FTC Calls for CAN-SPAM Act Comments

“On May 12, 2005 the Federal Trade Commission published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on proposed new rules implementing the CAN-SPAM Act (the “Act”). The Notice follows an advance notice period that generated over 13,500 comments.

The proposed rules cover the following primary topics:

-Reduction of the amount of time for senders to honor an opt-out request
-Clarification of steps necessary to submit valid opt-out request
-Definition of “person” under the Act
-Modification of the definition of “sender” where multiple parties are involved
-Clarification of scope of definition of ‘valid physical postal addresses’ ”

Read more in this DWT LLP advisory.

Ambiguities in ADEA Waivers May Void Releases

“Since 1990, when the Congress enacted the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), waivers of age discrimination claims must contain provisions intended to ensure that individuals act voluntarily and knowingly when giving up any right or claim they might have under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

Employers who fail to follow waiver requirements may find that a claim they believed was settled or released is in fact alive.
The latest such instance occurred when the employer, IBM, used an overly legalistic document that combined release and covenant not to sue language.

A recent opinion from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals – Thomforde v. International Business Machines Corp., 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 7592 (May 3, 2005) – held that the release of ADEA claims contained in a general release and covenant not to sue was sufficiently ambiguous that it did not constitute a knowing and voluntary waiver of the employee’s rights under the ADEA.”

Read more in this article from DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary via Mondaq.

The Value of an Intellectual Property Audit

“Given the current business environment, in which the value of a company and its competitive advantages are likely heavily dependent upon its intellectual property, it is crucial that a company take reasonable steps to make sure it has rights to its important intellectual property and that it properly protects said property.

By conducting periodic audits of its intellectual property, a company can ensure that this property is adequately protected to preserve the company’s earnings and growth potential resulting from the intellectual property. The audit can identify if there are areas in which the company should improve its intellectual property protection or if the company is potentially infringing a third party’s intellectual property.

Further, if a company is a party to almost any transaction with another company that involves or affects intellectual property (whether in the sale of its assets or stock, in an investment or public offering, a joint venture, licensing or otherwise), the other party to that transaction will likely perform due diligence on the company’s intellectual property to determine what intellectual property the company owns or has rights to use and the value of such intellectual property.

Prior to such time, the selling party should conduct due diligence on itself to make sure that its intellectual property is in order and the representations and warranties that it will make in the transaction are accurate.”

Read more in this article from Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz via Mondaq.

Deter. Detect. Defend. Document; A Corporate Assets Protection Strategy

“Our corporate assets are under attack by a continuous barrage of new laws, new employees, new competitors and new exploits. Business survival in the next decade will require a more effective and robust risk strategy to deter, detect and defend against a myriad of new threats to the organization.

Modern day attackers include hackers, spies, terrorists, corporate raiders, professional criminals, vandals and voyeurs. Simply said, these attackers use tools to exploit vulnerabilities. They create an action on a target that produces an unauthorized result. They do this to obtain their objective.

Here are four key lessons to create a ‘4D’ risk strategy in your enterprise…”

Read more in this article from 1SecureAudit LLC via Mondaq.

Update on Terrorism Risk Insurance

“The Terror Risk Insurance Act (“TRIA”) is scheduled to expire on December 30, 2005. Congress is considering extending TRIA, but a decision is unlikely until summer. Policyholders should beware that insurers are responding to the uncertainty surrounding the reauthorization of TRIA by attaching to policies nuclear, biological, chemical, radiological or other terrorism exclusions that will become effective if TRIA is not extended or extended in its current form…

The new terrorism exclusion some insurers are adding to policies is quite broad. It would preclude coverage not only for foreign acts of terror, but domestic acts as well. The exclusion is also very subjective, as it could apply even if it only “appears” that the intent of an act is to coerce the government or further a political or social objective.

Policyholders may want to negotiate for a narrower terrorism exclusion or for no exclusion at all. At the very least, policyholders should be aware that a new terrorism exclusion could be added to any new or renewal policy in 2005.”

Read more in this article from Reed Smith via Mondaq.

New, Free SBA Online Classes for Small Business Owners

New online business classes will be available for small businesses throughout the nation through a cosponsorship between the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Thomson Corp. (Ed2Go). Ed2Go is a national provider of online instructor-taught training classes, offering courses through more than 1,000 community colleges and other partners around the country.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to enroll in three of Ed2Go’s most popular online educational courses at no cost. The courses being offered are:

• Creating a Successful Business Plan
Work through all of the major components of a business plan and turn your business ideas into a solid plan for financing and long-term success.
Committing your idea to paper in the form of a business plan increases your chances of obtaining financing and keeps your business strategically focused.

• Customer Service Fundamental
Develop new skills in identifying and satisfying customer needs, and become an indispensable asset to any organization. This online course will help you discover and master the essentials of customer service. You’ll learn the best ways to measure customer service, apply the principles of consumer behavior to your business, and differentiate between industrial and consumer marketing.

• Creating Web Pages
Create and post your very own Web site on the Internet in this extensive, hands-on workshop. Learn about the capabilities of the World Wide Web and the fundamentals of Web design. You’ll also learn critical and timely information on securing the best possible location in search engine listings, and powerful no-cost or low-cost Web marketing strategies.

Each online course will be six weeks in length, and will be facilitated by an instructor. The courses will begin June 15, with the next course start dates beginning on July 20, Aug. 17 and Sept. 21.

Online registration for each course will be available starting May 25, 2005, to the first 2,400 individuals to register. Registration for each class will be taken at the SBA’s Small Business Training Network site at http://www.sba.gov/training. Go to the free online courses section and click on the “Instructor-Facilitated Courses” button to complete your registration.

Small Business Wiki

“The Small Business Wiki is a community project of smallbusiness.com

The Small Business Wiki is a wiki-model encyclopedia of community-generated knowledge regarding all aspects of starting and running a business. This is knowledge from the grassroots and they invite participation. ”

From this Small Business Software post.

Balanced Scorecard Helps Organizations Improve Corporate Governance

“Directors and executives have separate but complementary roles in promoting well governed high performing organizations…

Roles of the Board of Directors
An active and engaged board is an essential part of shaping and executing a successful strategy. Boards contribute to organizational performance when they fulfill five major responsibilities:

­ -The Board approves the strategic direction of an enterprise.
­ -The Board oversees the financial actions of an organization.
­ -The Board plays an essential role in counseling and advising the CEO.
­ -The Board selects and motivates executives.
­ -Finally, the Board is a watchdog for uncompensated risk and a guardian for compliance.

Roles of the CEO
The CEO’s responsibility to manage the company is distinct but complementary to the board’s oversight responsibility. The CEO is the senior most management team leader and as such, he or she is accountable to the board for corporate performance. Four major CEO responsibilities contribute to organizational performance include:

­ -The CEO and the executive team must define and communicate the strategy.
­ -The CEO must fund the strategy and manage financial resources.
­ -The CEO must align the workforce to the strategy.
­ -The CEO must manage the execution of strategy…

When supported by cohesive information architecture as described [in this article from BetterManagement.com], the three-part Balanced Scorecard based system outlined in this paper offers a modern set of tools that enable leaders to better fulfill their distinct roles. As such, directors and executives achieve greater visibility and control of their organizations. They also have the information they need to make better decisions and they have the information safeguards to offer more reliable disclosures with confidence. This tools based approach provides corporate leaders with insight, alignment and confidence to effectively govern and grow shareholder value.”

How to Protect Intellectual Property in China

“According to Loke-Khoon Tan, An Xiang, and Ren Haiyan at the INTA Annual Meeting as reported by Managing Intellectual Property:

-file trademark applications early
-register Chinese character versions of marks
-against squatters, consider filing a non-use cancellation application, making an unofficial agreement on coexistence, or buying their mark
-booklets to help Customs officials identify counterfeit goods ‘can create bigger problems if the material gets into the wrong hands.’
-fight infringers politically and publicly, ‘not just legally'”

See I/P Updates post for links and more information.

Big Corporations Back in VC Game

“Back in the boom days of the 1990s, everyone wanted to be a venture capitalist — including many of corporate America’s largest companies, which launched their own in-house funds. Corporate investors sank $17 billion into small and midsize companies in 2000 alone. But when the bubble burst, VC investing suddenly seemed a lot less sexy, and many of these funds scaled back or shut down operations entirely.

But corporate America is getting back into the game…

Bear in mind that corporate money can come with its own set of headaches. It’s not uncommon for corporate backers to balk should you try to do business with one of their competitors, and they may even try to prevent you from doing so. That’s why you have to do as much due diligence as they do.”

Read more in inc.com article, Come to Daddy: