| HomeStatutory UpdatesSeminarsProduct Training |
| www.cscglobal.comContact UsArchive | November 2007 |
| CSC’s Risk Management Resources Resonate with ACC Attendees
In-house counsel visited Corporation Service Company’s booth at the ACC annual conference last week looking for new ways of approaching risk management. They liked what they saw. CSC delivered two seminars on the subject during the conference, one on enterprise risk management and the other on managing the risks of brand infringement online. All sessions were well-attended by corporate attorneys who were enthusiastic about the strategies and services that CSC is offering its customers to help mitigate risks in these critical areas. “This is a clear trend in the industry,” explains Bettina Tweardy Riveros, Director of Product Development and Associate General Counsel for CSC who ran the enterprise risk management seminar. “Attorneys are looking for smarter ways to monitor and handle both positive and negative risks.” “Corporate counsel are tired of learning out about the risks when they’ve already ballooned into a serious issue,” CSC Vice President Kanchan Mhatre adds. “They want tools and information they can use to identify and manage risks before they become a serious — and expensive — problem.” Enterprise Risk Management: A Systemic Approach On the enterprise side, attorneys were impressed with the functionality of CSC Dashboard, an online integrated legal tool, which provides real-time gauges of an organization’s compliance, governance, litigation/matter management, deal, transaction and IP issues on a single customizable screen. The information comes from corporate data housed at CSC, and shows the events, data and trends that highlight risks and may require action. “The attendees liked the fact that all the information was in one place, and that it was easy to get a fast read on many situations at a glance,” Riveros says. “They immediately saw the value of having a way to integrate strategic planning, operations management and internal controls integrated on one screen.” CSC customers at the event were pleased that the information supplied to the dashboard already exists in the CSC system. “Our users liked the fact that there’s no need for additional data entry. The information already resides in our system, and as soon as a customer expresses interest in the dashboard, we can literally flip a switch and they have it on their computers.” The Web-based dashboard lets users track trending information from year to year, something that caught the attention of many attorneys. “We used the example of a company that detected an increase of employment cases in one state from one year to the next while using the dashboard. That kind of information would give you a heads-up that you need to do some training in that state,” Riveros explains. And it’s not just a matter of litigation alerts, she adds. “The aggregated data lets you see positive trends as well, and the impact of policy decisions.” Several of the attendees felt that the charts displayed on the dashboard would be effective elements in board reports, while others saw the value of using the dashboard as part of a disaster response. “People talked about being able to store a disaster plan on the system that would be unaffected by the disaster at the company, and available to all relevant parties via a Web-browser,” Riveros says. The systemic approach is really resonating with corporate counsel concerned with managing so much information from an increasing number of sources. “They’re protecting the board, the shareholders, even the legal department, and they’re getting inundated with material,” Riveros says. “They need quicker access to all data so they can respond in a timely manner.” Risk Management of Brands Online: Be Proactive Kanchan Mhatre led the online brand infringement management sessions, where attorneys were at once surprised by the magnitude of the brand infringement problem, and heartened at the prospect of being able to implement strategies that they can use to manage the situation. “There was a lot of interest in the subject,” Mhatre says. “Our figures regarding how widespread infringement is got a lot of attention, as did the fact that so many infringers are actually leveraging the infringed names to their advantage.” Industry figures indicate that 65 percent of brand name domains are registered by third parties, and that 37 percent of the infringement occurs outside the U.S. According to a recent study conducted by CSC, the vast majority of that infringement takes the form of domain strings that contain a brand name and a left-hand or right-hand term. Infringers register these strings because they are the ones most frequently typed in to a web browser’s address box. “Attorneys were taken aback by the figures, and wanted to know more about the infringers’ practices,” Mhatre notes. “They talked about the need to publicize this topic to generate more awareness and discussion.” Attendees were especially intrigued by the fact that so many infringers are able to profit from their brand name portfolios. “Infringers not only capture traffic that should be going to the brand owner, but they are also leveraging the names to generate pay-per-click revenues,” Kachan says. In the session, Mhatre and his team discussed a comprehensive approach to managing risk to online brands, which were met with enthusiasm. Mhatre also described where CSC could be instrumental in helping to create an effective risk management policy. “Our access to a company’s aggregated data, our proprietary domain technologies and our extensive experience and research in this area make us uniquely positioned to work with customers trying to manage their online brands,” Mhatre says. People are beginning to realize that it’s a group problem, and that the only way out is by doing something proactive, Mhatre says. “Infringers are making money, so they’re here to stay. We have to make it hard for them to get that return on investment.” |
Corporation Service Company® • 2711 Centerville Road • Wilmington, DE 19808 • 800-927-9800 CSCFlash™ is not intended to provide legal or professional advice. If such advice is required, you should seek the services of an attorney or other professional. CSC cannot guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information in CSCFlash. |