BizTech Law Blog

Speed Date USA, Inc. is suing the online dating company Match.com for $5.65 million for allegedly breaching its contract and misappropriating trade secrets. In essence, the lawsuit claims that Match.com terminated the contract early and then breached its obligations to hold joint events. Match.com terminated the contract, according to the lawsuit, upon learning Speed Date's trade secrets. Match.com then allegedly began to run its own speed dating events without compensating Speed Date USA.

Trade secrets are commonly defined by state statues and generally consist of four elements for the information to constitute a trade secret. The elements of a trade secret are: (i) information; (ii) that has independent economic value; (iii) which is not generally known or readily available; and (iv) such information is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

As a reminder, under the JOBS Act, each investor is limited as to how much the investor can invest in an issuer (the company raising capital) using the crowdfunding exemption during a 12-month period of time. There were some ambiguities in the language of the Act. The SEC proposes to clarify the ambiguities such that the limitations are as follows:

• If the investor’s annual income and net worth are both less than $100,000, the investor may only invest the greater of $2,000 or 5% of the investor’s net worth during a 12-month period.
• If either the investor’s annual income or the investor’s net worth exceeds $100,000, the investor may only invest the greater of 10% of the investor’s net worth or 10% of investor’s annual income, but not to exceed $100,000 during a 12-month period.

Bitcoin is an application of crypto-currency, which is based on the premise that money can be any object or record that is accepted as payment. Bitcoins use a peer-to-peer networking system and are not managed by any central authority. They can be transferred by a computer or a smartphone without a mediating financial institution. Bitcoins are rumored to have been originated by a computer programmer going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity remains mysterious.

Have you heard? The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to propose rules under the JOBS Act permitting companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. Public comment on the proposed rules will be sought for a 90-day period following the publication in the Federal Register by the SEC. Crowdfunding is a new way of raising money from people online, some would even say a new social networking platform.

Is your company thinking about utilizing crowdfunding? Before you venture into this new opportunity contact your Foster Swift attorney and make sure you comply with the new rules. Contact Attorney John Mashni at 517.371.8257 or jmashni@fosterswift.com.

The days of carrying around a work phone and personal phone are quickly dwindling, if not already gone. Instead, businesses are implementing bring-your-own-device ("BYOD") policies that allow employees to access corporate information from their personal mobile device. On one hand, providing employees with mobile access to information increases productivity by allowing employees to work from anywhere. On the other hand, allowing corporate information to be accessed on devices that are mobile and capable of falling into the wrong hands produces a host of new security issues. This creates a difficult balancing act for employers who want their employees to be productive, but still want to maintain control over the information being accessed.

Have you checked out our Health Care Law Blog? This week the post is titled FDA Issues Final Guidance on Mobile Medical Apps.

For our Lansing area readers, Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC is a corporate member of the Michigan Technology Network - Lansing.

Michigan Technology Network - Lansing (MITN) awards fellowships annually that can be applied to technology education. If you're in school, thinking about going back, or need tech training to beef up your skills, a MITN fellowship is the perfect way to reduce your cost.

As of September 23, 2013, the ban on general solicitation has been lifted for private securities offerings exempt from federal registration under Rule 506. Entrepreneurs can now publicly advertise the sale of securities by complying with the newly-effective regulations.

General solicitation means to publicly advertise an investment opportunity in a private company using a means of mass communication. This includes communication via email, website, public speech, or even social media.

These rules are complex and any entrepreneur should seek professional guidance before engaging in any fundraising.

Even those who do not closely follow the stock market remember Facebook's IPO. The stock was priced at $38 per share the night before and was trading as high as $42.05 before the price started to drop quickly. One of the causes of the drop was the failure of NASDAQ's system of matching buyers with sellers. The system was tested for 40,000 orders, which did not adequately model the nearly 500,000 orders received when trading started.

Twitter announced, via a tweet, that it is going public. This could be the biggest tech IPO since Facebook in May 2012.

Twitter is using a provision of the JOBS Act that allows a company that has revenue less than $1 billion to file an IPO in without having to disclose its financials to the public.

Here's a link to what we know so far about the Twitter IPO.

Subscribe to our technology blog and we will keep you updated as this news breaks. Please contact John W. Mashni by email at jmashni@fosterswift.com or by phone at 517.371.8257 with any questions.