In May 2006, Cingular Wireless issued a press release containing information about Cingular’s preparedness for disasters, such as hurricanes, through its “MACH1” and “MACH2” mobile command centers.  Playing off the “MACH” name, the press release compares the significance of Cingular’s mobile command centers with the achievement of legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager in breaking the sound barrier and achieving Mach 1.

General Yeager sued bringing claims for, among other things, violation of California common law and statutory right of publicity.  Cingular, now AT&T, brought a motion for summary disposition on the grounds that (1) the First Amendment protects the press release because it contains newsworthy matter and is not commercial speech, and (2) the use of Yeager’s name was “fleeting and …read more

The online magazine Concentrate has a roundup of the major venture capital deals and acquisitions in the Ann Arbor area in 2009.  The article can be found here.

–Matt

Last year, early-stage venture firm Y Combinator “open sourced” the legal documents they provide to their startups to use with investors after Y Combinator’s seed funding.  The documents can be found here.  TechStars followed by releasing the legal documents they use as a starting point for seed-stage financing for their companies.  Those documents can be found here.  In both cases, the goal is to help young startups avoid at least some of the legal costs associated with first-round financing by simplifying, and hopefully standardizing, the negotiating process.

A client now points me to this TechCrunch article on The Funded’s release of its Ideal First Round Term Sheet for venture …read more

The Great Lakes IT Report is announcing that four Michigan startups have received a combined $924,000 from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund.  Here are the specifics on the companies as reported by GLITR (links are mine):

* Mandy & Pandy teaches kids Chinese in a fun and easy way through books, CDs, DVDs, toys, fashion, and television.  Similarly, Mandy & Pandy teaches English to Chinese-speaking children.

…read more