There is a great article in the July-August edition of the Harvard
Business Review entitled
The Early Bird Really Does Get the
Worm. The article summarizes a study which found a
correlation between "morning people" and career
success. This is based on a number of traits which are
commonly found in morning people.
Traits
Agreeable
Optimistic
Stable
Proactive
Conscientious
Satisfied with Life
Being a morning person, of course I loved this! Most days I
am the first in the office. I love getting...
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Your friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: A couple
of recent state court decisions are going to start personal injury
attorneys frothing at the mouth, and might render some sleepless
nights for defense attorneys. Both Ohio and Florida recently
issued opinions in which they applied their state's respective
long-arm statutes to garner personal jurisdiction over an
out-of-state resident for tortious conduct that transpired over the
Internet.
First, you need to know what a long-arm...
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I recently read a summary of a lecture on applying the seven deadly
sins to software development. The sins are:
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Lust
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Obsessive or excessive thoughts
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Gluttony
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Over-indulgence, over-consumption
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Greed
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A sin of excess like lust and gluttony, but in reference to
wealth
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Sloth
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Laziness, indifference, apathy
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Wrath
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Uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger
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Envy
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Resenting another because they possess something you do
not
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Pride
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Excessive love of self
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The idea is not to sell products leading to the sins themselves...
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You might wonder why an Indiana law firm with a practice
in several areas of technology (Indiana Internet
Litigation, SaaS Legal Consulting to name just two) finds
itself supporting a golf outing that raises money for
adoption? "As a firm that prides itself on supporting the
local community, we don't always align our charitable giving
strictly to serve our immediate demographic. There are many
organizations deserving of our support and Adoptions of Indiana is
certainly one of them," comments...
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Your friendly neighborhood
technology legal counsel here to discuss with you the hidden
dangers lurking in your unassuming (and unread) terms of service
agreements. Janet Croswell, one of our fabulous tech lawyers,
posted back on February 10, 2010 about the pitfalls that businesses
face related to the clickwrap agreement (here's a link for those
playing along at home
blog.alerdingcastor.com/blog/alerding-castor).
Now for those of you scratching your head and wondering what a
"clickwrap...
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There is a good
article on the Mercury News Blog today on
How dot-com
start-ups have changed 10 years later. The article
addresses the maturity of both technology companies and
US private equity investors over the last decade. It is
an interesting read.
There has been a lot of activity in angel investor groups and
venture capital investments in Indiana technology companies over
the last few months.
2010 has definitely started with a bang at
Alerding Castor Hewitt where we have helped five...
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Congratulations
are in order to Brian Hewitt, the newest parter of Alerding Castor
Hewitt, LLP, who was recognized this week as one of Indiana's 2010
top 50 Super Lawyers.
Brian concentrates his practice on estate, trust,
and guardianship planning, administration, and litigation; and
mediation and business law.
He is a Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist, a
Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and a
member of the Probate Litigation Committee of the...
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I have taken a few
weeks off of blogging. Honestly, I felt like I needed the
break, but I am excited about getting back on the saddle and
writing again.
Since it has been a few weeks, let me give a brief update on what
we have been up to. Alerding Castor Hewitt has had an
exciting beginning to 2010. On January 1, Bill Boncosky
joined us. Bill is a business attorney / technology and SaaS
law attorney working with privately held companies, primarily in
technology industries. Bill has spent the...
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2010
Contact: Lainey Scheetz
317.403.9012
lscheetz@alerdingcastor.com
ALERDING CASTOR HEWITT LLP PARTNER NAMED TO FORTY UNDER 40
Indianapolis,
IN – Alerding Castor Hewitt LLP is pleased to announce that Michael
Alerding, a partner at the firm, has been named to the 2010
Indianapolis Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list. The list
recognizes local business and professional leaders who have
achieved success and excelled in their field before the age of 40.
Those...
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Closing
in on the end of 2009 I have to say that I am quite pleased
with the commitment Indiana showed this year to be a State that
supports and promotes innovation, entreprenuership and business
growth.
This week I had breakfast with Larry O'Connor, Executive Director
of
Butler
University's Business Accelerator. Larry is a former CEO
of Bank One Indiana. Following his "retirement", Larry became
CEO of The IndianapolisMuseumm of Art, and recently took the
position to lead theAcceleratorr...
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The other day I wrote a post on my reasons not to use the term
"affiliates" in licensing agreement negotiations.
See post here. My
general point is that the term has no common meaning in the law and
may create ambiguity in the contact.
I addressed several different definitions of the term in laws, but
the term is not only defined differently in law, it is also used
differently in business.
For accounting companies, for instance, the Interstate Commerce
Commission defines the term as companies...
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Interesting case (2009 WL
4261214) came across my desk. Not related to Indiana Internet
litigation, but interesting conundrum. The basic facts are
that client wanted to send e-mail response to his attorneys.
In adding the second attorney, he inadvertently sent it to a
third party. Through several forwards, it ends up at his
opposing counsel's desk. That counsel wants to use it in
litigation. Ultimately, the Idaho District Court found that
it was an inadvertent production and made the...
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Something crossed my screen today that piqued my interest.
That concept is competitive keyword advertising litigation.
The case that sparked my curiosity is Fair Isaac Corp v. Experian
Information Solutions, Inc., 2009 WL 4263699 (D.
Minn. 11/25/2009) (
www.jurisnote.com/Cases/fair6411.pdf). For a
good analysis of the ruling see Eric Goldman's blog (
blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2009/12/competitive_key.htm).
Interestingly, the case law to date on this issue has found for the
defendants in...
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New technology businesses usually face two hurdles to get their
product to market. The first is proof of concept. The
second is proof of scale.
Both are intended to solve the “Ability” stage of the business plan
process and move the business into the "Meeting" stage:
Recognition of Market ->
Recognition of Market Opportunity -> Ability to Meet Market
Opportunity -> Meeting Market Opportunity at Profit
Proof of concept is simply the proof that the business can develop
a working prototype that...
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What are your metrics for business success? I attended a
non-profit board meeting this past week where the directors were
working through this question - "How do we measure
success?"
A common metric that was discussed was # of volunteers in the
organization in ___ years. Although this metric does
measure growth, it does not measure the quality of growth.
What if the volunteers are under committed, under trained or
just plain lousy at their job? You may meet your metric but
find that your...
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There are several business blogs that I follow. Most of these
are written by SaaS law / Internet law clients of mine or other
Indiana businesses in technology industries. Lately I have
been falling behind on them. This morning I am trying to
catch up.
I came across a very good, brief video on
Kristian Andersen + Associates'
blog.
The video is from the Bigger Ideas/Smaller Indiana conference this
past summer. In the video Kristian Andersen shares his
feelings on central Indiana's business...
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The following post by Pat Horgan
of Palidan Associates was printed on the
E-Sourcing Forum a couple of weeks ago. Even
though the post applies particularly to sourcing professionals, the
concepts are excellent for most contract negotiations.
NEGOTIATING TIPSContract Document Control
In contract development, the party that controls the physical
production of the contract document and the wording changes during
negotiations generally has a distinct advantage. This is
particularly true in long or...
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According to a recent
Gartner research report, worldwide SaaS
revenues are expected to grow 18 percent in 2009 to reach $7.5
billion. The report further stated an expectation for SaaS
industries through 2013 when worldwide revenues are expected to top
$14 billion for enterprise application markets.
Gartner listed the top SaaS market segments for 2009 as
follows:
1. Content, Communications and
Collaboration (CCC) - $2.6 billion
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - $2.3 billion
3. Enterprise...
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From time to time I use the term
“From a 10,000 foot view…”. This is corporate buzz speak for
taking a broad look at something without getting into the
details. From a business vision and strategy perspective, it
is common to start at a high and broad perspective and then work
down to the details (i.e., "into the weeds").
Many business professors, and even our President, encourage
business executives to stop using such buzz phrases as they can
serve as a crutch for intelligent decision making...
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I had the honor of
speaking at the
Masters of Business Online conference this last
week. The conference was organized by Jim Brown of
EverEffect.
Jim and his team did a great job with the event. Last count I
heard was approximately 250 in attendance.
Here are a few blog posts that described the event:
My hour presentation was entitled "The Legal Landscape of Corporate
Blogging". I...
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