Technology and Business:

Staying Competitive in a Web 2.0 World

Chicago Technology Lawyers Who Understand your Business

Companies taking advantage of the opportunities found in the Web 2.0 world need lawyers who understand their business and how their business can harness the power offered by use of content syndication,  information storage, creation, and dissemination capabilities, social networking enterprises, and other new technologies available on the internet. The Chicago business attorneys at Griffith & Jacobson are technology lawyers well versed in the use of the Web 2.0 technologies and the legal issues they present, and. can help you identify and address potential problems related to your particular application of Web 2.0 technology. Based in Chicago, Illinois, our technology lawyers serve companies --- both those developing Web 2.0 and mobile technologies and companies leveraging these technologies and platforms to grow their business in Chicago and throughout the Chicagoland metropolitan area Illinois, including Naperville, Warrenville and Morton Grove. Our client base extends to companies outside of Illinois as well.

We recommend Web 2.0 best practices that will help your business grow, draft policies and forms as necessary, and provide training classes to employees. For example, do you have policies in place to address employee use of technology? Do you monitor employee communication on social networking sites, especially as it relates to your business? Are there any activities or associations on their profiles that may tarnish your company’s reputation? Do employees understand the line between “business” and “personal” uses of social networking sites, and how ignoring that divide can be harmful to your business? Without addressing these issues proactively, your business may encounter legal problems that are difficult and expensive to fix after the fact.

Protecting your company’s trade secrets and other intellectual property and its reputation is critical. We can help your company secure your confidential business information and create firewalls that help guard against employees inadvertently or maliciously passing proprietary information and trade secrets. Our technology attorneys help you to control access to your business’s confidential information and keep employees from leaking that proprietary information. We also help you to comply with the many information and data security laws and regulations, such as the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act, that are designed to protect against the leak or theft of personnel or consumer data.

With years of experience in issues involving the internet, e-commerce, information technology, information and data security, and intellectual property, the internet, e-commerce and technology lawyers at the Chicago, Illinois law firm of Griffith & Jacobson can recommend best practices and address the concerns that effect your business, draft the policies and forms necessary, and even provide training for your employees in order to create, foster and maintain a corporate culture of compliance and proactive actions that will help your company: (a) differentiate your business from your competitors, (b) avoid and mitigate the risk of disputes, litigation and/or regulatory enforcement, and (c) focus on its primary function -making a profit.

We invite you to contact our Illinois technology attorneys at 312.236.8110 to discuss how we can help you effectively use Web 2.0 techniques and strategies to expand your profits.

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Understanding the Legal Implications of E-Commerce
Like many businesses, you are looking to harness the power of the Internet to grow profits. E-commerce has expanded beyond a company’s website, and your business needs to adjust to stay competitive. To stay competitive, your company must explore and leverage the new tools, techniques, and opportunities offered by e-commerce and Web 2.0 in order to expand your customer base and influence your customers’ purchasing decisions. Use of these new e-commerce tools and techniques --- such as social networking or social media (company “fan” pages on Facebook, profiles on LinkedIn, use of Twitter), word of mouth and viral campaigns, search-engine optimization, video podcasts,  blogs, or “crowdsourcing” (forums for customer comments)  --- can build brand loyalty through customer collaboration and contribution.  But use of these Web 2.0 techniques and e-commerce tools also raise important legal questions, such as: Who owns the content on these networks? Have you addressed the rights of consumers and users? How do you protect against copyright infringement? Who owns the intellectual property? How does your company protect itself against loss of its trade secrets? How do you create binding terms and conditions on participation in a crowdsourced project? And how do you protect your company against defamation or misinformation, or other damage to your business reputation? Our e-commerce attorneys understand the legal implications of evolving e-commerce, mobile technologies and social media, and can help your business lead the way by implementing sound policies to regulate the use of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and other uses of social media, corporate networks, and electronic interactions with customers (and third parties).

Our Illinois E-commerce lawyers can help your business develop innovative, effective business policies, procedures & practices to help your company stay competitive, foster customer loyalty, preserve your business reputation and grow revenues. Potential solutions include drafting appropriate website terms and conditions, and putting into place the policies, procedures and mechanisms to ensure web users (and your vendors) accept your key terms and conditions. The internet, e-commerce and technology lawyers at Griffith & Jacobson can help you address these and other important e-commerce issues.

Schedule an initial consultation with Chicago E-commerce attorneys Arieh M. Flemenbaum or Louis Michael Bell at 312.236.8110. The internet and e-commerce attorneys at Griffith & Jacobson will help you address these and other important Web 2.0 legal issues.

Legal Tools to Help Your Company Harness the Power of the Internet (and Information Technology)
The internet is no longer just for E-commerce (i.e. electronic retail and discount stores) and advertising. The power of the internet touches all kinds of companies, even when your business has no connection with E-Commerce (or even a presence on the web). Your business may use the internet to handle computerized billing, electronic invoicing, human resource management, document management, and service desk/customer services. Or your business may use (or offer) web-based or hosted services, web applications, software as a service (SaaS), desktop applications, “mobile apps” (for iPhones, iPads, Droid, etc.), and other integrations, aggregations and combinations of business services, data, information and applications provided through the web.

However, use of the Internet has legal implications that can put your business at risk. Doing business on or through the internet may subject your company to unfamiliar laws and regulations and unfamiliar business issues, such as content syndication, information storage, privacy matters, information security and the uses of intellectual property. Your company needs to understand these laws and regulations and when they impact how you do business. Our Chicago internet lawyers can assess your use and identify the potential risks that arise from your company’s particular use of the internet.  We bring to bear the experience and expertise to provide your business with the legal tools you need to leverage the power of the internet and make your business more efficient, effective and profitable.

We invite you to contact our Illinois internet attorneys at 312.236.8110 to discuss how we can help you effectively harness the power of the internet  to build your business and expand your profits.

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