Through globalization, outsourcing, and growing industry abroad international commerce has come to the forefront of business practices. Especially in the realm of electronic commerce, or e-commerce, where entire transactions take place online, international commerce is a major factor. Accordingly, legal considerations arise out of international business conduct, which includes questions…
As online consumerism expands alongside ever-growing government deficits, legislatures look towards online transactions as a potential source of taxation revenue. Currently, there is no universal taxation on the Internet. Based on Quill Corporation v. North Dakota, a 1992 Supreme Court decision, online merchants that do not have a physical presence…
The list of generic top-level domains (gTLD’s), such as “.com” or “.edu,” has changed very little over the history of the internet, until recently. Between January and May of 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) accepted applications for new gTLD’s. It reportedly received more than two…
The internet and social media have allowed people, businesses, and brands to communicate and interact more than ever before. As much benefit as that brings, it also brings significant risks to the reputation of both people and brands. The internet allows people to post using a pseudonym, or to appropriate…
Copyright law, which protects a person’s rights to his or her own creative works, dates back nearly to the invention of the printing press. It protects a creator’s ownership of a creative work and the rights to use the work publicly. It also gives a creator remedies against anyone who…
Advertising that a product is “made in America” or “made in the U.S.A.” is a very effective sales strategy, according to recent polls. An Adweek Media/Harris Poll conducted in July 2010 found substantial support for domestic-made products, with sixty-one percent of nationwide respondents saying they would be more likely to…
Companies cannot survive, let alone thrive, in today’s business environment without an Internet presence. Businesses and brands maintain websites and social media profiles in order to advertise and market products and services, but also to interact with customers. Social media in particular has given businesses an unprecedented ability to reach…
When hackers breached the e-commerce firm Zappos in January, they may have compromised the personal information of as many as 24 million users. Legislatures in several states, including California, have responded to attacks such as this one by passing laws enhancing cybersecurity investigation and enforcement, and increasing requirements for disclosure…
Last year, the California State Legislature made various efforts to regulate commercial transactions on the Internet. These efforts provide interesting questions and concerns regarding practical and constitutional limits on a state’s capability to legislate or regulate transactions on the world-wide-web (i.e., the Internet) due to its intrinsic interstate character. One…
Mall owners are harnessing digital technology to stem an erosion in their tenant base by online retailing and to promote shopper attendance to their centers. Hammerson which is a leading European real estate company in London, United Kingdom (http://www.hammerson.com) plans to use a system which tracks shoppers to its malls…