War
at its best is barbarism.
Every attempt to make war easy
and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
--William Tecumseh Sherman
Though he said these words nearly a
century and a half ago, General Sherman’s comments apply equally
well to litigation, including the world of business law, technology
law, SaaS law, and probate law.
Litigation is a serious business, not something to be undertaken
lightly. And it is often expensive –
regardless of...
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I am an Indianapolis Attorney here at Alerding
Castor Hewitt LLP. This is my first
blog post – so bear with me. As a brief
introduction, my role at ACH is working on our litigation team,
both at trial and on appeal if necessary, on issues related to
business law, probate litigation, SaaS litigation, and other
technology litigation – just to name a few of the areas.
One area often overlooked in the litigation
process is the area of collections. Some lawyers might look upon the collection process...
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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 counsel here: The
Indiana Supreme Court recently discussed the ability of a lay
witness to provide "expert" opinions in
Sibbing v.
Cave, 922 N.E.2d 594 (Ind. 2010). In that
case, counsel asked the plaintiff what she believed caused her
pain. She responded something to the effect of "the bulging
disc in my lower back", and the opposing party objected based on a
lack of expert foundation. The basic argument to the trial
court was that this lay person...
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Your friendly neighborhood technology lawyer here: As
you know, I'm a bit of a technophile and I've been watching the
iPad craze with interest. There are other similar products
that will be inundating the market in the near future (HP Slate and
the one that I'm watching with anticipation, Notion Ink's
Adam). As I watch, I've come to the conclusion that
tablet computers are the future of litigation, whether you're
talking privacy litigation, SaaS litigation, personal injury
litigation, or...
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Your friendly
neighborhood technology legal counsel here for Part 2 of my
riveting analysis of the dreaded "venue-selection clause" In
Part 1, I scared you with the reality that when you absently click,
"I agree" you are very likely binding yourself to litigate any
dispute in a location that is likely not conducive to your case or
your pocketbook. And I'm sure that the point you've been
wondering about since last we interacted is, "what can I do about
it". Unfortunately, the answer is not...
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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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For SaaS companies, the customer agreement is critical.
Why? A SaaS relationship is not a 1-time purchase of software
to be installed. The SaaS customer agreement is a
document which will govern (what you hope will be) a long-term
relationship with your client. It must cover the software
license aspect of the relationship, the ongoing maintenance,
upgrading and use of the software and - often overlooked - the
professional services to be provided by the SaaS company to the
client. The...
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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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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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Here
at Alerding Castor Hewitt, LLP, often times we work with clients
who have software that inherently transcends state and national
borders.
Not just brick and mortor storefronts, many of our clients
have customers nationwide and around the world.
Such is the realm of cloud computing law, and it's up to us as
technology legal counsel to answer the inescapable question of what
state, federal, or even country's law applies should a lawsuit
arise.
Well, if you haven't contracted for this simple...
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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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