Intellectual Challenge.A frighteningly powerful roster of national technology leaders last week voiced opposition to pending state legislation that would get rid of the confidentiality agreements that typically let businesses keep court proceedings private. The two bills are intended to protect the public by giving them access to proprietary business information in "smoking gun" documents. Supporters of the legislation say they want consumers to be allowed to know when a company is sued for a dangerous or faulty product. Opponents argue that the legislation is anti-tech and threatens intellectual property, the crown jewel Crown jewel A particularly profitable or otherwise particularly valuable corporate unit or asset of a firm. Often used in risk arbitrage. The most desirable entities within a diversified corporation as measured by asset value, earning power, and business prospects; in takeover of the tech industry. Leading the opposition is TechNet, a muscled up political arm of the high-tech industry led by Cisco Systems “Cisco” redirects here. For other uses, see Cisco (disambiguation). Cisco System,Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO, HKSE: 4333 ) is an American multinational corporation with 54,000 employees and annual revenue of US $28.48 billion as of 2006. CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. John Chambers, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner John Doerr and Rick White, TechNet's CEO. According to TechNet, the bills would make intellectual property and other sensitive business information public with the mere accusation of wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do . In a letter sent to Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and other policymakers, TechNet members lashed out at the legislation: "We firmly believe that this legislation has the potential to devastate dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. California's high technology and biotechnology industries," the letter states. "The technology industry's most valued assets -- intellectual property and other proprietary information -- will literally disappear when disclosed to competitors and the public under these bills." Among the signatures on the letter are those of AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Time Warner CEO Steve Case, Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel, Compaq Corp. CEO Michael Cappellas and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, as well as locals John Pleasants, CEO of Ticketmaster; Byron Roth, CEO of Roth Capital Partners Roth Capital Partners, LLC, is a full service Investment Banking firm, specializing in the small and micro cap markets. Roth’s focus, according to its official website, "has been, is, and will continue to be providing the full spectrum of investment banking services, ; and Rohit Shukla, CEO of the L.A. Regional Technology Alliance. California State Sen. Martha Escutia, D Commerce, who authored one of the bills, said in a statement that trade secrets, the main asset of companies dealing with intellectual property, would not be covered by the bill. |
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