David Canton is a business lawyer and trade-mark agent with a practice focusing on technology issues and technology companies.
Slaw.ca posted a good article recently entitled Revisiting the Paperlesss Office that contains some history on the topic, and some tips for reducing paper.
It comments that we have the technology and tools to do it – what we need is a change of mindset. I agree with that sentiment. I use less paper than most lawyers – but I can still do better.
In addition to saving paper, most of the tools used to save paper also increase productivity.
For the London Free Press – June 9, 2008
New figures released by Statistics Canada reveal a lack of response from public- and private-sector enterprises to the increasing demands for electronic commerce and technology.
The figures in the 2007 Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology — available online at statscan.ca — show online sales have increased while the proportion of enterprises that sell goods and services online has remained relatively stable. In 2007, online sales by both the private and public sector increased by 26 per cent from the previous year, totalling an estimated $62.7 billion.
Though there has been an increase in online internet sales for six consecutive years, only 16 per cent of public-sector organizations and eight per cent of private-sector companies sold goods and services online in 2007.
While those numbers seem high, online sales made up an insignificant percentage of the total operating revenue in the private sector. Online sales accounted for only two per cent of total operating revenue in the private sector, up one percentage point from 2002.
Private- and public-sector enterprises are themselves participating in online transactions, but as consumers — not providers. According to the 2007 figures, public- and private-sector enterprises were more likely to buy goods or services online than they were to sell them online.
In 2007, 48 per cent of private-sector enterprises and 82 per cent of public-sector enterprises reported using the Internet to buy goods or services. In the same year, only eight per cent of the private-sector enterprises and 16 per cent of the public-sector enterprises reported using the Internet to sell online.
This trend has changed very little over the last four years, despite the continued growth in online sales. The most significant change has been in the percentage of public-sector enterprises, using the Internet to buy goods or services online, up 14 per cent from 2003.
One should not conclude from these figures that information and communications technologies are not popular among the public or private sector. In fact, most of the private sector reported using e-mail (81 per cent), wireless communications (77 per cent) and the Internet (87 per cent). Additionally, all public-sector enterprises surveyed reported using e-mail and the Internet (100 per cent) and nearly all — 91 per cent — reported using wireless communications.
It’s noteworthy that though more than three-quarters of the private-sector enterprises reported using some sort of information and communications technologies, less than half of them reported having a website (41 per cent). In contrast, 93 per cent of the public-sector enterprises reported having a website.
Essentially, private-sector enterprises are making use of information and communications technologies but not using them as much to facilitate online sales or to provide information about themselves and their products online.
This trend is surprising when only 10 per cent of the private-sector enterprises reported they perceived no benefits to doing business over the Internet. The most common perceived benefits by private-sector enterprises were lower costs (30 per cent), reaching new customers (36 per cent), and better co-ordination with suppliers, customers or partners (36 per cent).
For the London Free Press – May 12, 2008
Many people presume it is better to incorporate a new business as a federal corporation rather than an Ontario corporation. But an Ontario corporation is usually the more practical alternative.
Ontario corporations can be created quicker than federal ones. They are also cheaper and easier to maintain going forward.
Many believe a federal corporation is required to operate across or outside Canada. Depending on the nature of the business, one with activities in several provinces may be better off incorporating federally, but an Ontario corporation can operate in various provinces as well.
If a corporation maintains a physical presence in a province other than where its head office is located, registration as an extraprovincial corporation is required, whether the company is incorporated federally or in Ontario.
Some feel a federal corporation is more prestigious, but that perception is neither strong nor widely held.
Some argue the corporate name is better protected if it’s a federal company. Use of a corporate name by either a federal or provincial corporation does not give the name any protection as a brand or trademark. If the corporate name will be used as its brand identity, it should be protected by a trademark registration.
Another advantage of an Ontario corporation is that bankers, accountants and lawyers are much more familiar with them. That saves time and money in the long run.
And when choosing a name for your corporation, whether federal or provincial, it’s a good idea to check to see if the domain name is available for various top-level domain extensions, including .ca and .com. And get those names quickly, while they are available.
A domain name can be a necessity for a business. A domain name the same as one’s corporate name can be useful international advertising. It may be the first place potential customers go to find information about a business.
Businesses also give a better impression if their e-mail addresses use their name. For example, dcanton@harrisonpensa.com seems more professional than dcanton@hotmail.com.
If the business intends to sell its products or services outside Canada, it may want to do at least some cursory trademark searches in other countries to see if the proposed name has been used by others for similar products or services.
It’s also prudent to put the proposed name in quotes and do a Google search to see what comes up. That will show any common uses for that name and what your customers will see when they search your name. It would not be a good thing if Google searches show sites that your customers might confuse with yours, or might be inconsistent with the image you want for your business.
It’s far better to think through federal versus provincial incorporation and choice of name at the outset, than to incorporate and find out you have to compromise on your domain name or change your name.
For the London Free Press – April 28, 2008
Fraud affects business as well as individuals.
An Environics survey commissioned for the Competition Bureau of Canada revealed that Canadians lost more than $450 million to mass-marketing frauds committed by mail, phone and Internet in 2007.
It’s estimated that 95 per cent of people who are victims of mass-marketing fraud do not report it.
The Canadian Competition Bureau recently launched the Fraud Awareness for Commercial Targets, or FACT, campaign. This is an outreach and educational initiative that provides businesses and not-for-profit groups with the tools to avoid becoming victims of fraud.
Information to help organizations recognize and prevent fraud can be found on the bureau’s website at www.competitionbureau.gc.ca.
Examples of fraud vary. A common scam which targets many businesses is the issuance of fake invoices and fraudulent telemarketing pitches for office supplies. In other situations, office supplies that were never ordered are delivered or goods are paid for but never received.
By placing two to three strategic phone calls, fraudsters can glean enough information to make a business’s employee believe that a business relationship has been established. The merchandise delivered is usually poor quality and very expensive. Generally, there is no way to return the merchandise. Those who refuse to pay often get harassing calls from collection agencies and pay the bill to avoid damaging their business reputation.
Another common scam is the sending of an invoice for an appearance in a directory when applying for a trade-mark. It is done in a way that suggests it is part of the trademark application process. This is so common that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office includes a warning about it on their trademark approval invoices, along with a customer service number to confirm the legitimacy of the invoice.
The FACT Program urges employers to protect their organizations by training staff to offer responses like these:
- I need to see an offer in writing first.
- Send me a copy of our order.
- We only pay with evidence of a signed authorization.
- I need to consult my manager before making any decision.
- I cannot accept a shipment without written proof that we’ve ordered it.
- I’m not interested. Remove us from your contact list.
Businesses and consumers are encouraged not to make business arrangements over the phone and to hang up if the company soliciting business appears not to be legitimate.
This problem is not unique to Canada. At the international level, a Fraud Prevention Forum has been adopted. Thirty countries form ICPEN, the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, which hosted Fraud Prevention Month activities.
Building on a previous co-operation agreement between Canada and the United States called the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the competition bureau this month signed a co-operation arrangement with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Washington. The goal is to improve competition law enforcement to fight mass-marketing fraud and other deceptive marketing practices with a cross-border component.
The awards were announced last night at an event with an audience of over 1200 people.
The winners are:
Business of the Year (Small)
Big Blue Bubble
Business of the Year (Large)
Trojan Technologies
Global Traders Market Expansion
StarTech.com
Excellence in Human Resources
Citi Cards Canada â Citi Group
London Quality Award
University of Western Ontario Alumni Award
Global Traders Innovation
Quantum 5X Systems Inc
Corporate Icon Award
Trudell Medical (announced in advance of the event)
(Disclosure – I am on the Chamber’s board of directors)
That’s the title of a seminar I spoke at today for the London Small Business Centre.
Jayme Cousins of In House Logic talked about how to develop a web presence.
David Ciccerelli of Voices.com talked about search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
I spoke about legal considerations around having a web site.
For the London Free Press – March 3, 2008
File-sharing programs are being installed on personal computers both in the home and at the office.
A recent incident in Newfoundland involving the file-sharing program Limewire on a government consultant’s computer shows how this type of software can lead to security and privacy breaches.
Limewire is but one example of file-sharing, or peer-to-peer (P2P) software that makes it easy to find and download things stored on other people’s computers. Most people think of the software just in the context of music or video, but they can be used to transfer any kind of file.
P2P software can be used for downloading copyrighted materials that one perhaps should not. But it also can be used to download material that the owner or creator is legitimately offering to share.
Many forget, however, that P2P software usually is configured to allow others to upload files from their own computer. Since that includes any type of file, it includes things such as spreadsheets containing personal finances, Microsoft Word documents containing personal information — and in the Newfoundland case, a database containing names, addresses, dates of birth and medical and work histories of dozens of people.
Discussions about file-sharing software usually focus on the downloading side, and the debate over the legalities of downloading music, video and software. Uploading issues are often overlooked.
The upside of these programs is that they allow computer users to share files with ease and without cost. The downside is that they often allow other computer users to access information on your personal computer with the same ease that you download new files.
This creates a significant security risk, but the answer is not necessarily to un-install any file-sharing programs you currently use.
One of the greatest risks for individuals using file-sharing programs is that their personal information could be accessed by potential identity thieves. Few people would like to have the contents of their hard drives available to the world to see.
The consequences for businesses could be wider ranging.
In the Newfoundland incident, the personal information of more than 150 people was exposed when an outside consultant installed Limewire on his computer. The information remained accessible for three weeks before a security company brought it to the Government’s attention.
For individuals, the answer is to make sure that file-uploading parameters in your P2P software are set so only specified file folders can be used to upload files from. Those file folders should contain only material that you would like to share with others.
Businesses should make its employees and consultants aware of the issue, especially where they may use home computers to work on company business occasionally. P2P software should not be installed on business computers unless it’s necessary, and upload folders should be controlled.
For the London Free Press – Dec 17, 2007
The early publication of sales flyer pricing deals by websites has resulted in legal controversy.
Some retailers don’t like it when their deals for days such as Black Friday in the United States or Boxing Day in Canada, get leaked by third party websites before their own flyers are released.
Wal-Mart in the U.S., for example, has threatened legal action against websites that publish their prices early. But can they actually prevent that?
There is no copyright in facts. So while it would probably be a copyright violation to reproduce a retailer’s flyer on a website, there is no copyright violation in publishing the fact that a certain store will sell specific items at specific prices.
Retailers have threatened, based on the information being confidential. So long as the website publishing the information has not used inappropriate means to obtain the data, that argument doesn’t carry much weight.
From a non-legal perspective, having such information posted early perhaps tips off competition to the store’s prices — but also potentially brings its sales information to more potential customers. It is free advertising for the retailer. Some retailers tolerate the sites, but simply encourage customers to look at their official flyers or sites, since there’s no guarantee the third party sites have the right information.
Many consumers like to look at these sites to compare prices from several retailers and to see prices in advance of the retailer flyers. Several sites in the U.S. post Black Friday and other sales prices early. When faced with legal threats, some ignore them, others comply out of fear of legal action.
So what about Boxing Day deals in Canada?
A Google search in late November yielded only a couple of sites that intended to post early information about retailer ads. Unlike the U.S. sites that tend to find and post information without retailers’ consent or knowledge, the Canadian sites tend to work with the retailers.
When asked, www.redflagdeals.com advised they will publish Boxing Day deals in advance of when they’ll be published by stores. They said they “work with the retailers to establish a date when we can push the content live (before it’s out in the public) and will publish the earlier of that date or as soon as it’s public.”
Another Canadian site, www.shoppingfinder.ca, said they “provide free listings for all retailers. We will invite all member stores to add the Boxing Day Sale on the ShoppingFinder.ca before Dec. 15, 2007.”
So check out the web ahead to see what and where the deals are — but if you’re not looking at a retailer’s official flyer, you might want to check the store’s official information before lining up in case that deal doesn’t exist.
Maybe I’ll see you in line Boxing Day morning.
That’s the title of an article in the latest Info-Tech Advisor, a regular newsletter of the Info-Tech Research Group. The article has some good discussion on what such a policy should contain.
The article starts off with this explanation:
E-mail acceptable use policies are not new. Most enterprises use them to communicate expectations to end users and set service limits (such as storage limits for user mailboxes). Take this opportunity to revisit the policy to be sure it includes retention periods, states possible e-discovery uses, and accurately defines acceptable use.
I would take this one step farther though. Instead of doing just an email policy, do a broader based technology use policy that encompasses other things like Internet use, use of any kind of corporate technology (even copiers and phones) , and perhaps even blogging. A broader based and broader worded policy will cover a lot more ground, and can be drafted a bit more generically so it does not get out of date quickly.
The Info-Tech report is only available by paid subscription, but the article is reproduced here with their permission.
A large portion of our downtown was without power yesterday as a result of a watermain break that caused a large sinkhole and in turn damaged the electrical system.
We don’t realize how dependent we are on power until it fails. Most of us stayed in the office for the morning, thinking it might come back on – trying to do something productive. Other than catching up on some paper continuing ed material, everything required access to a computer system. Its a frustrating way to spend the day.
Of course the nespaper today has the expected article about crumbling infrastructure, and the municipality wanting provincial/federal funds to bring it up to date. That seems to be a North American wide issue.
Unless otherwise stated, all original material created by David Canton included in this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
