Immigration Amnesty Law – Green Card
Posted on May 16, 2010
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The last time we had a law that many considered amnesty was in 2000. On December 21, 2000, President Clinton signed The Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act of 2000 (LIFE Act) into law. This law, commonly referred to as the LIFE Act or 245(i), allowed certain persons who had an immigrant visa immediately available but entered without inspection (without documents) or otherwise violated their status and thus are ineligible to apply for adjustment of status in the United States, to apply if they pay a $1,000 penalty.
“If a new amnesty law is passed that is the same as the old law, what are the criteria?”
To be eligible under the old amnesty law, you must have been:
1. The beneficiary of a Form I-130 immigrant visa petition (“Petition for Alien Relative”), or Form I-140 immigrant visa petition (“Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker”), or Form I-360 ["Petition for an Amerasian Widow(er), or Special Immigrant], or Form I-526 (“Petition for an Alien Entrepreneur”) or
2. The beneficiary of an application for labor certification filed with the Department of Labor (DOL) and
3. Been physically present in the United States during a certain time frame.
“Was there a deadline for filing under the old amnesty law?
Protecting your Brand with a Registered Trade Mark
Posted on May 8, 2010
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Your branding differentiates your products and services from those of your competitors, it lets your customers develop loyalty based on expectations of quality and service, and it can attract prospective clients and consumers. These are just some of the ways in which value accumulates in your brand, and just some of the features that competing businesses might try to exploit.
Very often businesses do not really appreciate the value of their brand names and logos until they are faced with imitators, but for those that have overlooked effective protection that can be too late to avoid expensive legal disputes. Passing off actions are the way to combat the use of unregistered brand devices by competitors, but the costs can be considerable, and even a successful action might not yield entirely satisfactory results.
Benefits of trade mark registration
Registering trade marks early on can prevent these expensive disputes from arising, and provide effective ways of enforcing your rights in the event that they do occur. The benefits of trade mark registration include:
- Notice to the world of your brand (the trade mark registers are publicly accessible)
- Dissuading use of your brand without permission
- Notification when other parties try to register similar brand names
- Mechanisms to prevent counterfeiting
- An asset you can license or sell
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Google’s Watching us. Should we be Watching Google?
Posted on May 1, 2010
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“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Eric Schmidt, CEO Google on CNBC.
Let’s face it Google is an indispensible part of the Web. Its many services such as Chrome, Gmail, Buzz and Street View are a part of our everyday browsing habits. Google is also, of course, one of the most successful companies in the world. According to finance.yahoo.com Google made more than $2 billion in the last quarter of 2009 and this is up 17% from the previous quarter. Moreover, Google has expanded its reach with its Chrome browser and through its ownership of YouTube and Doubleclick.
Google also collects and stores copious amounts of data on user’s which it claims is necessary for it in order to be more efficient and more useful for web browsing. Lately, though, I and many others are beginning to be creeped out by how Google handles this data, much of it very personal, and Google’s seeming lack of respect for the privacy of its users. The statement above from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, alone gives me pause as to whether Google indeed does respect the privacy of its users.
Let’s take four of its most popular site tools – Chrome, Gmail, Buzz, and Street View all of which have come under fire by everyone from privacy rights advocates to governmental bodies to private citizens. With Chrome, Google’s own proprietary browser it introduced in late 2008, the concern is about the unique ID assigned to it during installation. Many people are concerned that this ID is being used to keep track of individual users. This concern has been so great that according to softpedia Google has announced that it is removing this ID after the first update of the Chrome browser on a user’s computer. I never use it. I use Firefox.
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The Cost Of A United States Trademark Registration
Posted on April 14, 2010
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How much does it cost to receive a U.S. Trademark Registration? Here is what you need to know about the costs involved in registering a trademark in the U.S.
The ETEAS and ETEAS PLUS Systems
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) charges either $275 or $325 per class of goods or services to file an application for a U.S. Trademark Registration. Whether the cost per class is $275 or $325 depends upon system the applicant uses at the USPTO.
The traditional filing system, known as the TEAS system, permits applicants to write their own identification of goods or recitation of services with which they wish their trademark to be registered. For instance, Nike would seek registration for a trademark using an identification of goods such as “athletic shoes” in International Class 25. If Nike writes their own identification of goods using the TEAS system the cost is $325 per class of goods or services in which the application is filed.
We’ll explain below what “per class” means.
As an alternative to the traditional system, in recent years the USPTO initiated a new system known as the TEAS PLUS system. The TEAS PLUS system is designed to both reduce the cost of the trademark process while speeding up the registration process. In this regard, provided that applicants meet certain specific criteria and use only identifications of goods or recitations of services from a pre-approved list the cost to register their marks is reduced from $325 to $275 per class of goods or services.
Accordingly, the base price to apply to register a trademark with the USPTO is either $325 or $275 depending upon which system is used.
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Cheap Stocks > Best Stocks Under a Dollar Ready to Go Up – Cheapest Stocks List
Posted on April 12, 2010
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A beginner usually feels very attracted to the stock market while for example discovering a good cheap stock that’s being reported in CNBC or the news program and watching it rise steady fast and make new highs from $0.10 to $0.70 in just 2 months.
While learning about this successful news story he’s saying to himself “Oh boy if I was one of those lucky guys who bought that cheap stock back when it was priced at $0.10 I easily would have tripled my money by now… That means my 10 grand would transformed in to a whooping 70 K! hassle free … I would have been able to grab one of those big HUMMERs on the spot and probably pick up a nice Rolex by the way!”
The stock market news constantly reports of hot small cap stocks that are breaking out and making tremendous gains on the same day or doubling in price in just a few hours. Back in the bull market of the late 90’s you could easily see a good number of hot stocks sprouting out every week.
E-contracts in Cyber Space
Posted on April 10, 2010
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Traditional concept of contract provides the foundations to all types of valid and enforceable contract, keeping in view the meanings of definition of contract as, ‘all agreements are contracts if they are made by the free assent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object and are not thereby expressly declared to be void’ the term contract would include invitation to tender and instruction to renderers, ‘tender, and acceptance thereof.
An electronic contract is an agreement created and “signed” in electronic form — in other words, no paper or other hard copies are used. For example, you write a contract on your computer and email it to a business associate, and the business associate emails it back with an electronic signature indicating acceptance. An e-contract can also be in the form of a “Click to Agree” contract, commonly used with downloaded software. The user clicks an “I Agree” button on a page containing the terms of the software license before the transaction can be completed.
The United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. A/ RES/51/ 162, dated 30th January 1997, Chapter III and specifically Article 11 sets about the formation and validity of E-contract.
Article 11 states that in the context of the contract formation unless otherwise agreed by the parties, on offer and the acceptance of an offer may be expressed by means of data message. Where data message is used in the formation of a contract that contact shall not be denied validity or enforceability on the sole ground that a data message was used for that purpose.
Hiv/aids Immigration Ban Finally Lifted
Posted on March 22, 2010
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In 1987, in the midst of worldwide fear and panic over the AIDS epidemic, the U.S. set in place an immigration ban to prevent anyone with AIDS from entering the country. This drastic measure was taken largely a result of the erroneous belief that HIV/AIDS could be transmitted through physical contact. The U.S. was one of a short list of 12 countries that banned those with the virus.
Twenty-two years later, the ban has finally been lifted. On October 30th 2009 the President signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. This was the final step in a process that began under the Bush administration. The law’s standard 60-day waiting period ended early this month and the Act is now officially in effect.
President Obama said the ban was incompatible with U.S. efforts to lead the way in fighting the disease. Unquestionably, reaching out a hand to help others is difficult when you are holding the door shut with the other hand. The ban was serving to perpetuate the HIV/AIDS stigma. Now with more welcoming laws in place, the U.S. will be hosting a bi-annual global HIV/AIDS summit in 2012.
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Indecent Acts: Criminal Law Interpretation
Posted on March 17, 2010
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R. v. Bennett, R. v. Underdahl and R. v. Sinclair illustrate that during the relevant period of time the legal procedures used by judges to ascertain what constitutes an indecent act have undergone a series of methodical changes. Upon analyzing each of the mentioned cases, it is evident that over time, courts have increasingly become more moderate in their rulings and hence judges have begun to use a more specific and precise criteria when deciding cases involving indecency.
The courts relied heavily on the use of legal tests or precedent set by earlier judges to aid them in determining whether the conduct of the accused was indecent. Equally visible throughout the progression of these cases – some 20 plus years – is the trend towards a more precise, rule-driven approach fueled by a more moderate stance on the issue of indecency. Evidence of this can be seen through the broad nature and wide-ranging scope of the decisions in Beaupre and Bennett which are in stark contrast with the more detailed and moderate rulings in Underdahl and Sinclair.
In Beaupre, Gould, J. created a general rule for determining indecency, referred to here as the ‘indecent act test’. He held that the mere act of nudity alone was not enough to constitute the offence of an indecent act but rather “that the phrase “indecent act” connotes something more active, with greater moral turpitude.” Read more
Legal Issue: Trademarks And Domain Names
Posted on March 7, 2010
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Trade marks are a name or symbols that are used to exemplify the goods of services of a particular company from others. Identical to copyrights and other signs of observation property, the effects of the trademarks plan is territorial. This means, that each country has its own trademark mold. A monogram name like Machine Head may be owned by one person rule the united dominion further by another, almighty unrelated, fellow predominance the United States. The domain name system, which is putting exceedingly of its emphasis on the .com title as the international domain, does not perfectly colloquialism well with the trade mark form because of the latter’s indispensable force of “ownership.”
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Hospital And Nursing Errors
Posted on March 6, 2010
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Hospitals across the nation have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure their employees are properly trained to meet patient’s needs. Unfortunately, understaffing and limited funding leads to a hospital staff that is overworked and under-trained. The results can be devastating.
Statistics reveal that more than 1,700 patients have died and nearly 9,500 have been injured because of hospital and nursing errors. Nurses have more patient interaction than doctors, so they are responsible for their nursing duties in addition to communicating a patient’s condition with the doctor. A majority of nursing errors are caused by careless or medical negligence resulting from:
* Fatigue
* Inexperience
* Insufficient training
Dangerous Cost-Saving Hospital Tactics
Because they battle constant funding cuts, many hospitals now rely on machines to monitor patients’ vital signs. If a nurse does not hear an alarm from a monitoring machine, he or she cannot perform the appropriate care and potentially lifesaving action.
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