Indiana

Will Technology Lead to More Wage & Hour Lawsuits?

Posted on November 08, 2008
This is how I read workforce.com's E-mails, Phone Calls and Wage & Hour Problems whch does raise some interesting ideas that might just be on the horizon:While a search of the Nexis database failed to turn up any instances so far of wage and hour lawsuits hinging upon Blackberry use, employment law specialists seem to think it?s inevitable, given both the proliferation of such devices and the clarity of the law on the issue...

Employment law: Be Careful of What You Do Online

Posted on November 07, 2008
Yes, Blog Comments Can Tank Job Prospects from ABA Journal - Law News Now focuses on lawyers but do not think it might not apply to you or to your employers. Who it applies to depends on how tech savvy is the employer.Writing in the Am Law Daily, Lynne Traverse of Bryan Cave gives an example...

New Rules on Who Can Sell a Casket

Posted on November 06, 2008
Just a brief roundup (albeit a tardy one) on rules relating to funeral services:License not required to sell coffinsNewly enforced cemetery rules upset Magnolia motherGood News for the Sooner

Online Resource: Digital Signatures

Posted on November 05, 2008
Courtesy of the American Bar Association comes this Digital Signature Guidelines - Tutorial. For those thinking about contracts, I suggest reading this section in particular:A signature is not part of the substance of a transaction, but rather of its representation or form...

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Another Cost of Litigiation: A Bad REputation

Posted on November 05, 2008
I suggest every business owner read all of Workforce.com's Lawsuit Side Effect: A Bad Reputation but here are some highlightsThe seven-, eight- and even nine-figure jury awards and settlements paid out by employers in lunch-break-related wage and hour lawsuits are only one part of the cost, experts warn...

Trade Secrets - Why Federal Court is not Always the Way to Go

Posted on November 04, 2008
Reading Court rejects Invista trade secrets case vs DuPont made me think of the limitations of federal court. Federal courts have jurisdiction limited to diversity or federal questions. Obviously, no federal question here:The lawsuit made various claims that are not within the jurisdiction of a federal court, U...

Tools for Creating Legal Documents

Posted on November 04, 2008
This post collects a few odds and ends about either online or computerized programs for creating legal documents. I use HotDocs to run my practice - perhaps too much - but I have no personal experience of the programs discussed below. I have two points to make with this post - one for lawyers and one for non-lawyers...

Alcoholic Beverages - New Regulations Porposed for Distilled Spirits

Posted on November 03, 2008
Something that came across via e-mail last week, FR Doc E8-25896: "Proposed Revision of Distilled Spirits Plant Regulations (2001R- 194P); Extension of Comment Period AGENCY: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Treasury. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; extension of comment period...

Copyright Act Amendments

Posted on November 03, 2008
Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act Becomes Public Law 110-403On October 13, 2008, the President signed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act into law (Pub. L. 110-403) (the PRO-IP Act)...

Trade Secret News: IBM, Apple and a Papermaster

Posted on November 03, 2008
An IBM executive moving to Apple and what happens? Litigation!From Computer and Technology News:The complaint says Papermaster was IBM?s top expert for its Power microprocessors and the vice president of IBM?s blade server development unit, until resigning on Oct...

Employment Law and Immigration Law: DHS Issues Supplemental Rule

Posted on November 03, 2008
I picked up this news from workforce.com with its article DHS Issues Supplemental 'No-Match' Rule, Pushes Enforcement:While companies cope with financial market gyrations and a slowing economy, they have to keep an eye on immigration law.In the latest move, the Department of Homeland Security took what it hopes is a decisive step toward forcing companies to act when employee names and Social Security numbers on tax forms don?t match information in the Social Security database...

Taking Care of Your Business in Hard Times

Posted on November 03, 2008
Just a few tips from The New York Times' Small Busines Page. I am just capturing the highlights of Tool Kit - How to Avoid Becoming a Failure Statistic:POGO WAS RIGHT ?Businesses perish in untimely ways, many of which are largely out of an entrepreneur?s control: There?s too much competition...

The Copyright Office Rulemaking Under Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Posted on November 02, 2008
Copyright Office Requests Comments on Possible Adverse Effects of Prohibition on Circumvention Measures (PDF format)The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is announcing the commencement of its rulemaking proceeding in accordance with provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that provide that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works (17 U...

Oral Contracts and Fiduciary Duty - New Case From The Seventh Cir

Posted on October 27, 2008
The Seventh Circuit gives us a pithy definition of fiduciary duty in INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE, INCORPORATED v. KEYCORP, KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONOur conclusion is buttressed by Wilson v. Lincoln Federal Savings Bank, 790 N.E.2d 1042, 1046 (Ind. Ct...

IndianaTax Nexus Case

Posted on October 27, 2008
A friend of mine, a CPA, has given me an interest in these tax nexus cases. He thinks businesses need to be more aware of these issues. I agree with him, even though tax law is not an area of my practice. Which is why I am linking to Economic presence meets taxing requirement from The Indiana Lawyer:In a matter of first impression, the Indiana Tax Court has ruled that a bank didn't need to have a physical presence in the state to be subject to Indiana's Financial Institutions Tax...

Trade Secrets and Pro Football

Posted on October 27, 2008
What Washington Labor, Employment & Employee Benefits Law Blog writes in the post, Trade Secrets in the NFL? actually has me asking a typical question for this kind of case: what was Brett Favre thinking?In recent days, former Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre has come under intense media scrutiny after he had a telephone conversation with the Detroit Lions? General Manager, Matt Millen...

Court amends public accessibility,

Posted on October 21, 2008
Court amends public accessibility, other rulesThe Indiana Supreme Court has revised its administrative and appellate rules governing how trial courts make records publicly accessible and how appeals are handled in certain cases requiring confidentiality...

Trade Secrets: Yeah, What that guy said

Posted on October 21, 2008
Since I started this blog and started writing about trade secrets, I have been writing that these things are vital to the business. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette makes the point a little differently: Trade secrets are assets.I disagree with the article's apparent advice to forgo legal advice...

Federal Criminal Law on Theft of Trade Secrets

Posted on October 20, 2008
Not that I practice criminal law in the federal courts, but I think this statute ought to be seen here.US CODE: Title 18,1832. Theft of trade secrets:"(a) Whoever, with intent to convert a trade secret, that is related to or included in a product that is produced for or placed in interstate or foreign commerce, to the economic benefit of anyone other than the owner thereof, and intending or knowing that the offense will, injure any owner of that trade secret, knowingly?(1) steals, or without authorization appropriates, takes, carries away, or conceals, or by fraud, artifice, or deception obtains such information;(2) without authorization copies, duplicates, sketches, draws, photographs, downloads, uploads, alters, destroys, photocopies, replicates, transmits, delivers, sends, mails, communicates, or conveys such information;(3) receives, buys, or possesses such information, knowing the same to have been stolen or appropriated, obtained, or converted without authorization;(4) attempts to commit any offense described in paragraphs (1) through (3); or(5) conspires with one or more other persons to commit any offense described in paragraphs (1) through (3), and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy,shall, except as provided in subsection (b), be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both...

Trade Secrets - Apple and Computer Journalists

Posted on October 20, 2008
As much as I think trade secrets are important to the success of a business, Apple's litigating against computer trade publications just does not seem right. Common sense says there is a limit and this case may be the one where a limit has been found...

Indiana Home Improvement Fraud: Give Notice or Hope to Prove Actual Fraud

Posted on October 20, 2008
The Court of Appeals makes clear that under Indiana's home improvement fraud statute the homeowner can lose their case even before they know they have a case. Pay close attention to this from Hayes v. Chapman (PDF format):HICA explicitly provides that a supplier?s failure to provide a written contract is a deceptive act and brings that deceptive act under the purview of the remedies and penalties of Indiana Code chapter 24-5-0...

Indy Strippers Sue Over Wages

Posted on October 19, 2008
Indy strippers sue club's ownersWendi R. Morse, 27, and Felicia Kay Pennington, 26, claim Dancers Show Club owners violated federal labor laws by wrongly classifying them as independent contractors, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court...

'Copyright Czar' Bill Approved

Posted on October 19, 2008
PC Magazine is the only place I noticed this news, President Bush Approves 'Copyright Czar' Bill: "President Bush on Monday approved a controversial bill that will effectively create a 'copyright czar' within the White House.Bush signed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act, a measure that will create several new government enforcement positions...

Business Survival: Buy-Sell Agreements

Posted on October 19, 2008
I have written before about the problems solved by having a buy-sell agreement, but Importance of having buy-sell agreements from Bermuda's The Royal Gazette presents the issue again in a very well written article.What follows applies to any business organization having more than one person as owner: corporation, limited liability company, partnership...

Follow up on Larry Bird Suit

Posted on October 19, 2008
I wrote about this lawsuit here and it is settled:Bird settles French Lick lawsuitLarry Bird has settled a lawsuit against a bed-and-breakfast that operates from his boyhood home in the southern Indiana town of French Lick.Attorneys for the basketball icon and Legend of French Lick LLC would not discuss the settlement, saying the parties had signed a confidentiality agreement...

Trade Secrets from the Journalistic Point-of-View

Posted on October 18, 2008
Lawyers know we can use protective orders to keep trade secrets under wraps during litigation. What we do not know so much about is how journalists view these protective orders. Which is why Protective Orders in Pretrial Discovery Phase Keep Journalists Unplugged caught my attention...

How Important are Trade Secrets to a Business?

Posted on October 17, 2008
In this case from the Hartford Business the answer is very important: "A Superior Court jury in Northampton, Mass., rejected claims by STR Holdings that a former employee working for a rival misappropriated trade secrets in developing an encapsulant that shields solar modules from weather damage...

ADA Amendments Now Law

Posted on October 16, 2008
The Associated Press: Bush's father joins president at bill-signing:"WASHINGTON (AP) ? With his father looking on, President Bush on Thursday signed legislation expanding the protections afforded by the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act to those who can use medication or other devices to treat impairments...

Alcoholic Beverages: Oh, No, Topless Dancing in Kokomo

Posted on October 16, 2008
Ah, the headline has all the shock of this post. What this post does have is the intersection of newspapers reporting on legal issues and the actual Court of Appeals opinion, and some insight into the licensing of adult entertainment bars. Not that the Kokomo Tribune's Ultimate Place wins court battle is all that inaccurate but there is what I call fudging to tell a clean story...

Trade Secret Litigation News: the Softscape Lawsuit Against SuccessFactors

Posted on October 15, 2008
From workforce.com comes Softscape Lawsuit Against SuccessFactors Dismissed:"The legal dispute between HR software rivals SuccessFactors and Softscape has narrowed to one case.A Massachusetts superior court last month dismissed Softscape?s suit alleging trade-secret theft by SuccessFactors...

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