Today's Law.com has a good article that collects links to various free and inexpensive office software (click here). The article summarizes a session at the annual Association of Corporate Counsel conference earlier this month, and primarily concerns cutting technology costs for in-house legal departments, but it's relevant to a broader range of business users.

Tags: Technology

Today's CNN.com includes an article about Google Wave, a purported "email killer," and the two brothers who came up with the idea (as well as the idea for Google Maps) (click here). "In theory, the idea for Wave is simple. It's e-mail updated for the Internet age. . . E-mail as we know it is based on the snail-mail format: you send a message; your friend receives it. Wave makes mail collaborative and instant. When you type a message to a friend, he or she sees what you're typing as you type it. You can jump in and start drafting a reply before the initial message is complete. Wave also lets users collaborate on editable documents, called Wikis, share photos, update blogs, set appointments and chat in big groups. You can add conference calls to a Wave. A translation function called Rosy will translate chat messages between languages as you write."

At this writing, participation in Google Wave (click here) is by invitation only. You can request an invitation here.

The article is interesting not just for its description of Google Wave, but because it also discusses the brothers' theory about the correlation between risk and achievement, and how they essentially created a company within a company to create the optimal conditions for innovation.

Tags: Technology, Entrepreneurs

Today's Wall Street Journal includes a short but useful piece about three ways in which small business owners can build business credit (click here). "Small-business owners are in a Catch 22. Obtaining financing for their companies can be difficult without a strong business credit history. At the same time, banks and credit-card issuers have tightened standards and don't want to risk providing loans or lines of credit to small companies that don't have proven track records. . . . The solution, business-credit experts say, is for would-be borrowers to buckle down, keep airtight records and instill new credit-building practices. . . ."

Tags: Small Business

Today's Wall Street Journal includes a very interesting story about a legal fight between Parker Brothers, the makers of the game "Monopoly," and the inventor of a game called "Anti-Monopoly" (click here). "Ralph Anspach, an 83-year-old economics professor, spent decades locked in a real-life battle with Monopoly and its corporate owners. The campaign dented his finances, sent him on a nationwide trek for intelligence and sparked a legal case that reached the steps of the Supreme Court. . . .Prof. Anspach's woes began with a real-life trademark fight for the right to sell his own game, called Anti-Monopoly. Along the way, he says he helped to publicize the little-known origins of the classic American game."

Tags: General Interest, Intellectual Property

The October 17 edition of the Wall Street Journal includes an interesting piece about a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (click here). "It isn't just the name that echoes the top American court. For the first time, the U.K.'s highest court is fully separated, American-style, from Parliament and its legislative function."

Tags: International Law

One rule of contract law that's useful to know, and that can come into play each time an invoice is issued, is "account stated."

The Restatement (Second) of Contracts (1981) (the "Restatement") defines "account stated" as follows:

(1) An account stated is a manifestation of assent by debtor and creditor to a stated sum as an accurate computation of an amount due the creditor. A party's retention without objection for an unreasonably long time of a statement of account rendered by the other party is a manifestation of assent.

(2) The account stated does not itself discharge any duty but is an admission by each party of the facts asserted and a promise by the debtor to pay according to its terms.

Restatement § 282. Comment b to § 282 states, "[u]sually it is the creditor who submits the statement, but it may be the debtor who does so. In either case, the recipient's assent may be inferred from his conduct. . . . How long a time is unreasonable is a question of fact to be answered in light of all the circumstances." Id., cmt. b. Comment c states, "[a]n account stated does not itself result in discharge, but operates as an admission of its contents for evidentiary purposes. It also operates as promise to pay. . . . If it is in writing it may also satisfy the Statute of Frauds. In the absence of a requirement of a writing, however, an account stated may be oral." Id., cmt. c.

Ohio courts recognize the account stated rule. See, e.g., Hamilton Farm Bureau Coop., Inc. v. Ridgway Hatcheries Inc., Marion App. No. 9-03-45, 2004-Ohio-809 (click here). The Hamilton Farm Bureau case involved a dispute over finance charges on late payments. The finance charges represented a term that was added to the original contract, pursuant to R.C. § 1302.10 (click here), but the debtor, Ridgway Hatcheries, did not object to the finance charges in a timely fashion. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the creditor, Hamilton Farm, and the appeals court affirmed. The appeals court held:

Ridgway Hatcheries continued to pay on the monthly statements, at least as to the principal, and continued to order goods from Hamilton Farm despite the inclusion of the added term for finance charges. Ridgway Hatcheries failed to make any objections as to the term for finance charges until approximately a year after the term appeared on the monthly statements, and then only objected after receiving written correspondence from Hamilton Farm attempting to recover the balance due on the account. Such inaction by Ridgway Hatcheries constitutes an acceptance of the added term of finance charges to the contract between the parties and also constitutes an agreement between the parties as to the amount of the account stated. Ridgway Hatcheries was under a duty to examine its monthly statements for incorrect accounting and its lack either to do so or to object to such is acquiescence on the part of Ridgway Hatcheries to the new terms of the contract.

2004-Ohio-809, at ¶18.

Being mindful of the account stated rule, and making timely, appropriate, written objections to statements of account that differ in some respect from what you understand the parties' agreement to be, can be useful in avoiding the application of the account stated rule against you.

Tags: Contracts, Account Stated

Today's Wall Street Journal Law Blog includes an article about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review three cases involving "honest services fraud" (click here). According to the article, "[t]he law makes it a crime to deprive someone of 'the intangible right of honest services.' It’s a head scratcher – a vague standard that can seemingly encompass just about any manner of supposed sin." One case involves Jeffrey Skilling, a former Enron executive. The two other cases involve "Conrad Black, the newspaper titan convicted of defrauding his company, Hollinger International," and "Bruce Weyhrauch, a former Alaska legislator, who allegedly failed to disclose . . . conflicting business dealings." The statute at issue is 18 U.S.C. § 1346 (click here).

A New York Times article to which the Law Blog piece links (click here) states, "[i]n its Supreme Court brief in Mr. Black’s case, the government said the honest services law has an important role to play in attacking frauds that do not involve the loss of money or property but something intangible like candor or loyalty." At least one Supreme Court Justice appears to be skeptical of that argument. "The bottom line, Justice Scalia said in February, is that the courts have not been able to define what separates 'the criminal breaches, conflicts and misstatements from the obnoxious but lawful ones.' The honest services law, he said, 'invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators and corporate C.E.O.’s who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct.'”

Tags: Supreme Court of the United States, Criminal Law

As reported in Saturday's New York Times (click here), in a speech on Saturday, "the chief justice of the California Supreme Court scathingly criticized the state's reliance on the referendum process, arguing that it has 'rendered our state government dysfunctional.'" The article continues, "[t]he state is unusual, he said, because it prohibits its Legislature from amending or repealing many types of laws without voter approval, essentially hamstringing that body — and the executive branch . . . . Justice George’s remarks come at a time of severe budget crisis in California stemming from a variety of factors, including mandates from ballot initiatives. Several groups on the left and the right are clamoring for changes to the state’s Constitution, including reining in of the direct democracy that has defined much of how the state operates."

The speech highlights potential tensions between referenda, on the one hand, and representative government by the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, on the other.

These issues are in play in Ohio, too, as illustrated by the LetOhioVote.org case discussed in a previous blog post (click here) and by the three issues that are on the Ohio ballot this fall (click here).

Tags: Referendums

A blog post dated today at The Volokh Conspiracy concerning the U.S. Supreme Court's website collects helpful links about where to get copies of briefs, opinions, and oral argument audio for its cases (click here). As the post notes, you can't presently do that through the Court's website, which seems strange. The author writes, "it strikes me as sort of a surprising that the Supreme Court’s own website isn’t the primary source of publicly available information about the Court’s cases. It posts the transcripts first, which is very useful, and it has all the docket pages publicly available, both of which are great. But I would think it a good idea for the Court to remake its website to be the first place new opinions are made available; the first place filed briefs are available online; and the first place oral argument audios are posted." (Hat tip to WSJ Law Blog).

Tags: Supreme Court of the United States, Technology

Today's Wall Street Journal includes Walt Mossberg's review of Windows 7 (click here). It sounds like it's a big improvement over Vista, but, for XP users, it will be a pain to install. Also, there are four versions of it, which is something that's difficult for me to understand. For example, there's only one version of Apple's operating system, OS X. I switched to Apple in January 2002 and haven't looked back.

Tags: Technology

Yesterday's New York Times includes a nice summary of business cases that are on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket this term (click here). "The case that has most transfixed the business community is Bilski v. Doll, No. 08-964, a patent dispute that addresses the consequential question of whether intangible business methods may be patented. A federal appeals court last year rejected Bernard L. Bilski’s attempt to patent a method of hedging risks in commodities trading, ruling that only processes tied to a particular machine or capable of transforming an object into something different can be patented. . . . A broad ruling could affect many aspects of the economy, notably computer software."

Tags: Supreme Court of the United States

In a 5-2 decision issued today, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the $250,000 statutory damage cap on noneconomic compensatory damages that may be awarded against political subdivisions in tort actions. In reversing the Eight District Court of Appeals, the Court rejected claims that the damage cap violates constitutional rights to a jury trial and to equal protection. Justices Pfeifer and O'Donnell dissented. Click here for an article about the case and here for a copy of the opinion.

Tags: Supreme Court of Ohio