Volume 25 - Number 6 | October 2008
| October 2008 issue in PDF Format … |
| What Your Terms and Conditions Tell Your Customers By Stanley P. Jaskiewicz What businessperson hasn’t complained about how lawyers ruin deals? The simple handshake and bar-napkin agreement too often turns into hundreds of pages of fine print, with hourly billing to match. Yet neither party really knows whether it all actually states the deal as each understood it over handshakes. Sometimes the fallout begins because the contracts are unintelligible to the layman — not good. Other times, the lawyer may have taken far longer than the deal allowed to write a contract, or simply blew the budget — also not good. Whatever the cause, these problems lead many businesspeople to wonder whether their lawyers are for them, or against them. |
| Safeguarding Brands By Margie Milam Because the Internet provides opportunistic criminals with a powerful platform for marketing their tainted goods on a mass scale, and with limited funding and personnel, law-enforcement agencies are unable to make a noticeable dent in the fight against counterfeits, leaving companies with the costly burden of protecting their customers. In the face of ubiquitous and pervasive budget cuts, today’s innovative in-house counsel deploys non-traditional responses via technology, to show senior executives some visible, cost-effective results. |
| Keeping Up with Online Brand and Other Related Scams and Frauds By Richard E. Peirce The Internet has also provided an almost unguarded playground to allow thieves and other criminals to develop and unleash sophisticated scams and frauds on unsuspecting users. This conduct shows up in the almost unlimited amount of Internet scams and frauds active at any point, yet because of the nature of the Internet, it is almost impossible for a small business, consumer or e-commerce attorney to stay up-to-date. |
| e-Commerce Docket Sheet Arbitration Clause in User Agreement Does Not Apply to Phone-Sales Agent Arbitration Clause Is Not Unconscionable for Savvy Corporate Parties Alleged Copyrighted Work Distribution Can Establish An Infringement Claim Songwriters’ Claim of Alleged Misappropriation Cognizable under Copyright Exhaustion Doctrine Bars Rights Assertion in Sales to Third-Party Manufacturers |
