Lightbulb - Dilanchian IP blogLightbulb - Dilanchian IP blogDilanchian Lawyers and Consultants on intellectual property law, IP commercialisation and business law from an Australian perspective Articles
Special Collection: Business Valuation, Sale or Purchase
2007-10-02 11:00:00 This post is an updated special collection of materials on business valuation, sale or purchase. All links are to materials available in this integrated Lightbulb blog and Dilanchian website. Good deal making involves good proposals. They can set the right expectations and direction at the earliest stage in a proposed transaction or negotiation. As discussed in Four tasks to increase values or prices in business transactions (intellectual-property/four-tasks-to-incr ease-values-or-prices-in-business-transac -2.html), especially in proposed sale or purchase transactions it makes a lot of sense to make your lawyer among the first people you call. Following is a list of articles or posts providing practical guidance for business sellers and buyers and forming collaborative arrangements. More About: Business , Sale , Special , Purchase , Coll
Special Collection: Legal Case Studies
2007-10-02 11:00:00 This post is an updated special collection of legal case studies. All links are to materials available in this integrated Lightbulb blog and Dilanchian website. Case studies have helped grow our business, perhaps they'll also help yours. Legal case studies illustrate the practical application of law. We use them in our legal training workshops for law firms and corporate legal departments. More About: Studies , Special , Coll
Special Collection: Trade Marks
2007-10-02 11:00:00 This post is an updated special collection of materials on branding and trade marks. All links are to materials available in this integrated Lightbulb blog and Dilanchian website. Trade mark applications for registration need legal design . We are passionate about legal design . The concept is a theme in the post, Generate a legally strong brand in three steps (ip/generate-a-legally-strong-brand-in-th ree-steps-2.html), and it inspired the post titled Is Australian cheese properly branded? (content/view/172/36/) The lack of legal design in trade mark applications results in a regular stream of work for our firm. Preparing a trade mark application is deceptively simple. It's a job full of traps for young players. More About: Special , Marks , Coll
Special Collection: Deal Making and Contracting
2007-10-02 11:00:00 This post is an updated special collection of materials on deal making and contracting. All links are to materials available in this integrated Lightbulb blog and Dilanchian website. Everyone in our firm enjoys contract negotiation and contract drafting. It helps that we have a suite of tested resources, including over 1,000 template legal documents we've prepared or refined ourselves. It also helps that we've run numerous contract drafting workshops for managers and lawyers in Australia and abroad. More About: Special , Deal , Makin , Coll
Generate a legally strong brand in three steps
2007-09-26 14:21:00 How can you create a legally strong brand name? What can a brand manager do to improve the selection of trade marks from a legal perspective? What legal principles should you keep in mind when you brainstorm for a business or company name, domain name or brand name. This post answers these questions. Each year we draft, craft and file numerous trade mark applications for our clients. We specialise in this work. It is clear to us that the best trade mark registrations come from pushing together three areas of knowledge - creativity in law, management (mostly marketing) and design. We often brainstorm names with clients to develop what works best in legal terms. This post sets out three steps we follow in this work. More About: Brand , Strong , Ally , Steps
Practical Rap: Drafting IT Contracts With Foresight
2007-09-24 11:00:00 Lessons lie buried in IT history for improving IT contracts, especially for software contracts The key for discovering the lessons is to look for patterns of change. We argue a three stage pattern emerges from IT history. The pattern repeats over and over in IT history over the last six decades. It's a pattern which is useful for developing contract strategy by lawyers, their clients and IT companies. More About: Contracts , Foresight
Strategy's Strategist
2007-09-12 16:34:00 What is strategy and do you do it well? Useful pointers can be found in the McKinsey Quarterly (http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com) (2007 Number 4) in the article, Strategy's Strategist: An Interview With Richard Rumelt. Richard Rumelt is a professor of strategy at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. The Quarterly observes that in 1972 Rumelt discovered (the now accepted rule) that moderately diversified companies outperform more diversified ones. More About: Rate
We don't need no innovation?
2007-09-10 11:00:00 Innovation creates value and yet we have business schools that don't recognise it. ... There are maybe two or three business schools in the country that take this seriously, which is bizarre. ... The way we use and apply knowledge is now as important to the value-add in the economy as efficiencies in production. - Mark Dodgson (http://www.business.uq.edu.au/display/%7 Emdodgson/Professor+Mark+Dodgson), Professor and Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre (http://www.business.uq.edu.au/timc/) at The University of Queensland's Business School. Quoted in Luke Slattery's article, Challenge to embrace innovation , The Australian Financial Review (Education insert) p. 33, 10 Sep 2007. More About: Innovation , Inno
Cue > Dilanchian enewsletter, August 2007
2007-09-07 12:38:00 Cue is our enewsletter for clients, collaborators and colleagues. Each month subscribers receive one Cue email with a selected list of our articles and Lightbulb posts. Subscribe to Cue (component/option,com_contact/task,view/c ontact_id,3/) or to our full RSS feed (rd-rss/index.php), or both. More About: August , August 2007 , Chia
Four billion subscribers
2007-09-06 12:51:00 No business can ignore the change taking place due to the global telecoms revolution. Every business in the world is involved in contract negotiation and formation and increasingly this takes place using phones and other telecommunications devices. This affects business models, operations, value chains and law. The latest global data is recorded in the 8th edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN (http://www.itu.int/pub/D-REG-TTR.9-2007/ en) . This September 2007 publication is from the telecommunications specialist authority of the United Nations, the International Telecommunications Union (http://www.itu.int/) (ITU). Mobile devices are at the head. They are disruptive developments for the traditional business models of telcos and content publishers. They are an opportunity for our clients and others who capitalise on the change they make to business operations and the value chain linking suppliers and customers. More About: Subs , Scribe , Billion
First, we blame all the company directors
2007-09-04 11:00:00 Author of the 2007 book Protecting your Position and Australian lawyer, Bruce Cowley, ...said that his investigations had uncovered 104 statutes in Queensland, 114 in NSW and 59 in Victoria that leave directors and officers personally liable for corporate fault. ... Those are particularly draconian provisions, because you’re really saying that the directors will have automatic liability, and it is strict liability. Dire ctor s will only be able to avoid that liability if they are able to make out the availability of a defence. In essence, that is a reversal of the onus of proof.” Source: Company directors exposed to statute stings (http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/articles /7A/0C04FB7A.asp), Lawyers Weekly, 3 Sep 2007. The considerable extent of state and federal legislation making company directors personally liable was also investigated in the September 2006 report of 133 pages, Corporate Fault (http://www.camac.gov.au/camac/camac.nsf/ byHeadline/PDFFinal+Reports+2006/$fi... More About: Blame , Lame
Showing Restraint: Non-Competition Law and Former Employees
2007-09-03 11:34:00 When a valued employee leaves, it can be a difficult time for a business. As if to rub salt in the wound, sometimes the same employee surfaces in a rival organisation or starts a business in direct competition. As the realisation sinks in that this person knows some or all of your business methods, practices and even secrets, all of a sudden you’re calling your lawyer to demand immediate legal action. Unfortunately, this is often the wrong time to ask a lawyer to take action to restrain unlawful competition by a former employee. It can be too late. Most of the necessary action should have been taken before the former employee was recruited. That is, much will depend on the employment contract, organisational policies and procedures and related HR documents being in place before and enforced during the time the (now) ex-employee worked for you. More About: Competition , Employees , Petit , TRAI
Dazzle the competition with records
2007-08-24 01:38:00 A major survey (http://www.ahri.com.au/MMSDocuments/comm s/news/resources_news/ahri_workchoicesres earchreport_070823.pdf) of professionals in HR, published today by the Australian Human Resources Institute Ltd (http://www.ahri.com.au), confirms that the years 2005 to 2007 mark a period of significant change in the level of record keeping required by Australian employment law. The highest percentage of those surveyed, 54.5%, rated the level of record keeping as the most significant change in those years. Compliance by employers with employment law is simply no longer feasible with oral or mediocre records. The increased mandatory legal requirements for written records, consents and notices also mean that virtually no company or management team can rely on employment law templates and record keeping practices which pre-date Work Choices. More About: Competition , Records , Petit , Cord
Australia celebrates business and skilled migrants from India
2007-08-23 11:00:00 “India is our fourth-largest and fastest-growing merchandise export market. Australia n merchandise exports to India rose to A$11 billion in 2006-07, increasing by an unprecedented 37% from the previous year said Australian Government Minister for Trade, Warren Truss in his press release of 22 August 2007. The Minister was announcing the launch of www.utsavaustralia.in (http://www.utsavaustralia.in/), and the press release talks up that site's promotion of Australian industry and business products, services and capability for businesses in India. Utsav Australia means Celebrate Australia. The portal also promotes Australia as a place for study and migration. The Fly notes in 2006-07 Australia welcomed 15,865 skilled visa stream migrants from India. A total of 97,920 permanent skilled visas were granted for the year, led by entrants from the United Kingdom (24,800). It was followed by India (15,865), China (14,688), South Africa (4,293) and Malaysia (3,838). More About: Business , Rate , Sine
Report finds 5.6 million reasons for doing a patent search
2007-08-22 12:09:00 Patents granted worldwide have increased at an average annual rate of 3.6% to about 600,000 in 2005. At the end of 2005, there were approximately 5.6 million patents in force worldwide. ... However, the use of the patent system remains highly concentrated with only five patent offices (China, Japan, the European Patent Office, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America) accounting for 77% of all patents filed and 74% of all patents granted. These are highlights in a report by the UN body, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Its assessment is in its WIPO Patent Report : Statistics on Worldwide Patent Activity (2007 Edition) (http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistic s/patents/patent_report_2007.html) . More About: Search , Reasons , Million , Patent
Remove fuss and fuzz from employment leave entitlements
2007-08-21 18:25:00 Australian employment law is a complex matrix, even for lawyers specialising in the area. Core employment law concepts, such as leave entitlements have been given new meanings since 2005 by Work Choices legislation. While this is a difficult and dry topic, it has first rank practical implications for workplace morale and the long term financial wellbeing of employers and employees. More About: Leave , Employment , Entitlement , Fuss
"On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog"
2007-08-17 12:08:00 This was the caption of Peter Steiner's brilliant cartoon (http://www.cartoonbank.com/item/22230) in the New Yorker in 1993. Roughly speaking that was the first year of the commercialisation of the Internet . Fourteen years later, the caption resonates with every new report on risks associated with use of the Internet. More About: The Internet , Nobody
Mountains of Commonwealth legislation
2007-08-17 11:00:00 In 1950 the Commonwealth Parliament passed 80 Acts which took up 281 pages. There was a steady increase in the volume of Commonwealth Acts for the next 50 years. In 2000, 372 Commonwealth Acts were passed, taking up 4,383 pages. Similar increases were experienced in the states and territories. D. C. Pearce and Robert Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in Australia, Sixth Edition (LexisNexis, Sydney 2006), p. 1. The Fly observes a pattern where now one Commonwealth Act can exceed the total number of pages of all Commonwealth Acts in 1950. For example, there was 687 pages in Work Choices in 2005 (and that's not counting an additional 545 in its explanatory memorandum). Most recently there is about 500 pages in the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 package of 2007. For graphs illustrating the rise and rise of pages of Commonwealth taxation and commercial legislation over the decades see Rethinking Regulation (articles-amp-publications/corporate-busi ne... More About: Mountains , Legislation , Legi , Mount
Retail services revenues of Australia's major telcos
2007-08-15 13:07:00 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) this month released the latest in its annual series of publications on major telco revenues in Australia, Telecommunications Market Indicators Report 2005-2006 (http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtm l?itemId=794173 nodeId=10ddddaa662b4614c52f4f68236d8a51 fn=Telecommunications%20market%20indicato r%20report%202005-06%20%28released%20Augu st%2007%29.pdf). The Report provides revenue, usage and market share data for the five biggest telcos - Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Primus and AAPT. More About: Services , Retail , Major , Tail , Venues
What every business should know about common law employment contracts
2007-08-10 11:00:00 The signal to noise ratio in Australian employment law is currently poor. Useful information is being lost in false or irrelevant data. There are too few messages about how to maintain good employment relationships. More About: Business , Employment , Common , Contracts , Trac
Brand destruction writ large
2007-08-09 19:57:00 At Lightbulb we use the term brand destruction to describe avoidable business brand blunders. These incidents recall the Japanese ritual suicide known as hara-kiri (切腹). Rarely do we come across brand destruction as clear as the July 2007 letter from Angus Robertson bookshops (A R) to its book suppliers who A R says provide unacceptable profitability . The key paragraph in A R's letter states: As a consequence we would invite you to pay the attached invoice by Aug 17th 2007. The payment represents the gap for your business, and it moves it from an unacceptable level of profitability, to above our minimum threshold. More About: Destruction , Brand , Large
Brand destruction writ large
2007-08-09 19:57:00 At Lightbulb we use the term brand destruction to describe avoidable business brand blunders. These incidents recall the Japanese ritual suicide known as hara-kiri (切腹). Rarely do we come across brand destruction as clear as the July 2007 letter from Angus Robertson bookshops (A R) to its book suppliers who A R says provide unacceptable profitability . The key paragraph in A R's letter states: As a consequence we would invite you to pay the attached invoice by Aug 17th 2007. The payment represents the gap for your business, and it moves it from an unacceptable level of profitability, to above our minimum threshold. More About: Destruction , Brand , Large
Australian wine exports top A$3 billion
2007-08-07 11:00:00 In the year ended July 2007, value [of wine exports] grew 8% to reach a milestone A$3 billion and volume grew 10% to 805 million litres. The average price declined 2% to A$3.73 per litre. ... The modest decline in the average price was a result of the average bottled price increasing 6 cents to A$4.86 per litre (up 1.3%) while the bulk average price declined 10 cents to A$1.02 per litre(down 9%). Leading in the last 12 months as a growth export sales market for Australian wine was China (up 125.1%). It was followed by Netherlands (up 35%), Ireland (up 28.3%), France (up 18.6%), Belgium (up 16%) and Singapore (up 16.4%). Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, Liquor sector trends and statistics for 2007 (intellectual-property/liquor-sector-tren ds-and-statistics-for-2007.html). More About: Bill , Exports , Ports
Integrated, differentiated and creative brand strategy
2007-08-06 16:38:00 Brands from Microsoft, Fosters and Coopers are discussed here to distinguish integrated, differentiated and creative marketing strategy. Strategy should guide selection of the trade marks to register. Some companies integrate their many brands to create a unified marketing message. For others the better strategy is to send differentiated marketing messages to serve niche markets. Microsoft and the Fosters Group Ltd illustrate these contrasting brand strategies. A company which consciously selects one or the other strategy gains clarity regarding what to register as a trade mark. More About: Creative , Brand , Integrated , Rate
Trade mark law strategy kept simple for blondes
2007-08-06 13:15:00 On 11 August 2004 Fosters' Australian lawyers filed trade mark application number 1015213 for its new beer brand, Carlton Pure Blonde . The following month the beer was launched. A year later the beer brand became Pure Blonde, dropping Carlton , except for use on the bottle neck label. What was Fosters' trade mark law strategy or legal battle plan for the shift from Carlton Pure Blonde to just Pure Blonde? On its website the Fosters Group Ltd (http://www.fosters.com.au/) states Pure Blonde (http://www.fosters.com.au/enjoy/beer/pur eblonde.htm) - the first beer in Australia to be marketed as low-carbohydrate - is full-strength and great tasting, with 70% less carbohydrates than a regular beer. More About: Strategy , Blondes , Trade , Simple , Mark
10 conversations about business models
2007-08-02 14:01:00 Listed in this post are 10 topics for telephone conversations we would happily have free-of-charge. If you want to discuss the topics call us whether you are a client, collaborator or a stranger. We're proposing an open conversation to exchange thoughts, play cards and see where that might lead. This proposal is not attached to any obligations. Call Mike Clarke or Noric Dilanchian in Sydney on (02) 9269 0229. More About: Business , Models , Conversation , Sine
10 conversations about business models
2007-08-02 14:01:00 Listed in this post are 10 topics for telephone conversations we would happily have free-of-charge. If you want to discuss the topics call us whether you are a client, collaborator or a stranger. We're proposing an open conversation to exchange thoughts, play cards and see where that might lead. This proposal is not attached to any obligations. Call Mike Clarke or Noric Dilanchian in Sydney on (02) 9269 0229. More About: Business , Models , Conversation , Sine
Business productivity with new media: 10 questions
2007-08-02 12:39:00 The fact that Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, now uses YouTube (http://uk.youtube.com/user/JohnHoward200 7) is newsworthy. The official versions has attracted debate, scorn and satire in comments and new videos uploaded to YouTube. This mostly unwelcome feedback is the tip of the iceberg of challenges in new media adventures. Here then are 10 good questions. All of us face them when we seek to get our message across new media. What's your answer to them? They are derived from our experience as a law firm engaging with clients in legal work and related or broader issues for use of new media. More About: Business , Media , Questions , Productivity , New Media
Business productivity with new media: 10 questions
2007-08-02 12:39:00 The fact that Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, now uses YouTube (http://uk.youtube.com/user/JohnHoward200 7) is newsworthy. Here are 10 questions we all face as we seek to get our message across new media. More About: Business , Media , Questions , Productivity , New Media
UK organisational views and statistics on intellectual property
More articles from this author:2007-08-01 11:13:00 How much of the music downloads revenue pie goes to creators? How is IP law central to the business models of Johnson Johnson? What are the IP reform hot topics for organisations in the UK? Read on for answers. Intellectual property law and policy are at the center of contemporary international trade negotiations and many other forums for public debate. There is a wide spectrum of views. Some of it is informed by a depth of understanding of the mix of complex ingredients in play. That mix includes economics, statistics, history, ethics and technology considerations. More About: Views , Property , Statistics , Intellectual Property 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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