A Sonic Drive-In in Grapevine, Texas pays $31,000 to settle a recent sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  Professional Building Systems of North Carolina pays $118,000 to settle a racial harassment case filed and Celestica Inc., an electronics manufacturer, pays $112,000 to settle a disability discrimination case.  These laws have been on the books for decades; yet, they’re routinely violated.

Failed business policies can subject your company to thousands of dollars in legal liabilities.  Learn how to make your business policies more memorable and more effective.

Register today for the complimentary teleseminar How to Successfully Market Business Codes of Conduct, on April 21, 2010 at 8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific when The No Nonsense Lawyer™, Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, interviews business policy expert Carole Basri.

 Who should attend:

• Entrepreneurs and business owners with up to 80 employees
• Human resource professionals
• Ethics and compliance professionals

What you will learn:

• How to write policies that grab your employees attention,
• Why non-lawyers are the key success to effective compliance,
• Tips to make your business code training more palatable, and
• The most common mistakes employers make and how you can avoid them.

Ms Basri helps businesses create and improve their internal compliance and ethics programs in her role as president of the Corporate Lawyering Group and Corporate Lawyering Association.  She has worked with major such as Dun & Bradstreet, Cendent, and Dannon, among others improve their compliance programs.  She is also an adjunct professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Law. Let her share her years of experience and insights with you. 

Click here to register for How to Successfully Market Business Codes of Conduct.  Submit a question you would like to hear answered during the interview and receive the call-in information free.

Managing product distribution channels is a critical part of business.  Goods need to go the right place.   

For electrical appliances, voltage requirements and power cord prong configurations, for example, must match the end use market.  A mismatch detracts from functionality.  For automobiles, air emissions equipment must match the legal requirements of the end use market.  A mismatch can result in fines.  For luxury goods, the product must be limited in distribution through selected merchants.  A mismatch can destroy exclusivity and potentially erode the brand.

That was the situation Zino Davidoff found itself in when its Davidoff Cool Water cologne was found for sale in CVS stores, a mass merchandising drug store chain.  Even though most of the product found there was genuine, as opposed to counterfeit, it was still in the wrong place.  It had been obtained through improper channels of distribution.  They were gray market goods.  Davidoff sued.

What is interesting about the case that the UPC codes were removed or defaced from the Davidoff bottles of cologne – either cutting them out of the box, or chemically removing them, or going so far as to grind them off the bottom of the bottles.  What is also interesting is that Davidoff sued on the basis of trademark infringement and won.

The UPC code was viewed by the court as an indicator of the goods’ source of origin.  It functioned as an indicator by allowing the company to determine whether the goods were genuine or not.  It also functioned as an indicator of quality – containing information about manufacture and providing information valuable in the event of a product recall.

Allowing UPC codes to act as trademarks gives businesses another weapon in their arsenal for policing and protecting the integrity of their distribution channels.

Doing business outside of your home country always presents a special challenge.  Besides language and cultural barriers, you may also encounter unexpected legal hurdles.  The rule of law may be less developed than you’re used to.  Contracts may be viewed as more fluid and less enforceable than you’re used to, and concepts you may take for granted might not exist.

Take for example the sales office a U.S. company was trying to establish in Malaysia.  The location was chosen, the job candidates were narrowed down, and then it came time to present an employment offer and contract. 

 The U.S. based executives driving the project framed the employment package in terms of salary and benefits.  Luckily, they had the benefit of local counsel who advised them that “salary” is viewed differently in Malaysia – even “salaried” employees are entitled to overtime.  That one piece of information helped management retool the job offer and avoid a nasty budget surprise.

Western companies and their manager often experience culture shock when doing business abroad, particularly in Greater China.  It’s a learning experience.  Mike O’Neill, general counsel of Lenovo recently wrote:

I realize that the big challenge in China is to have the humility to recognize what I don’t know.  We cannot assume that lessons learned elsewhere will apply in China; or at least, they certainly will not apply in the same way.

To help you bridge the knowledge gap and avoid the School of Hard Knocks, I invite you to join me on July 22^nd at 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific) when I interview international lawyer Nicholas V. Chen, a partner in the Pamir Law Group,  on Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer teleseminar about the legal aspects of doing business in Greater China.   

Nic is a U.S. trained lawyer who has been traveling and working in China since 1973. He has helped hundreds of businesses successfully bridge the cultural gap, completing hundreds of foreign investments into China and many PRC cases into North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa.  He has also been named a Leading Lawyer by Asia Law and Practice Magazine and is an arbitrator for China International Economic Trade Arbitration Commission.

To learn more about the program and obtain a free registration to this special teleseminar, click here and submit a question you’d like me to ask Nicholas V. Chen about doing business in Greater China.  The website will then direct you to the call-in information page that includes your pass code (please note that there may be a small phone charge depending on where you are calling from). 

Please print that page and post it in a conspicuous spot as a reminder.  Space is limited, so please reserve your “seat” today by clicking here now.

We look forward to having you join us!

©Corporate M.O., LLC 2009

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about how Toyota is leveraging it’s investment in product development with patents.  More specifically, Toyota has been diligently patenting the inventions resulting from the engineering developments associated with its best-selling hybrid Prius brand automobile. 

According to the Journal, Toyota has applied for more than 2,000 patents and is building a castle wall around its technology.  Raising the barriers to entry in this segment of the car market not only makes it more difficult for competitors to enter the field.  It also tees up Toyota’s patents (if and when they issue) for licensing and royalty potential.  It’s a great example of legal leverage.

For more information about the power of patents and how to use them for strategic business advantage, click here.