is based. In fact, such communications may not be protected if the corporation is sued in Illinois.
Your Arsenal in the Fight Against Domain Name Pirates
In the beginning of the Internet age, even large corporations, such as the Gateway Corporation, fell prey to domain name pirates that would purchase and register domain names that were identical or similar to the trademarks owned by these consumer giants. For example, in the late 1990’s, a tech savvy pornographer, with no affiliation to Gateway, purchased the domain name gateway2000.com from Network Solutions, Inc., which at that time, was the only company authorized to register domain names ending in .com, .net or .org. Using Gateway’s popular trade name, the pornographer lured the unsuspecting public to his web site where he marketed his obscene material. As e-commerce law was still in its infancy, rather than rely on its uncertain legal position to prevent harm to its reputation, Gateway paid the pornographer $100,000 to discontinue his use of the web site, thereby providing a windfall to the pornographer.
