Technology Law Notes

Planning for success: Five aphorisms

by D. C. Toedt February 2, 2012

Planning and execution seldom come naturally to 13-year-old Boy Scouts. When I help Scouts from my parish’s troop with their merit badge work, I like to bore them with five aphorisms from the business world (some of which I made up myself): To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Plan the work, then [...]

Can a contract be unilaterally amended? Then its arbitration clause might be unenforceable

by D. C. Toedt January 31, 2012

Unilateral-amendment provisions are common … You’ve surely seen this in the fine print of (say) a credit-card company contract. The contract has a unilateral-amendment provision. That provision gives the credit-card company the right to change the contract terms at any time by giving you written notice. If you keep using the credit card after that, [...]

A cautionary tale: Don’t say “renew” when you mean “extend”

by D. C. Toedt January 23, 2012

The Eighth Circuit affirms a magical transmutation of contract language: it interprets an option to extend a commercial lease on the same terms and conditions — but less any rent concessions, etc. — as an option to renew the lease, which under Minnesota law supposedly requires renegotiation.

Why you should draft contracts with long, run-on paragraphs

by D. C. Toedt January 5, 2012

Some reasons why you might want to draft contracts with long, run-on paragraphs with no internal subdivision numbering.

Losing patent owner hit with $4.7M fee award for bringing, persisting in frivolous claim

by D. C. Toedt January 4, 2012

This case will go into a lot of brief banks — and will probably be cited by companies telling patent trolls to get lost: A patent owner was hit with a $4.7 million fee award for having brought a baseless infringement lawsuit, then persisting in the suit in bad faith even after it should have been clear it didn’t have a case.

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