week

Information governance will boom in 2012 | Kroll Ontrack (Edward Clark)

January 8, 2012 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Businesses are likely to spend more on compliance and information governance in 2012 in a bid to reduce risks and improve data recovery.

According to Vijay Mhaskar from Symantec, writing for Information Week, information governance is to become a buzzword in 2012 and will be one of the year’s biggest storage and backup trends.

“Information is the great enabler, and the great disabler depending on how it is managed. Companies that will gain control over the risks and costs by protecting their information will enable the adoption of new mobile, social media and cloud technologies,” he explained.

via Information governance will boom in 2012.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: compliance, disabler, Edward Clark, information governance, Kroll, kroll ontrack, Symantec, Vijay Mhaskar, week

HTC Sues Apple Using Google Patents Bought Last Week as Battle Escalates – Bloomberg

September 8, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

HTC Corp. (2498), Asia’s second-biggest smartphone maker, is using nine patents bought from Google Inc. (GOOG) last week to pursue new infringement claims against Apple Inc.

Google had taken ownership of the patents less than a year ago, with four of the patents originating from Motorola Inc., three from Openwave Systems Inc. and two from Palm Inc., according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records. Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google, wouldn’t discuss reasons for the nine transfers to HTC.

HTC now has more ammunition in its fight to fend off multiple patent-infringement claims lodged by Apple that contend phones running Google’s Android operating system copy the iPhone. Google’s involvement in aiding HTC represents a new front in an industrywide dispute over smartphone technology that has also ensnared Android customers Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

via HTC Sues Apple Using Google Patents Bought Last Week as Battle Escalates – Bloomberg.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: google inc, google patents, Inc, maker, Motorola, openwave systems inc, patent and trademark office, Patents, samsung electronics co, week

The FCPA Compliance Audit: a Market Approach to Moving the Bar Forward | Thomas Fox – JDSupra

August 2, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The issue of audit rights in compliance terms and conditions is one that leads to debates both pro and con. My This Week in FCPA colleague Howard Sklar and I have sparred on this issue. Usually the debates centers around the threshold question of if you have the rights must you audit the contractual counter-party which has agreed to allow itself to be audited. I argue that if you have audit rights that you must, at least selectively use them. However, if you do not ever use these audit rights, it may put you in a worse position than if you did not have the rights. The next argument is usually along the lines that the counter-party will never allow your company to audit them. The third argument is that auditing takes too much time and is too costly.

via The FCPA Compliance Audit: a Market Approach to Moving the Bar Forward | Thomas Fox – JDSupra.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Approach, argument, compliance audit, issue, market approach, position, sklar, thomas fox, threshold question, week

Microsoft Set to Show Off Windows for Tablets Next Week | PCWorld

May 26, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Microsoft may essentially have been first to the market with the modern tablet computer, but Redmond has seen any advantage there erased by a failure on the software side. Windows just isn’t meant for the touchscreen world. No doubt the company is eager to change that, and is said to be set to debut its tablet operating system shortly, sources say.

Bloomberg reports that Microsoft would preview the platform in a set of demonstrations next week. The first comes at Walter Mossberg’s All Things Digital D9 conference in California, followed by another overseas at the Computex show in Tapei. This would confirm reporting in March that indicated Microsoft was close to being ready to show off its work.

The tablet devices would run on NVidia’s Tegra chip, which is intended for use in tablet devices. Nvidia says the dual-core chips are ideal for such small devices due to their low power consumption and integrated graphics processor.

While Redmond is taking the wraps off the tabletized Windows now, it’s likely that the actual release will not come until March, Bloomberg says. It’s pretty likely that the tablet platform would be built upon Windows 8, which may suggest that the desktop version of the software could be released around the same time.

via Microsoft Set to Show Off Windows for Tablets Next Week | PCWorld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: bloomberg reports, pcworld, platform, power consumption, show, tablet computer, Tablets, tapei, tegra, week

Mozilla Switches Firefox to 18-Week Development Cycle; Firefox 5 Expected June 21 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

April 10, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Didn’t we just get Firefox 4 a little bit ago?

Mozilla is borrowing a page from Google Chrome and speeding up the development cycle for Firefox releases, setting new iterations of the browser for fixed time periods and bulldozing over features that just aren’t ready to make it into a new browser release.

And if Mozilla sticks by its newly proposed plan, that means that we’ll be seeing Firefox 5 on June 21—following a shortened 13-week development cycle instead of the proposed 18-week cycle for all future Firefox builds.

Within this 18-week cycle comes a new development stage that adds on to Mozilla’s three previous update channels: Nightly, or builds created from the mozilla-central-repository that are highly unstable, but incorporate the latest texts and fixes; Beta, which ups the quality demands of features and tweaks added via the nightly builds; and Release, which becomes the version of Firefox that most consumers are used to using.

Mozilla’s new stage, Aurora, will be a nightly update that splits the difference between the chaos of the company’s Mozilla-central build (or Nightly build), and its Beta build.

That’s a lot of gobbledygook for non-developer types, so here’s a general walkthrough of how Mozilla development is going to be handled in the future. Developers will have a given window to write patches and improvements as part of Mozilla’s initial nightly Firefox builds. As this build switches over to the new channel, Aurora, features will be analyzed and dropped off if they’re deemed ineligible for the current release cycle—no new features will be added directly into the Aurora build.

However, Mozilla recognizes that some Firefox changes might take longer to develop than the six weeks they’re sitting in the Nightly channel.

via Mozilla Switches Firefox to 18-Week Development Cycle; Firefox 5 Expected June 21 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: browser release, central repository, com, gobbledygook, June, PCMag, quality demands, Switches, time periods, week

Brazilian Bar Concludes Foreign Law Firm Alliances Break Rules

September 29, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

International firms allied with local Brazilian shops could see those relationships come under renewed scrutiny as the Sao Paulo Bar Association has concluded that the tie-ups could breach local practice rules, Legal Week reports.

The legal market in Brazil has been particularly active in recent months. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy hired the head of Shearman & Sterling’s Sao Paulo office in April, only a few months after both Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett announced they were opening offices in the city.

Legal Week notes that the recent opinion by an ethical and disciplinary panel of the Sao Paulo Bar illustrates the mounting tension over the influx of foreign firms into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. While the opinion is only advisory, Legal Week reports it is an indication of where a more formal ruling would fall should a case be brought against one of the major U.S. firms operating in Brazil in alliance with a local firm.

via Brazilian Bar Concludes Foreign Law Firm Alliances Break Rules.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Association, Break, Foreign, gibson dunn, Legal, milbank tweed hadley, sao paulo office, simpson thacher, tie ups, week

EU’s Top Court Rules That Privilege Doesn’t Apply

September 15, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

In-house counsel in Europe and the U.S. are fuming after a top European court ruled that full attorney-client privilege does not apply to European in-house lawyers in antitrust investigations, according to Bloomberg and the U.K. publication Legal Week.

The case at issue concerned a 2003 investigation by the European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust authority, into alleged anti-competitive behavior at the U.K. offices of the Dutch chemicals company Akzo Nobel. Investigators raided the company’s offices in Manchester and seized lots of documents, including communications from Akzo’s in-house legal team the company claimed should be protected by attorney-client privilege, according to Bloomberg, Legal Week and this useful overview of the case from the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Corporate Counsel. The commission disagreed, saying the privilege did not apply to the in-house lawyers, since they were Akzo employees and thus part of the larger company rather than independent counsel.

via EU’s Top Court Rules That Privilege Doesn’t Apply.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Akzo, akzo nobel, antitrust investigations, association of corporate counsel, attorney client privilege, chemicals company, issue, Legal, Top, week

Hammonds and Squire Sanders Firm Up Merger Terms | Legal Week

September 7, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Squire Sanders & Dempsey Chairman Jim Maiwurm is set to become global chairman following its proposed merger with Hammonds, as details of the new firm’s framework begin to emerge.

The proposed tie-up, announced last week, would see Maiwurm head the trans-Atlantic firm, with a European chair position also being discussed, likely to be filled by Hammonds Managing Partner Peter Crossley.

The deal is likely to see the firms retain separate profit pools, in common with recent mergers between Lovells and Hogan & Hartson and Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

The name of the combined entity, if it goes live as planned on January 1, 2011, is still under discussion, although Squire Sanders Hammonds has been cited as one possibility.

via Hammonds and Squire Sanders Firm Up Merger Terms.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: chairman, denton wilde sapte, firm, Legal, merger terms, position, recent mergers, sonnenschein nath, squire sanders, week

DARPA undertakes new privacy guidelines — Federal Computer Week

August 13, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

As the government agency responsible for much of the nation’s cutting-edge research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been at the forefront of technologies such as the Internet and the Global Positioning System. But some of its research, such as work on the Total Information Awareness program, which was designed to mine and analyze public data in search of terrorist activities, raised concerns about data privacy.

To counter these concerns, DARPA has developed a set of privacy principles intended to address privacy implications throughout a program’s life cycle. On its Web site, the agency said it will resolve to consistently examine how its research affects privacy; analyze the privacy dimensions of ongoing research regarding ethical, legal and societal implications; and to transparently respond to the findings of its assessments for unclassified work and ensure independent review of classified work to address privacy issues.

The agency said that its privacy guidelines are consistent with President Obama’s May 2010 National Security Strategy addressing privacy-related issues.

via DARPA undertakes new privacy guidelines — Federal Computer Week.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: agency, computer, cutting edge research, global positioning system, national security strategy, privacy, research projects agency, total information awareness program, week, work

Compliance Week: First Half Trends in Electronic Discovery Sanctions

July 27, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

It’s been a busy year already in the world of electronic discovery. Among other things, the first half of 2010 brought a number of new rulings related to e-discovery sanctions.

So far, litigants are seeking sanctions in fewer cases than in 2009, but sanctions are being awarded at almost the same rate, according to a mid-year update on e-discovery developments and trends by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

Of 103 e-discovery opinions issued from Jan. 1 – June 17 that were analyzed by GDC, litigants sought sanctions in 30 percent, or 31 cases, compared to 42 percent in all of 2009. They received sanctions in 68 percent (21) of those cases, compared to 70 percent in all of 2009.

Costs and fees associated with the discovery dispute itself were the most frequently awarded sanctions, imposed in 14 of the 21 cases in which courts imposed some kind of sanction. Adverse inference instructions were imposed in 4 cases, while other monetary sanctions were imposed in three cases.

via Compliance Week: The Filing Cabinet – » First Half Trends in Electronic Discovery Sanctions.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: Dunn, Electronic, electronic discovery, filing cabinet, gibson dunn, litigants, monetary sanctions, percent, Update, week