Business Law Articles - March 2009

The following articles were gratefully supplied by Dilanchian Lawyers and Consultants - Intellectual Property and Innovation Professionals.

---

Home: Article Index
'12: January-May
'11: January-March, April-June, July-August, September-December
'10: January, February, March-June, July-September, October-December
'09: March, April, July, August, September, October
'08: Jan, Apr, May, Dec
'07: Dec, Nov, Oct, Aug, Jul, Jun, May, Apr

---

Ignore stories telling you we are returning to being potato eaters [Vincent Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885]. Certainly, it's a bone crunching time for many - lower GDP, collapsing share prices, unemployment.

Predictable long evolving economic, cultural and technological trends are playing out their scenarios. Profit is the reward for taking smart risks now. Yes, there's uncertainty for many (they're eating potatoes). But it's cooking time for re/invention. What's the recipe for your opportunity? Here's some ideas.

Protecting your intellectual property

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

iPhone pinch pinched?
Only 1.5% of issued patents [in the US] become the subject of litigation; only 0.1% are litigated to trial; and courts hold about 45% of all
litigated patents invalid. Lightbulb expects these U.S. figures by Dr Paul Goldstein would be roughly similar in Australia. Despite these odds, we share the view that patent strategy remains a key desirable for protection of technology. It's about intellectual property and technology management.

Strategy and change management

STRATEGY

5 ideas for business reinvention
Business survival is a life or death matter. This is clear for the owner and staff of the Rocky Mountain Times, a 150 year old newspaper which closed shop on 27 February 2009 after it couldn't find a buyer. It's a reminder that business survival requires good ideas and A Whack On The Side Of The Head. All this prompts this Lightbulb story on executing change management, business innovation and business reinvention.

INTERNET

Are you online in real time?
Survival online requires clarity of purpose. This is a post on strategy for venture capital. A few days before the Rocky Mountain Times closed down, a famous U.S. technologist, entrepreneur, and (probably) billionaire, Marc Andreessen, restated his view that The New York Times should immediately "kill" its presses and get on with saving its brand and business. He was announcing that he's moved into venture capital of US$200,000 to US$500,000 for early stage new ventures. Read more on his views here and watch at least some of his 56 minute television interview on Google video.

Survival online requires clarity of purpose. It's about strategy for venture capital.

STRATEGY

Facebook's monetization strategy
Staying with Marc Andreessen, he's a board member and shareholder of Facebook, which continues to position itself to pounce on rivers of advertising dollars as more print newspapers fade. The term "user" is very appropriate for Facebook's 175 million + users. Lightbulb's view is Facebook is screwing in its users member by member, day by day, post by post. Cute.

Today's BusinessWeek online confirms this analysis is spot on:

"Thiel [Facebook's largest investor and a board member] says Facebook could generate more revenue by flooding the site with more ads but the company believes that this would alienate users. Instead, Facebook is trying to come up with ways to incorporate ads in a less obtrusive way.

During a recent interview on The Charlie Rose Show, Marc Andreessen, the successful entrepreneur who last year joined Facebook's board, said the company could make as much as US$1 billion a year in sales if it wanted to. Thiel says he agrees that this is a possibility. "There's no reason to think we couldn't do US$1 billion a year in sales if we turned on all the dials," he says. "That's about what MySpace does."

Source: Spencer E. Ante, Facebook's

Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover

Online retailing

INTERNET

Lawyers for Online Retailing in Australia
Accepting the challenge of Gerry Harvey's November 2008 criticism of online retailing in Australia, on 10 February 2009 SmartCompany published its "top 10" list of online retailers in Australia. Harvey is of course the CEO of the Australian franchised retailer, Harvey Norman. Lightbulb review value-adds to the SmartCompany article by adding links and commentary for the "top 10" list.

Dispute resolution and litigation

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

Electronic litigation mandated
Electronic document management and document retention bore most managers. There's no option in litigation, in courts they are matters of life or death. Recently expanded Supreme Court and Federal Court rules put huge pressure on litigants to have documents in an ordered and now electronic format for inspection and examination in the litigation process. Following the links and apply the short test in this article to see if your company or organisation is ready for an electronic court case.

Copyright Notice, RSS Feed and View the Articles

The articles in our Business Law pages are reproduced with kind permission from Dilanchian Lawyers and Consultants. If you wish to reproduce any of the information in any format, either electronic or written, you must first contact Dilanchian and obtain permission in writing.

You may freely subscribe to the Dilanchian RSS feed by following this link. Before acting on any information you read, you should first consult a Business Law Professional.

You are able to view the complete articles briefly mentioned above by visiting the Dilanchian Library.