BizTech Law Blog

Why Investment Crowdfunding May Not Be As Bad As They Say - Part I: Will Rampant Fraud Abound?

The JOBS Act, which became law on April 5, 2012, included for the first time in the U.S., a legal structure that will permit the use of general solicitation in connection with small, non-registered investment offerings in the context of crowdfunding.  The SEC still needs to adopt implementing regulations before this funding vehicle becomes available and the market decides if it is viable.  This will take several months, if not a year.  But in the meantime, the naysayers are hard at work, proclaiming their opinion that crowdfunding is a dangerous idea.

This article is in response to the widely publicized belief that crowdfunding is nothing but an invitation for fraud.  This is of concern primarily for investors.  Many advisors to investors are sounding the alarm.  From the beginning of time there has been and always will be fraud.  But is crowdfunding investing really higher risk than all other types of investment?  We think probably not.  Here's why. Read More ›

Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding

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Proposed Legislation Expands Protection of Trade Secrets

Legislation allowing victims of trade secret theft to sue in Federal court was introduced in the Senate recently. The Protecting American Trade Secrets and Innovation Act of 2012, sponsored by Senators Herb Kohl, Chris Coons and Sheldon Whitehouse, grants companies the option of using Federal courts to bring a civil lawsuit against offenders. The proposed law helps companies maintain their global competitive edge by ensuring an effective and efficient way to recover their losses from trade secret theft. Read More ›

Categories: Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets

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Supreme Court Holds that a Patent of the Process of Administering a Drug is Invalid

Recently in the case of Mayo Collaborative Services v Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States found two patents invalid because they claimed subject matter that was not patentable.  The patents in this case covered processes that help doctors who use thiopurine drugs to treat patients with autoimmune diseases determine whether a given dosage was too high or too low. Read More ›

Categories: Patents

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Does Apple’s Siri Record and Store Everything You Say?

Many people love having an application on their iPhone that can convert nearly anything they say into text.  But what does Apple do with what you say to Siri?

Most people are unaware that everything you say to Siri is sent to a data center in North Carolina.  It is sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text. Read More ›

Categories: Privacy

Posted by: Nicholas M. Oertel

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“Doppelganger Domain” Names Could be Stealing Your E-mails

Are your e-mails going astray? Do customers claim they have sent an e-mail that you didn’t receive or can’t find

It could be that they were never sent or it could be that a “doppelganger domain” name has been set up to steal e-mails that are supposed to be going to you or other employees of your business. Read More ›

Categories: Domain Name Registration

Posted by: Nicholas M. Oertel

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Top-Level Domain Names: Protect Your Rights

In 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) removed most restrictions on the names of generic top-level domains.  A top-level domain name is the letters after the “dot” in a website address.  The most common top-level domains are “.com” and “.org”.  Internet domains can now be any phrase and contain non-Latin characters (for example, Chinese, Arabic, etc.). Read More ›

Categories: Domain Name Registration, Intellectual Property

Posted by: Nicholas M. Oertel

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Are Large High-Tech Companies Shirking Tax Responsibilities? A Recent Study Suggests Just That

A recent report, "Tech Untaxed," published by The Greenlining Institute, shows that some of the nation's largest high-tech companies (Apple, Microsoft, and Google, to name a few) are paying significantly lower effective tax rates even as their yearly profits rise. Read More ›

Categories: E-Commerce, Tax

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Crowdfunding Flies Through Congress

It caught most observers by surprise, but the Jobs Act, which includes a Title authorizing crowdfunding, passed the U.S. Senate on March 22.  The bill replaced the House's provisions relating to crowdfunding with the Senate's more restrictive version.  The House passed the Senate's version of the Jobs Act on March 27 and President Obama signed it on April 5. Read More ›

Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding

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Michigan Sales Tax on Internet Retailers...Possibly

The applicability of sales tax in Internet transactions is a contentious issue in the state tax arena.  Many Internet retailers do not collect sales tax on their sales unless they have a physical presence in a state.  As a result, states have alleged that they are losing millions in tax dollars and brick-and-mortar retailers are operating at competitive disadvantages to their online competitors that do not impose sales tax.  Although states have encountered Constitutional difficulties in taxing out-of-state retailers, the pendulum may be swinging in favor of the states. Read More ›

Categories: E-Commerce, Tax

Posted by: Nicholas M. Oertel

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U.S. Senate Begins to Move on Crowdfunding

On Tuesday, March 6, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing on Spurring Job Growth Through Capital Formation While Protecting Investors, Part II.  There is a stated intent to take up the capital formation bills in the near future.  Crowdfunding is one of several areas being considered to improve the capital formation climate. Read More ›

Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding

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