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From our colleagues Kelly Friedman, Tamara Hunter and Jim Halpert

This fall, more than a year after Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) came into force, it is abundantly clear that the regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, is taking its new responsibilities very seriously.

In the latest developments, the CRTC recently issued an Enforcement Advisory and further Guidance on Implied Consent.

The CRTC’s message is loud and clear – it will impose penalties, regardless of good intentions.

Find out more about CASL and the key messages for business in…
Continue Reading Canadian Anti-Spam Regulatory Activity

From our colleague Michael McKee

The EU has adopted a new regulation, which will introduce a new legal framework for electronic signatures, seals, time stamps and electronic documents.

These rules aim at creating a uniform regime across EU for the mutual recognition of electronic identification between member states. This new regulatory framework (910/2014/EU) was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 28 August 2014 under the name “Regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market” (commonly referred as “e-IDAS” Regulation).

It will…
Continue Reading Electronic Signatures – New European Union Regulation

Compliments of our DLA Piper colleagues in the data protection and privacy practice, and co-editors Kate Lucente and John Townsend, here is the DLA Piper 2015 Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook. This updated 2015 online edition of the handbook offers a high-level snapshot of selected features of international laws as they currently stand in 77 jurisdictions across the world. For example, here is a heat map that provides a visual representation of the privacy challenges faced in certain jurisdictions.

Here is a .pdf of the full 421-page
Continue Reading Interactive 2015 Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook

A useful note from our colleague Sanjay Beri, originally posted at Technology’s Legal Edge.

I was recently reminded that the term “reseller” agreement can often mean different things to different people.  Misunderstandings about these types of relationships creates the potential for miscommunication and wasted time drafting the wrong terms.

A client recently asked me for a form of reseller agreement to engage resellers to help distribute the client’s software based product.  “You know, just grab something off the shelf that will work” went the common refrain.  As I talked…
Continue Reading What Exactly Do You Mean By “Reseller” Agreement?

From our colleagues, Michelle J. Anderson and Jim Halpert, originally published as a Data Protection, Privacy and Security Alert (US)

According to the Data Quality Campaign, 36 states considered 110 student data privacy bills in 2014, and 20 states enacted 28 such bills into law.  At least eight of these new laws may have significant implications for businesses that provide services involving student data to schools, and most of these laws have already taken effect.

IMPLICATIONS FOR VENDORS: Some of the new state student privacy laws specifically require…
Continue Reading New student data privacy laws: top points for school contractors and K-12 education sites, apps and online services

blake_jackson.jpgCONTRIBUTED BY
Blake William Jackson
blake.jackson@dlapiper.com

Many startup companies want to change the world with their great new ideas – but, in an effort to raise funds, some jeopardize their ability to protect those great new ideas with patents. This doesn’t have to happen. With a little foresight, startups seeking funding can avoid the patent pitfalls.

A typical startup story may go like this: A few entrepreneurs form a startup company because they have developed a great new idea for the next “must-have” product. To raise funds, the entrepreneurs ask relatives, take out a small loan or turn to a crowd-source funding program like Kickstarter. These crowd-source funding sites allow the startup to disclose its new ideas to the public and raise funds by allowing anybody to give money to the startup in return for some small benefit. Such small benefits can be anything the startup chooses, ranging from promotional items, to a beta product the startup is still developing, and even to pre-sale orders of the finished products whose development is being funded and that will eventually be mass marketed.

After its crowd-source funds dwindle, the startup then looks to more substantive investors to grow the business. It is at this point that startup entrepreneurs may first think about patent protection – often because of inquiries from potential angel and venture capital investors. It is also at this point that the startup may learn that it is too late to properly protect its great new ideas with patents. A startup that has reached this point without protecting its patents may pay the price in diminished support from potential angel and venture capital inventors, not to mention the long-term loss of protection that a patent portfolio could provide.
Continue Reading Startups seeking crowdfunding: Avoiding patent pitfalls

CONTRIBUTED BY
Scott W. Pink
scott.pink@dlapiper.com

DLA Piper’s Advertising Group is pleased to present the 2014 edition of our Prize Promotions Across the World Handbook, covering 20 jurisdictions. Many companies use prize promotions as an effective and increasingly popular marketing tool — and the internet and various social media platforms make this an attractive, cost efficient means of reaching a large, multi-jurisdictional customer base, but it is not without its legal challenges. The handbook provides a high-level overview of some of the key requirements surrounding prize promotions, from the…
Continue Reading Prize promotions across the world handbook

Compliments of our DLA Piper colleagues in the data protection and privacy practice, and co-editors Kate Lucente and Paul McCormack, here is the DLA Piper 2014 Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook.  This new online edition of the handbook offers a high-level snapshot of selected features of international laws as they currently stand in 72 jurisdictions across the world.  For example, here is a heat map that provides a visual representation of the privacy challenges faced in certain jurisdictions.

Here is a .pdf of the full 349-page handbook
Continue Reading Interactive 2014 Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of our colleague Vinny Sanchez; originally published here: http://www.dlapiper.com/corporate-governance-also-means-protecting-your-technology-and-information/.

Not a day passes without news of a data breach or cyber-attack on a company’s operations or a nation’s critical information infrastructure. Indeed, data security and operational risk are the top two concerns of public company directors and general counsel, according to the 2012 Law and the Boardroom Study conducted by FTI Consulting, Inc. and Corporate Board Member. Disaster recovery, e-discovery and company reputation also rank high among top issues keeping directors and GCs up at night.

Today, company operations and shareholder value depend more than ever on the successful acquisition, implementation and operation of technology. Online interactions with customers have created the expectation that companies will be continuously open for business. Viruses, worms, spoofing and cyberwars cannot stop this expectation, and the consequences of failing to be available online 24/7 harm a company’s reputation and, ultimately, its value.

Even the SEC has weighed in on the materiality of these risks, proffering guidelines as to when public companies should disclose information regarding cyberattacks. The White House and Congress continue debating how they will influence the private sector’s approach to protecting the critical information infrastructure, and an Executive Order addressing cybersecurity issued in February this year will likely affect almost every company, public or private.

Yet a cursory review of public company boards shows that few have actually formalized oversight of the technology and information challenges their companies face. A McKinsey study suggests that corporate directors are evenly split between those who believe these topics receive insufficient attention in the boardroom and those who believe the attention is “about right.” The study suggests that having at least one tech-savvy board member “significantly affected strategic initiatives or direction to address technology-based threats and opportunities.”Continue Reading Corporate governance also means protecting your technology and information

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of our colleagues in the Intellectual Property and Technology practice group of DLA Piper; originally published here: http://www.dlapiper.com/obama-moves-to-curb-patent-trolls/.

President Barack Obama has announced a new executive and legislative initiative aimed at curbing patent infringement suits by “patent trolls,” who generate revenue through extortionate litigation, not real innovation.Continue Reading Obama Moves to Curb Patent Trolls