Payment of Finder’s Fees for Securities Sales in California California’s new law permitting payment of finder’s fees to middlemen in securities purchases creates new business incentives within the state. However, the law contradicts a long-held Securities and Exchange Commission policy against finder’s fees. Essentially, California has legalized payment of [...]
Employment Contracts for Savvy Techies Who Want to Hit It Big Technology companies who want to make it in an already cutthroat industry can gain an edge by learning what to look for and what to include in employment contracts. Negotiating salary and starting a new position mean plenty [...]
How Can I Prevent Employees from Leaking Ideas? “Loose lips sink ships.” This common saying describes the fate of businesses whose employees, either inadvertently or on purpose, share ideas with others without permission. Competitors may learn of the ideas or even pay employees for them and then use them [...]
My Investor Is Being Too Hands On. Is There Anything I Can Do? Investors getting very involved in the business can cause problems for business owners who want to retain control. On one hand, without the investor, the business would not have the money to fund its operations. On [...]
What to Promise Investors and What to Keep to Yourself If You Want to Stay Out of Court Promoting your business to investors could land you in court if you run afoul of the detailed and complicated California and federal laws surrounding sale of securities. This post focuses on [...]
One of My Startup Partners Wants Out - and Wants His Investment Back. What Do I Do? Learning that your startup partner no longer wants to work with you and wants back the money they invested in the startup is not easy. It is also often not easy to [...]
I Don’t Need a Lawyer to Start a Corporation - Or Do I? Many new business owners start out forming a corporation with the idea that they can do all the paperwork themselves and save on legal fees. It is true that the California Secretary of State provides a [...]
Changing Your Startup’s Product Midway Through - and How It Could Cause Legal Troubles If you work for a startup, you know that your target audience’s needs can change on short notice, and so you may need to adapt your product or service to fit the market. You may [...]
Examples of Biotechnology Agreements and Why They are Important The growing biotechnology industry can be a minefield of legal issues for scientists and the companies they start, seeking to protect their investments and grow their business. One common topic that every biotech founder should consider is how to prevent [...]
What Is the Difference Between Federal Securities Laws and California Securities Laws, and How Do They Apply to Me? Both the state of California and the federal government have laws about securities on the books, but the two sets of laws differ significantly. Federal and California securities laws cover [...]
Protect Your Business from Data Security Breaches After hearing about the many data security breaches in the past few years, you may have wondered how breaches can be prevented, either at a business you own or the ones you patronize. Though hackers are becoming more sophisticated, smaller businesses need [...]
Beginning a Business Relationship with a Vendor In the rush to court a new vendor, companies may be tempted to quickly sign a standard form agreement and begin work immediately. If you find yourself caught up in the rush, take a step back, properly investigate, and negotiate your relationship [...]
Fair Use of Copyrighted Material Generally, the owner of a copyrighted work has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display the work, and to prepare derivative works based on it. 17 U.S.C. § 106. Fair use is a broad exception to this exclusive right. It allows the [...]
Director and Officer Liability in the Corporation Corporations shield their directors and officers from liability for corporate actions, unless a director or officer personally directed or participated in tortious conduct. See, e.g., Frances T. v. Village Green Owners Ass’n. (1986) 42 Cal.3d 490, 503-504. The term tortious conduct refers to [...]
