Roseanne Roseannadanna, a popular character in the early years of Saturday Night Live, had a catch phrase, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another!” This seems to describe what happened with National Grid USA’s ERP software system integration and why Wipro recently settled a lawsuit National Grid (NGUSA) filed against it for $75-million. It appears…
Recently, The Hertz Corp. filed a $32-million lawsuit against consulting behemoth Accenture LLP for what it claims was the botched development and delivery of a new website for all of Hertz’s brands. The project was launched in August 2018, missed its original December 2017 delivery date that slipped to January, 2018 and then again to…
For all practical purposes, the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is the closest the U.S. will have to a national law governing data privacy until Congress takes action of its own. As a data security and privacy attorney, I was surprised at how easily the law passed the California state legislature and how quickly…
Illinois’ groundbreaking Biometric Information Privacy Act, called BIPA, just got a lot tougher thanks to the Illinois Supreme Court. While the court’s specific decision involves a teen entering an amusement park, it has widespread implications for every company in the state collecting, storing and using biometric data about employees and contractors. The 2008 BIPA law…
Marcus Stephen Harris, LLC will be taking part in hosting the Drafting and Implementing Ethical Law Firm Technology Policies webinar on Tuesday September 20, 2011. The webinar focuses on responsible technology management. The faculty will identify the latest legal and ethical standards of compliance for technology policies and provide steps for creating and maintaining up-to-date…
A strong and recognizable domain name is critical for a successful business. However, coming up with a good domain name that allows you to grow your business, avoids the inadvertent infringement of the intellectual property rights of others, but still generates brand equity is incredibly difficult. Coming up with a domain name that is both…
Atul Malhotra, 42, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets. Malhotra was a director of sales and business development in IBM’s Global Services Division for nearly a decade, from 1997-2006. He obtained confidential pricing info regarding IBM’s products and materials,…
Thursday, June 27, Canadian software-holding company Pan-Afric Holdings Ltd. sued Ernst & Young LLP in U.S. District Court in Maryland for over $10 million in damages, claiming the accounting giant made mathematical errors in preparing a software valuation report on which Pan-Afric detrimentally relied. In 1993, for $5 million, Pan-Afric purchased an interest (including all…
SAP recently reported a steeper than expected drop in Q1 profits. SAP was apparently impacted by acquisition related costs, the weaker dollar and delayed investments on new software. If you are currently involved in a software acquisition with SAP, now may be the time to aggressively seek concessions as SAP may be more willing to negotiate in…
Last month the BSA reached settlements with Ron Ayers Motorsports, Sentage Corporation and TruStile Doors, LLC. Under the terms of the settlement the companies agreed to pay the BSA $72,053, $80,000 and $92,500 respectively to settle claims that they were using unlicensed copies of software on their computers. Implementing a software license management program so that you…