It seems as if nearly every week, a major business or technology publication carries an article about migrating processes to the cloud. In many circumstances, this makes sense for a range of good reasons. However, for users of ERP software systems, migrating a very complicated and sophisticated management tool with countless “moving parts” to the cloud can easily become a nightmare. This is becoming a serious issue, as some of the large software vendors and…

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari for Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc., No. 18-1233, and trademark practitioners are hopeful that the ruling will finally adjudicate the long-standing issue of whether a plaintiff must prove willfulness in order to obtain an award of a trademark infringer’s profits for violating 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) of the Lanham Act. In Romag Fasteners Inc., Plaintiff Romag succeeded on its trademark infringement claim against Defendant Fossil for the…

Massive and costly failures of corporate ERP software system installations and integrations are becoming legendary. Nearly every week comes news of another train wreck. But as the public sector adopts ERP to serve a variety of purposes ever-more frequently, digital transformations are carrying a growing number of risks for government entities. In June 2019, we wrote about Maryland’s lawsuit against IBM. While the matter involved a website that the state needed built so state…

Good chief executive officers pay close attention to every aspect of the business they are charged with running, from yesterday’s sales and production numbers, to the look and feel of next winter’s advertising campaign. As well they should: After all, the board, shareholders, employees and even the public hold the CEO accountable for the success or failure of the entire enterprise. Yet the number of malicious and accidental data leaks and privacy abuse scandals seems…

The general counsel at any sized company knows how to draft everything from employment contracts and leases to complicated sales agreements. But few are familiar with what Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems actually do, let alone the traps lurking in these types of contracts. This isn’t surprising given that the lifespan of most ERP systems can be 15 years or longer. So, chances are a general counsel may only see one or two such…

Taft Chicago Intellectual Property attorneys Adam Wolek and Rashad Simmons contributed, “A District Court Split on Curing Copyright Timing Defects,” to Law360 on Aug. 15. The article discusses the differing opinions of district courts on whether parties can file copyright suits before the copyright registration is issued. Read the full article here. Wolek protects the intellectual property of some of the world’s largest companies, including those in the wireless, internet, agriculture and manufacturing industries. He has…

Taft was a co-sponsor with the Third Stage Consulting Group of the Digital Stratosphere Conference 2019, which was held in Chicago on August 7-9, 2019. The conference was an independent educational and peer-networking event for organizations about to embark on a digital transformation or ERP/CRM/HCM implementation. Attendees learned real-world lessons, shared battle scars and heard best practices that will equip project teams for success. Learn more about the conference by clicking here. On the…