By Deborah Lodge
1Make sure your trademarks stand out—in bold, in logos, as headers. Use ® if registered,™ otherwise.
2Screen new trademarks to make sure they are free to use and do not infringe others.
3Register your trademarks with the USPTO to enhance your rights.
4 Most website content is protected by copyright. Copyright notice is no longer required—but is easy to add.
5 Adopt—and post with prominent links—an online privacy policy that specifically suits your needs and meets your user’s concerns.
6 A privacy policy should identify the kinds of personal information that will be collected from users.
7 Consider: Will you have the right to transfer user or customer data to a successor? Can users update or correct their personal data? Do you want to share the data for marketing purposes?
8 Follow your own privacy policy. Many FTC cases involve companies that did not.
9 Make sure your service provider contracts address privacy and data confidentiality.
10 Review your privacy policies and practices annually to make sure they fit your needs and comply with current laws.

FROM THE EDITOR

Unconventional Wisdom

It may be axiomatic that the conventional wisdom exists to be questioned. And yet, it prevails. So it is that the following statements still resonate: Commercial real estate is dead. “Lean” manufacturing slashes jobs. High-speed rail will never fly in America. Lobbyists’ days are numbered. Clean technology is the province of the behemoth companies that can afford to develop it.

As we see in this issue, none of those statements rings true. Take real estate lender Willy Walker, who says, “There are plenty of opportunities [in commercial real estate] for investors willing to heed the lessons from the past few years.” Or Jim D’Addario, who applied the Lean approach to his guitar strings and accessories business and increased profitability and productivity while improving employee morale and adding jobs. Or Carolina Mederos and Rodney Slater, who explain how high-speed rail can (and will) reshape America’s economy and environment.

Similarly, such veterans of government as Kevin Martin (former chair of the FCC) and Rosemary Becchi (who worked with lobbyists at the Senate Finance Committee and the IRS), both of whom are now partners at Patton Boggs, explain that lobbying—or advocacy—is having a heyday because, as Martin notes, “one of the most important roles of advocates is…framing an issue in a way that” ensures success “but also fits in with the…overall regulatory direction.”

And as for helping the U.S. take the lead in clean technology, Alain Castro, president of Akuo Energy USA, says it best: “Lean entrepreneurial ventures are entering this sector and thriving.”

Perhaps the conventional wisdom exists to be debunked. Capital Thinking exists, in part, to aid in the debunking.

- MIKE WINKLEMAN, Editorial Director

FEATURE STORY

The Next Tech Revolution

“Cleantech” promises to transform industries worldwide. Can the U.S. take the lead in developing the technologies that power the clean energy economy?

COVER STORY

The Advocates

Even as the political rhetoric vilifying lobbyists reached new heights, and recession-shocked businesses and organizations slashed their budgets across the board, spending on lobbying has increased. Here’s why.

[Currency]

Achieving a “shared objective” by controlling the food supply. Whither the estate tax? Brazil in prime time. What the Supreme Court’s election-funding decision really means.

[Capital Thoughts]

Willy Walker examines “bulletproof” real estate. Jim D’Addario explains how the “Lean” approach beefed up his company. Carolina Mederos and Rodney Slater discuss the broader impacts of high-speed rail service.

[Q&A: Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr.]

Lobbying has come under fire in Washington even as more organizations are finding it indispensable. Patton Boggs Chairman Tom Boggs provides some perspective.