Indiana

Receiverships: Why Not Go to Bankruptcy Court?

Posted on April 19, 2009
I do not see anything I disagree with these paragraphs from Business Receivership - An Alternative to Bankruptcy about the benefits of a receivership:There are many benefits to business receivership over bankruptcy. First there is less stigma attached to business receivership than bankruptcy...

JD Supra: Legal Documents - 77711827

Posted on April 19, 2009
JD Supra: Legal Documents - 77711827 | OtherI do not think Ms. Sulemen has yet used the term OCTOMOM as a trademark to identify the products/services listed in her application. It is interesting that the application contains a consent stating "The name(s), portrait(s), and/or signature(s) shown in the mark identifies Nadya Suleman, whose consent(s) to register is made of record...

Non-Compete Agreements and Dentists (and Doctors)

Posted on April 19, 2009
Are covenants not to compete becoming unenforceable?: A growing trend explored comes from The Journal of the American Dental Association: "The court then examined the policies of the American Medical Association (AMA), which has taken the position that physicians? noncompete agreements have a negative effect on health care and are not in the public interest...

Indiana Consumer Law: Possible Real Estate Scam

Posted on April 19, 2009
Thestarpress - State warns of new mortgage fraud schemeFORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) ? Indiana's attorney general is warning about a mortgage fraud scheme in which criminals exploit a loophole in state law to transfer the ownership of properties.Attorney General Greg Zoeller said the thieves aren't interested in the property they steal, but in using their "ownership" of a property to obtain a fraudulent loan...

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Updating the Blog. Please check it out

Posted on April 18, 2009
I cleaned up the blog roll to remove some dead links. I also added my Twitter feed and a link to Indiana Business Law resources. Please give them a look.

For the Lawyers: Suggestion for the Downturn

Posted on April 18, 2009
A silver lining for us from LLRX.com - The Upside of the Downturn ? Time to Work on Your Know How: "So far, US law firm knowledge management initiatives have focused on finding the killer app to store and retrieve content ? without adequately focusing on the quality of that content...

Non-Disclosure Agreements

Posted on April 18, 2009
Covering Your ATS applies to more than software engineers.By example, a broker and a software engineer develop a new computer system containing a novel matching process for their start-up ATS. They may sign a non-disclosure agreement forbidding either party to disclose without the other party's consent...

Indiana Corporations and Receiverships

Posted on April 17, 2009
Recieverships are ?...an extraordinary and drastic remedy to be exercised with great caution.? Crippin Printing Corp. v. Abel, 441 N.E.2d 1002, 1005 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982). Which may explain why we seldom see them. The other reason being the federal Bankruptcy code...

Hollywood and the Problems of Intellectual Property

Posted on April 17, 2009
What applies to Hollywood applies to Indiana businesses. From Good Morning Silicon Valley comes Hollywood trying desperately to keep a lid on the box: "Of course, media-center computer owners can still watch Hulu?s shows on the big screen ? they just have to do it through a conventional Web browser instead of Boxee?s cleaner interface, and that leaves Techdirt?s Mike Masnick, among others, confounded: ?It?s difficult to see how there?s even a claim by the content providers at all...

COBRA News

Posted on April 16, 2009
Take a look at workforce.com's Employers Face Plenty of COBRA-Related Compliance Issues:"Most employers offering health care to workers in the U.S. will be required to comply with the COBRA provisions of the $787 billion stimulus package by March 1."The mechanics of the law are straightforward...

Update On ClearOne Trade Secret Case - Premanent Injunction Gratned

Posted on April 16, 2009
The following is from ClearOne Granted Permanent Injunction Order in Federal Trade Secret Misappropriation Case . SunHerald.com provides an impressively detailed description of the judgment.On April 9, 2009, the Court issued a Permanent Injunction. The Permanent Injunction provides, among other things, the following:-- that the restrictions set forth apply immediately;-- that the restrictions set forth apply not only to the Defendants, but also to each Defendants' agents, servants, officers, employees, entities, and those acting in concert with them, and/or those acting under their direction or control;-- that all WideBand Defendants are permanently prohibited from using, disclosing, or transferring in any way the computer code at issue in the case, the development documentation for that code, and WideBand's "Infringing Products," defined as: (a) the AEC2w object code licensed to Biamp, (b) the computer code licensed to Harman Music Group, Inc...

Pepsi Sues Coke (Again)

Posted on April 16, 2009
From Reuters comes Pepsi sues Coke over energy drink claims LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc (PEP.N), taking umbrage over a nationwide advertising campaign accusing its Gatorade energy drink of missing crucial electrolytes, sued Coca-Cola Co (KO...

Non-Compete Agreements - Rounding Up Medical Non-Competition Agreements

Posted on April 16, 2009
Medical non-compete agreements continue to make news. For earlier articles, click on the link below next to Label.From the North Carolina Appellate Blog comes COA Invalidates A Non-Compete And Non-Solicitation Agreement, While Limiting Trade-Secrets Damages: "Plaintiff (MSN) is a medical staffing company (e...

Alcoholic Beverages News - AVA Designations

Posted on April 15, 2009
I was not able to publish A Ferment Among Calif. Vintners - washingtonpost.com as quickly as I ought to have but still worth keeping an eye on:As the American wine industry began its march to becoming the $1 billion-a-year export industry it is today, the federal government established a system in 1978 to recognize the country's distinct grape-growing areas...

The Public Library of Law

Posted on April 15, 2009
For lawyers (evne if it is not quite a solution to Lexis and Westlaw) and the general public, The Public Library of LawSearching the Web is easy. Why should searching the law be any different? That's why Fastcase has created the Public Library of Law -- to make it easy to find the law online...

Patent news : A Threat to Open Source

Posted on April 15, 2009
I do not practice patent law but things like The real patent threat: Not Microsoft | The Open Road - CNET News apply to the business I do represent:But it's not because of Microsoft and its recent TomTom patent lawsuit, or other such infringement suits between vendors...

Bankruptcy News

Posted on April 15, 2009
Is there any surprise in any of these headlines?Bankruptcies surge as recession takes toll comes from the Indianapolis Business Journal's reportingThe number of U.S. businesses and individuals declaring bankruptcy is rising with a vengeance amid the recession, despite a three-year-old federal law that made it much tougher for Americans to escape their debts, an Associated Press analysis found...

Indiana Eminent Domain Case - Shades of Kelo

Posted on April 15, 2009
We have a new eminent domian case in Indiana. COA decides eminent domain case comes from The Indiana Lawyer.Relying on the Supreme Court of the United States case of Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), the Indiana panel found that Wymberley's taking would not be transferring the property to a private entity but to a regulated public utility providing public service - not as far as the SCOTUS ruling had allowed...

Start ups - The Financing Side

Posted on April 14, 2009
Thinking of starting a business? Then read 7 biggest mistakes in raising startup capital. I say there are three sides to a start up: the business idea, the legalities (which is my part) and financing.MANY FINANCING efforts fail because of some of these simple and avoidable mistakes that business owners make when pitching their ideas to potential lenders or investors, in my experience these mistakes fall into one of these categories...

What Was Proposed for Indiana's New Age Discrimination Law?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Thanks to Masson's Blog - HB 1014 - Age DiscriminationDIGEST OF HB 1014IC 22-9-1-6 (k) The commission shall state its findings of fact after a hearing and, if the commission finds a person has engaged in an unlawful discriminatory practice, shall cause to be served on this person an order requiring the person to cease and desist from the unlawful discriminatory practice and requiring the person to take further affirmative action as will effectuate the purposes of this chapter, including but not limited to the power: (A) to restore complainant's losses incurred as a result of discriminatory treatment, as the commission may deem necessary to assure justice; however, this specific provision when applied to orders pertaining to employment shall include only wages, salary, or commissions; (B) to require the posting of notice setting forth the public policy of Indiana concerning civil rights and respondent's compliance with the policy in places of public accommodations; (C) to require proof of compliance to be filed by respondent at periodic intervals; and (D) to require a person who has been found to be in violation of this chapter and who is licensed by a state agency authorized to grant a license to show cause to the licensing agency why his license should not be revoked or suspended.

How Do Lawyers Set Fees?

Posted on April 14, 2009
That Unsettling Feeling from IP Litigation Lawyer & Attorney may not answer that question but it hits some important points: "There are a lot of questions we consider before taking a case and certainly before filing a complaint. Most important is, does the case have merit? Second, are potential damages sufficient to make it worthwhile? Very important is whether the defendant can actually pay if judgment is obtained? However, one question that NEVER gives us any pause whatsoever is, 'will the defendants put up a fight?' Of course they will...

"Interesting" Sexual Harassment Case

Posted on April 13, 2009
I had thought about posting on this case, rejected the idea, and I changed my mind while reading Massachusetts Divorce & Family Law Blog's Corri Fetman, of Sleazy Divorce Ad Fame, Sues Playboy.You may recall that she became famous, and got her position at Playboy, after posing in sexy, provocative photos for a tasteless billboard ad for her Chicago law firm, discussed here previously...

Indiana Age Discrimination Bill Dying?

Posted on April 13, 2009
It will be my guess from reading the following that it will be. I am a bit divided on this in gneral but very much of the opinion that the current law serves no one well. By no, I include particularly businesses.Senate waters down age-discrimination bill | courier-journal...

Eli Lilly Qui tam fraud Settlement

Posted on April 13, 2009
News from Whistleblower Law Blog that I have been remiss about getting published. Remember that qui tam is a government fraud procedure. My ofifce has its first qui tam case underway.Eli Lilly agrees to pay $1.4 Billion in Qui tam fraud involving Zyprexa: "Whistleblowers have a lot to celebrate in the wake of the recent $1...

Small Corporations - Do Not Try This At Home!

Posted on April 13, 2009
Scenario: A closely-held corporation has an offer to be bought.Problem: The buyer wants to keep the existing company name. While there are several options, the problems created by not doing this right have the potential for being huge and hugely expensive...

Something to Think About With Patents

Posted on April 12, 2009
I got Nvidia Countersues Intel as Licensing War Heats Up from PC Magazine. While I do not practice patent law, my purpose here is to emphasize the importance of intellectual property to a business.SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp countersued Intel Corp for breach of contract on Thursday, alleging that Intel made misleading statements designed to undermine Nvidia's licensing rights...

Swimming in the Deep Water of Policy - IP rights and human rights « Michael Dizon on Law and IT

Posted on April 11, 2009
I doubt my ability to comment on Michael Dizon's Reframing the debate - IP rights and human rights except to suggest reading the whole of his post. From my perspective, it serves as a reminder that proeprty rights are human rights a la John Locke (and a reminder of which always comes to me from Warren Zevon's Mr...

The case against PACER: tearing

Posted on April 11, 2009
The case against PACER: tearing down the courts' paywall - Ars TechnicaIn this feature, Ars takes stock of online access to federal court records in the United States. We'll discuss how the system got where it is today, look at where there's room for improvement, and talk to two experts on open government about the prospects for reform...

Start ups: Something Most Important to Think About

Posted on April 11, 2009
I have discussed entity choice before (follow the label below more articles on start ups), Law for Innovators covers the territory quote well in one article, The Legal Structure of Your BusinessWhen you decide to start a business, one of the first decisions that you must make concerns the legal structure under which the business will operate...

Probate: No Will but Joint Tenancy

Posted on April 11, 2009
What happens if a person has no Will but everything is either in Joint Tenancy or a named beneficiary. The law calls joint tenancy a non-probate transfer. The same with insurance or 401(k) accounts that have a named beneficiary.However, not all property has a title or a contract that creates a joint tenancy or beneficiary...

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