Celebrating 100 Lightbulb law blog posts   Appearing on World IP Day, this is the 100th post of our firm's Lightbulb law blog.  We began expecting to focus on intellectual property commercialisation and Australian IP law. The blog's scope quickly broadened to include the global application of IP law and related business and finance law. 

Billions made with Internet venture exit strategies  The April/May 2007  major spike in Internet, online new media and Web venture activity increased the heat in deal rooms in Australia, United States and Europe. We too were busy. This post overviews recent Internet deal making blips, prices and major trends. 

Use design briefs to shape your projects  Many projects begin life in a brief. A brief defines project needs and sets the path towards a solution. A design brief helps in the document-intensive job of project definition and execution. Like all good project management, this reduces legal issues. 

Use formats and genres to answer copyright questions  Being inspired  by the work of others is one thing, infringement is another. Whether it is films, software or books, to reduce copyright law issues it helps to understand and apply know-how regarding formats and genres. This is another way to reduce legal issues. 

New Media and Fair Dealing: Legal Knock-On  The  National Rugby League (NRL ) was recently in the middle of a difficult legal stoush involving  Telstra (its major sponsor)  and  Foxtel (its pay TV broadcaster). We watched  the story unfold with interest, especially given legal rights over new media lay at the core of the  now settled dispute.

Is your company's knowledge about IP woeful?   A 60 page preliminary report has recently been released in the UK revealing the answers by UK companies to 29 questions in a survey about IP.  Compare your company's position to the results. Some survey results evidence a woeful level of knowledge in UK companies about intellectual property protection, management, licensing, valuation and enforcement.

Innovation defined and redefined  The word innovation is born again. It shot to stardom in the 1990s, then fell in our current decade into such common use that it can connote anything from invention and fundamental scientific discovery through to creativity and mere change.

Hunter Valley wine brands and branding  What's good, mediocre, bad or just plain ugly in wine branding in the Lower Hunter Valley? A weekend visit provided an opportunity to assess developments.

Special collection: Legal Case Studies  Case studies have helped grow our business. We'll be using three case studies in August 2007 when running two workshops for lawyers in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on contract drafting. Here are quick links to 33 case studies on our Website which may help your business. The subjects range from beverages to IP licensing of software and content for mobile phones through to EBIT, price earnings multiples and other business valuation mechanisms. 

AdWords contract upheld   This Google AdWords case helps answer this question under US law- when does an online transaction produce or amount to an enforceable or legally binding contract? For new technology there is a history of Australian courts turning to US cases for guidance.  We found this case worth studying as we regularly draft online business contracts including for online advertising and sponsorship arrangements. 

Restructuring co-operatives is hard work  There are many reasons for Mitre 10's slide, its  business structure as a co-operative may be one of them.  This post discusses  business structuring  and ends with a table comparing co-operatives to franchises and licences as alternative collaborative arrangements.