Intellectual Property Law

Ecommerce Glossary

Posted on October 11, 2008
Practical Ecommerce magazine has an online glossary of ecommerce terms: Practical eCommerce Glossary It offers a good selection of ecommerce blogs, too.

Using an API versus Open Source

Posted on October 10, 2008
Many businesses don?t consider the benefits of an Application Programming Interface (API) to generate attention for their software or web services, gain backing of other companies and even lower their own customer support costs.  I often raise this approach with clients since I advised Intuit on setting up its Intuit Developer Network program a few [...

A to Z Legal Issues for Ecommerce Websites

Posted on October 09, 2008
Here’s a good feature article on Entrepreneur.com, which gives the “A to Z” of legal issues to consider for ecommerce websites. It’s an amusing overview really, and isn’t intended as comprehensive.

Major Patent Holding Company Now Demanding Large Fees and Expanding in Asia

Posted on October 08, 2008
Intellectual Ventures, the patent holding company started by the former CTO of Microsoft, Nathan Myhrvold,  has begun obtaining payments from licensees in the $200 million to $400 million range, according to a recent front-page Wall Street Journal article (Tech Guru Riles the Industry by Seeking Huge Patent Fees, by Amol Sharma and Don Clark, September [...

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Strategy at the Edge of Intellectual Property

Posted on April 03, 2008
Imagine working in an industry with no intellectual property protection at all.  Unlike the book, music, and high tech industries, you couldn't use the law to shut down an infringer who was ripping off your products.How would you stay in...

Data Scraping from Web Services

Posted on January 07, 2008
This month's Wired magazine has a perceptive article about so-called "data scraping" or "screen scraping" practices.  It discusses the practical aspects of data scraping (such as IP address banning or blocking as a practical remedy to prevent scraping), use of cease and desist letters, and use of properly-licensed web services application programming interfaces (API's) as a way to control such practices...

Silicon Valley Micro-Cultures and Industry Clusters

Posted on December 21, 2007
A New York Times article describes where the "niche neighborhoods" and industry clusters are located in Silicon Valley, with web design and online advertising centered in San Francisco, software in the Palo Alto area, and semiconductors, disk drives and and network equipment located in the south Bay near San Jose...

Consultants to Help Startups Expand Abroad

Posted on November 07, 2007
Generally, when a small U.S. client tells me that they wish to expand abroad, I think to myself, "that's going to be complicated, time-consuming and expensive."Recognizing the opportunities and challenges of globalization facing startups and other small businesses, the Wall Street Journal reports that consultants, such as High Street Partners of Annapolis, Maryland, now are advising them on how to expand abroad, such as dealing with tax issues, foreign employee benefits and local-currency transactions...

Business Tips for Providers of User-generated Content

Posted on November 01, 2007
Web sites and other online services containing content submitted by users (also known as user-generated content) are obviously a hot growth area.Not so obvious is the fact that these services depend on a little-known statute to protect their providers from legal liability for copyright infringement...

Short Introduction to Several California Laws that Affect Out-of-State and Foreign Businesses

Posted on October 30, 2007
I've just written and added a new article to my web site, Welcome to California: A Very Short Introduction to Several California Laws that Affect Out-of-State and Foreign Businesses (MS Word file).My resources page contains other articles that I've written.

Virtual Worlds Compared

Posted on August 07, 2007
TechCrunch posted a useful chart comparing all the existing virtual world services, such as Second Life.

The New Micro-Multinationals

Posted on July 16, 2007
A new breed of "micro-multinational" is emerging among the many Web 2.0 social networking startups, as described by The San Jose Mercury News.  A micro-multinational is "a small company that acts big by skillfully using the Internet and other technologies"...

Lawyer Wikis

Posted on June 15, 2007
A colleague of mine, Joel Riff of Riff & Bui, sent me the article Lawyers Collaborate with Wikis from Law.com.Wikis are online collaboration tools that enable multiple users to post articles and to edit one another's postings.  The most famous example is Wikipedia, an online Wiki-based encyclopedia that news reports say is now larger than proprietary encylcopedias, such as Encylopaedia Britannica...

Patent Factoids

Posted on June 14, 2007
Some factoids about patents:Typical cost to obtain a U.S. patent: $5,000 to $25,000.  Cost to invalidate a patent: Legal fees average $4.5 million in patent disputes where more than $25 million is at risk.Cost of obtaining a patent versus invalidating one: You do the math...

Size of the Intangible Economy

Posted on June 12, 2007
How large is the intangible economy in the U.S.?U.S. businesses invest about $1 trillion in intellectual property and other intangible assets, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Board.  That's as much as they invest in equipment and other tangible investments...

Tension between Quality Methodologies/Six Sigma and Innovation

Posted on June 08, 2007
Business Week ran an interesting cover story about the tensions between quality methodologies such as Six Sigma, and innovation and creativity.In sum, "while process excellence demands precision, consistency, and repetition, innovation calls for variation, failure and serendipity...

Re-enter the Title Office - for Copyrights

Posted on June 08, 2007
In the old west, the land title office represented law and order, and helped keep the peace among ranchers, farmers and miners with competing claims.  In the movie version of the old west, the land title office invariably burns down... and the drama begins...

Viacom versus Google/YouTube complaint available online

Posted on March 16, 2007
If you want to dig deeper, or "enjoy" reading legal briefs, Viacom's complaint against Google/YouTube described in the previous post is available online.

User-generated content at risk from Viacom lawsuit against YouTube

Posted on March 14, 2007
User-generated content took the Internet by storm last year - even as Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2006.  This content includes postings on forums, photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube, and all sorts of media on MySpace and other social networking web sites...

Entrepreneurial Surge and Rise of the Part-Time Entrepreneur

Posted on February 26, 2007
Fortune Small Business reports that “we are in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge this country has ever seen. According to Small Business Administration projections, nearly 672,000 new companies with employees were created in 2005...

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