Then say it online in California. On September 9, California governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that prohibits businesses from having customers sign agreements to not post disparaging online …
Children’s Online Privacy Compliance – Part 2
In my last post, I discussed how to determine if your website or mobile app collects personal information from children under the age of 13, which would make it subject to the Children's Online …
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Children’s Online Privacy Compliance – Part 1
Today I start a multi-part series on compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, commonly known as "COPPA." COPPA is a federal law governing the online privacy rights of children …
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Clean House Before Your Financing
Admission: I don't have a housekeeper, but if I did, I would have to clean my home before the housekeeper comes by, because I don't want to reveal what a slob I am. Startups thinking about venture …
The ABC’s of Non-Competition Agreements
Employers commonly use non-competition agreements with key employees, to protect the employer against a former employee using the employer's specialized training, trade secrets, or other confidential …
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CEOs Gone Wild
The recent ouster by American Apparel of its CEO and cofounder, Dov Charney, is turning into an excellent model of what to do (and not to do) with respect to sexual harassment and corporate …
Employer Access to Employees’ Social Media
A fast-growing area of employment law is the subject of employer access to the social media accounts of employees and applicants. Since the first legislation on the subject passed in 2012, 16 states …
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Ten Common Startup Mistakes – Part 2
In this post, I wrote about the first five out of ten common startup mistakes. Now I will continue with the next five common startup mistakes. Number 6 – Ignoring Securities Laws When a startup …
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Ten Common Startup Mistakes – Part 1
Today seems like a good day to tie together a number of subjects I've written about in the past, as a list of the Ten Biggest Legal Mistakes Startups Make. Here are the first five: Number 1 - …
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Two Easy Ways To Lose Patent Protection
Patent protection can be an important tool for tech startups, but there are two easy ways for a startup to lose out on patenting its innovations. To show you how this might happen, let's take an …
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