Antitrust, Franchise & Trade Regulations

Antitrust, Franchise and Trade Regulation Committee meeting will be held at 9:30 am, at the Business Section Retreat in Naples. Agenda is on the committee webpage.

Dear Committee Members:

As you may know, last year the Business Law Section published its 1st Annual Journal of Business Law.  It is time again to ask for volunteers for submitting Franchise Law case summaries for the 2008 edition.
Deadlines

We would appreciate it if everyone would adhere to the following schedule:

August 31, 2007 - Deadline for submitting case summaries for reported opinions through June 30, 2007.

December 7, 2007 - Deadline for submitting case summaries for reported opinions through November 1, 2007.

January 10, 2008 - Deadline for submitting case summaries for reported opinions through December 31, 2007.

Adherence to these deadlines are the only way that we will have the ability to edit case summaries and prepare the Journal for publication.  Please let us know immediately if you do not believe you will be able to meet these deadlines.

Case Summaries

While we recognize that the case summaries are being prepared by many different lawyers in many different firms, we need everyone to try to follow the same basic conventions for preparing case summaries.  Accordingly, we would appreciate it if everyone would adhere to the following guidelines:

–Use citations appropriate for Florida Appellate Courts.  If you¹re not familiar with this form, please refer to Rule 9.800 of the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure.

–Spell out and capitalize circuit courts when including same in the text of the summary (e.g., ³The First District Court of Appeal held . . .²).

–Spell out the name of any applicable legislation and provide the commonly used acronym the first time the legislation appears in the text of a summary  (e.g., ³The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) . . .²).

–If referring to the parties as ³plaintiff² and ³defendant² in a case summary, the terms should only be capitalized if at the beginning of a
sentence.

–With each case summary, please also identify the key topic or topics associated with each summary including a
block of text prior to each summary with the term ³KEYWORDS:² followed by the appropriate terms (e.g., ³KEYWORDS: UCC, Disclaimers, Implied Warranties² for a case involving all three topics).

–Please provide us with the case summaries in Microsoft Word format.  In addition, please include the names of each author of the case summaries at the beginning of the document containing the case summaries as you’d like the names to appear in the Journal.  Please also provide e-mail addresses for each author named.
Thank you in advance for your support.

Stephen M. Feidelman, Chair

The committee will be meeting Thursday at 1:30 pm as part of the Florida Bar’s Annual Meeting in Orlando. Details and a meeting agenda can be found here:

http://flabuslaw.org/index.php?//list.calendar=427/1

The following legislative bills have been referred to our Committee by the Section’s lobbyist for our information: HB 481/SB312; SB 426; SB 528; SB 7012. While these bills do not appear to substantially affect our practice areas in their current form, if you feel the Committee should take a position on any of the proposed legislation please let me know. The text of each bill is available at www.flsenate.gov

The Section of Antitrust with the American Bar Association will present the Annual Fall Forum on November 16-17, 2006 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The Fall Forum provides an in-depth look at major antitrust enforcements developments and policy issues.

Through various presentation formats, this conference will feature rich and lively interaction among the policy makers and those who seek to influence them in the development of antitrust law and policy. This conference seeks to provide the attorney, the business person, and the economist with a better understanding of the most pressing issues of our day and their impact on our increasing global economy.

Click here for more information about the conference http://www.abanet.org/antitrust/at-programs/ff-06.html. Please do not hesitate to contact the ABA
Section of the Antitrust Meetings Coordinator at 312.988.5609 for more information

The Business Law Section has announced its plans to publish an annual case
law review. The first edition is expected to be printed in January. Each
committee member is encouraged to participate by selecting one or two (or
more) cases within the Committee’s substantive law areas which are
significant to Florida practitioners. Each contributor will be recognized
with a credit in the Committee’s chapter of the publication. As soon as
the case review format has been adopted, it will be provided to you.

Stephen Feidelman, Chair
Antitrust, Franchise & Trade Regulation Committee

The minutes from the Aug 11 meeting have been posted to the committee page:

http://flabuslaw.org/index.php?//list.committees=1/1 

The draft of HB 1019 regarding unfair trade practices has been posted here: http://flabuslaw.org/index.php?//list.committees=1/1

The pamphlet Buying a Business Opportunity has been posted to the AFT Committee website. You can download it here:
http://flabuslaw.org/index.php?//list.committees=1/1