E-Business and Internet Law

Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd. provides comprehensive legal solutions both for businesses with established Internet initiatives and those venturing into e-commerce for the first time.

FVLD's comprehensive experience has enabled our clients to move quickly and confidently into their e-business relationships, whether through custom development of software, licensing and implementation of enterprise and customer relation management software, or assisting clients in developing the best legal and financial structure, contract development and intellectual property protection strategies. We also have assisted our clients in negotiating settlements and mediating, arbitrating or litigating a variety of software development, joint venture, domain name and cybersquatting disputes.

Some of the examples of what FVLD has provided its clients:

• Prepared and assisted in the negotiation of terms for comprehensive software development agreements for a client expanding their Internet initiatives, which involved coordinating several business partners, the software developer, website developer, database designers with the in-house IT staff to satisfy multiple divisions of the company. The multi-million dollar projects also included negotiating joint venture and traditional outsourcing agreements.
• Assisted a client in obtaining angel funding for a new Internet-based, e-learning software product and related partnering agreements for its development and hosting.
• Worked with a client purchasing licenses for enterprise management and CRM software and negotiating the implementation contracts. We were able to save the client over $150,000 in unnecessary costs identified through our pro-active approach because we had focused on our client’s business needs.
• Developed a comprehensive agreement for a client for the design of websites for Fortune 500 companies that anticipated and responded to the needs of the client and its customers enabling an expedited negotiating process between business professionals without further "legal" review, which could have potentially stalled the projects for weeks.
• Obtained a several hundred thousand dollar judgment against a California hardware and software development company that had sold a defective property management system for a large Chicago hotel after all efforts at settling the matter were exhausted.
• Provided a comprehensive website audit and developed terms of use and privacy policies for a brick-and-mortar company implementing an e-commerce initiative for its entire service offerings.
• Assisted several start-ups in the development of their respective business plans, capital structure and funding, employee equity and incentive bonus plans, and a strategy to protect their intellectual property.
• Obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent on-line defamation and cybersquatting of a major Chicago newspaper’s website.
• Presented a comprehensive seminar for senior level management related to negotiating licenses and software development agreements for a client undertaking millions of dollars in e-business initiatives.
• Provided a seminar on protecting intellectual property in software design contracts to a Chicago-based association of programmers developing software for personal digital assistants utilizing Palm technologies.

At FVLD, we understand that our clients desire to get to the "business" of e-business, and our ability to provide comprehensive, cutting-edge and economical solutions to our clients creates the value our clients expect.