From the monthly archives:

October 2003

Alone, Unarmed (maybe), and Uninsured

October 31, 2003

Here’s a story about a software vendor that found out — in probably the worst possible way — that its general-liability insurance policy did not have the specific coverage that was probably the most crucial for the vendor’s software business. Not a good day for the vendor’s risk-management people.

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A Fable

October 29, 2003

From a CLE [continuing legal education] presentation I did a while back: Once upon a time there were two companies. The companies had to negotiate a contract. The companies were represented by smart, experienced executives. The executives understood the business. The executives understood each other. The executives hit it off on a personal level. The [...]

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Victoria’s Secret Exposes Too Much (It’s Not What You Think)

October 28, 2003

No, it’s not what you think. Victoria’s Secret had computer security problems that allowed customers to browse through other customers’ on-line orders. (Insert your choice of joke here.) That attracted the attention of NY attorney general Elliot Spitzer. When the dust settled, the Victoria’s Secret parent company agreed to give refunds or credits to customers [...]

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Advertising Heartburn

October 15, 2003

Sometimes it seems there’s no shortage of object lessons about the troubles that over-enthusiastic advertising can cause. Procter & Gamble (P&G) ran ads for a new heartburn product, Prilosec OTC. The ad copy read, “One pill. 24 Hours. Zero Heartburn” The ad copy apparently gave Johnson & Johnson heartburn of a different sort – it [...]

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Mother Always Said, Don’t Brag

October 14, 2003

The exuberance and assertiveness of marketing people can make enormous contributions to a company. They can also put the company in a deep hole. Here’s an example of the latter: Some not-atypical, faintly boastful language in a company’s press releases language, of a kind your marketing people might well have used themselves, kept the company [...]

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How Much Would Actual Subscriptions Have Cost?

October 13, 2003

MSNBC reported last week that money-management firm Legg Mason was hit with a $20 million jury verdict for copyright infringement, for internally distributing a stock-market newsletter when they had only paid for a single subscription. Thanks to TechLawAdvisor for the tip.

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P—d Off

October 12, 2003

Natural Biologics LLC really knows how to p–s off a federal judge (bad pun intended). Earlier this month, the judge seriously hammered Natural Biologics for misappropriating trade secrets relating to the processing of horse urine. She hit Natural Biologics even harder than usual, essentially putting them out of the business – and for somewhat unusual [...]

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Bye-Bye, Carolina; Hello, California

October 11, 2003

Late last month, a North Carolina customer of Oracle Corporation found itself involuntarily headed for California to pursue its lawsuit against Oracle. This came to pass because the customer — probably without even knowing it — agreed to a forum-selection clause when it bought its Oracle software license.

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Dinosaur Bones

October 11, 2003

Frank Quattrone’s trial for obstruction of justice continues; see this story from the AP. On Thursday, Quattrone took the witness stand in his own defense. Quattrone’s lawyer, John Keker, asked him about an unrelated investor lawsuit against his former firm, Morgan Stanley. Quattrone had been a witness in that lawsuit. According to the WSJ, Quattrone [...]

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Backdated Sales Contracts Resurface Years Later

October 9, 2003

The CFO of software giant Computer Associates was forced to resign, along with two other senior financial executives of the company — and who knows what else now lies in store for those folks — because several years ago the company “held the books open” to recognize revenue for sales contracts signed after the quarter [...]

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What Did Quattrone Know, and When Did He Know It?

October 8, 2003

The Frank Quattrone trial proceeds — see this Dow Jones story, or this search in the Yahoo news files. As has been widely reported, Quattrone received a “let’s clean up those files” email and forwarded it to his group at Credit Suisse First Boston. He had recently been told by a CSFB in-house lawyer that [...]

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