posted: December 21, 2009
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
Category: Right of Publicity
Tags: entertainment law | First Amendment | Intellectual property | Publishing | Right of Privacy | Right of Publicity
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posted: December 16, 2009
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
Category: General Business
Tags: Entrepreneur | News | Startup | Startup Business | Technology | Venture Capital
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posted: December 14, 2009
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
Category: General Business
Tags: Business Law | early-stage companies | Entrepreneur | General Business | seed funding | Startup | Startup Business | Technology | Venture Capital
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posted: December 8, 2009
This is a friendly reminder that the next Detroit Startup Drinks is this Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at The Whitney in the upstairs Ghost Room. A sponsor has also graciously stepped forward: Elizabeth Ross of Detroit Freelance. Early attendees will be treated to a complimentary beverage courtesy of our sponsor.
Facebook event info is here and our Facebook group is here.
Hope to see you there.
–Matt
Category: General Business | News
Tags: Entrepreneur | General Business | News | Startup | Startup Business | startup drinks | Technology
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posted:
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
Category: General Business | News
Tags: Entrepreneur | General Business | GLITR | News | Startup | Startup Business | Technology
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