Restricting shareholder rights is not a new phenomenon. Companies frequently issue stocks with differential voting rights so that pre-IPO investors can maintain voting control. Many multi-class share companies give at least token voting rights to public shareholders. The most common structure is to give ten votes per share to insiders, and one vote per share…
Author: Zahrah Fadel
A bite out of someone’s Apple: What’s at stake with Apple v. Samsung
Last month, for the first time in over one-hundred years, a design patent was front-and-center in a Supreme Court case. The world’s two top smartphone manufacturers, Apple and Samsung, have been battling since 2011 over design patents that cover essential features of their ubiquitous smartphones.1 It started with late Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ vow to…
Some People Are Calling Airbnb Racist – And The Company Is Responding
Applying Old Laws to New Problems If you’re renting out a room in your apartment or giving someone a ride in your car, are you legally obligated to abide by the same anti-discrimination rules that businesses must observe? The answer isn’t crystal clear for millennial-preferred services such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb that have…