To sue or not to sue
by Miki SaxonPost from Leadership Turn Image credit: nosheep
In the sue-happy US, cautionary tales from both sides of the fence.
Audioholics offers up a great story on why to think twice before approving your legal team’s less-than-cogent cease and desist letter to a competitor whose CEO just happens to be an ex lawyer who “…wants to keep this entire process completely open to the public…”
The response is worth reading, legally dense, cogent, and comprehensive, but my favorite bit is in a paragraph around the middle,
“It looks like when you sent this letter, you were operating on the premise that I am not smart enough to see through your deceptions or sophisticated enough to intelligently evaluate your claims; shame on you. You are required, as a matter of legal ethics, to display good faith and professional candor in your dealings with adverse parties, and you have fallen miserably short of your ethical responsibilities.”
On the other side of the fence, Sean Kelly over at Franchise Pick warns that you’re never too tiny to be noticed if you do decide to play games. “The problem with many non-franchise start-up business owners is that they don’t know what they don’t know. So, if you’re thinking about blatantly knocking off a trendy, high profile retail concept, franchised or not, here are a couple of tips.”
Do you know anyone who deserves to be sued?
Your comments—priceless
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April 17th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Thanks for the link, Miki. Interesting post.
Do you know anyone who deserves to be sued?
After a year of blogging on some of the more “controversial” issues in the franchise industry, I’m afraid I’d have to take a week off to put together this list…
Yesterday I had a mini-epiphany about business scoundrels: most of them are adept at the legal system and can to play it like a violin. However, the blogging phenomenon has given people a powerful tool that they haven’t been able to control.
I smiled at your Audioholics CEO example. A story I’ve blogged for over a year started when I, like him, received a clumsy, ill-advised threat of litigation over an innocuous post. It prompted the opposite reaction they wanted, and made me take a harder look at how these guys were operating. A related question:
Do you know anyone who deserves to be blogged?
April 17th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Hi Sean, The problem with any form of power is the ability to misuse it. The ability to post anything anonymously for the world to see is very much a double-edged sword—corporate reputations are just as fragile as personal ones, maybe more so. Don’t get me wrong, I think that people’s ability to have a high visibility platform and hold companies to viable standards is great, but it doesn’t change the lying, vindictive nature of the tiny minority who do harm for harm’s sake.