BizTech Law Blog
A limited liability company (“LLC”) provides many benefits and protection to its owners. When forming an LLC there are several steps you should take. Below are three key steps to setting up your LLC.
This blog post has since been updated with new information
Hackers are more sophisticated than ever. It is often not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ a data breach will occur. October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and with new threats frequently reported in the media; individuals, businesses, municipalities and other organizations need to do their due diligence in preparing for the inevitable.
This blog has since been updated with new information
What is eligible for patent protection?
In the U.S., what is known as a "general utility patent" or what most people typically imagine a patent to be, protects the use and function of an invention. Processes, machines, articles of manufacture and compositions of matter are all patent eligible. You cannot get a patent for an abstract idea or something that you discover in nature; you have to have a true physical invention or a process that creates a transformation of some kind in order to be eligible.
As a business or business owner, one thing to consider when creating a cybersecurity plan, is a vendor management program. Vendor management programs can help businesses address risks that arise when working with vendors and third parties that might be receiving sensitive information or business information.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) was enacted in 1998 and was created to address concerns with the online collection of children’s personal information. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has announced several large fines for companies not in compliance.
The International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit (“GPS”) occurred at the beginning of this month in Washington, D.C., giving more than 4,000 privacy professionals the chance to meet, reconnect, discuss developing issues, and learn from leaders in data privacy and security. Much of the conversation centered around the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), now approaching one year since its effective date.
This is the second part in a series discussing the actions that companies can take to prepare for potential data privacy legislation. Part One summarizes and discusses recently proposed data privacy legislation.
More than 30 states have legalized medical marijuana and more than 10 have legalized marijuana for recreational use, including Michigan in a 2018 ballot proposal. Marijuana retailers have significant issues to address as the industry and the rules governing it mature over time. Among those issues, retailers should not overlook data privacy and cybersecurity issues.
If 2018 was any indication, cybersecurity compliance should be high on the list of SEC-regulated companies’ priorities in 2019. Take, for example, the SEC’s 2018 enforcement action against Voya Financial Advisor, Inc. (“Voya”) for violation of the Red Flags Rule, which resulted in a $1 million settlement.
Whose responsibility within a company is cybersecurity? Should key decisions fall to IT, or should higher management be involved more heavily in day-to-day cybersecurity risk management? Given the large fines and compliance obligations facing companies today, it’s probably obvious to most that data privacy and security is not just a technology issue.
