<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Competition Law for Startups <\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 May 2013<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n As I deal with law firms, technology companies and their investors, I am often asked what role an antitrust lawyer can usefully play for startups having a limited budget and no in-house legal function. \u00a0As founder of Compton Antitrust Law Office (\u201cCALO\u201d), here are my responses to the questions most often posed.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 <\/b>Isn\u2019t antitrust really just a concern for large, dominant companies?<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 No, unfortunately.\u00a0 Most startups have compelling need for competent antitrust counsel in a wide range of scenarios:<\/p>\n + Dealing with dominant competitors threatening foreclosure from your markets;<\/p>\n + Establishing coherent distribution strategies to minimize channel conflict<\/p>\n + Exploiting your IP without running afoul of antitrust investigations or lawsuits<\/p>\n + Getting access to IP held by others\u2014especially competitors with blocking patents<\/p>\n + Collaboration via licensing or joint ventures within the bounds of antirust law<\/p>\n + Entering global markets with a clear understanding of their competition regimes<\/p>\n + Responding to government cartel, merger or monopoly investigations as a third party<\/p>\n + Considering strategic mergers or acquisitions involving competitors<\/p>\n + Responding to threats of antitrust litigation<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 Our investors have referred us to a lawyer experienced in the problems of startups.\u00a0 Why should we \u201cdouble down\u201d on specialized counseling in antitrust?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 Antitrust encompasses a huge range of issues, cases and policies that only a few hundred lawyers in this country have made their full-time career.\u00a0\u00a0 Even they have difficulty keeping up with developments in such diverse areas as standard-setting, patent litigation settlements, exclusive licensing, price discrimination, channel management and refusals to deal. The antitrust world is three-dimensional: competition regimes worldwide impose their own laws and policies on U.S. global enterprises.\u00a0 The risks are too great not to bring the experience of outside antitrust counsel to bear when issues arise.\u00a0 The challenge is to receive true value for that part of your limited legal budget.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b> \u00a0<\/b>As a pre-public company, we work now with a large law firm that has antitrust lawyers and offers one-stop shopping.\u00a0 Why go to CALO?<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 <\/b>Having founded and led the antitrust practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for many years, I appreciate both the value and the downsides of major, multi-practice firms:\u00a0 cost; inefficiency on smaller matters; and uncertainty about who may be available and who is actually doing the work. By contrast, CALO offers:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n +My exclusive focus on antitrust and a single point of contact for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n +My experience, judgment and reputation, unsurpassed in technology markets.<\/p>\n +Sophisticated legal services offered far less expensively than when I was a partner in a large law firm; also, the flexibility to meet your needs on billing models and rates.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 <\/b>Are we taking on undue risk by retaining a sole practitioner for antitrust matters?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 My antitrust experience and reputation\u2014nationally and internationally\u2014have few peers in technology markets.\u00a0 I have handled over 900 merger antitrust investigations, none of which was ever blocked or abandoned for antitrust reasons by any U.S. or foreign competition agency.\u00a0 Having advised hundreds of technology clients, from startups like Tesla Motors, VM Ware, Bloom Energy and Google to companies like HP, Apple, Varian and Sun, I understand the markets, technologies and the special risks and needs of startups. Experience matters.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 Do you handle antitrust litigation?<\/i><\/p>\n CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 Not directly in most situations\u2014though I have been a litigator from the beginning of my career, and serve today as an arbitrator with AAA and a mediator for the federal court. What I can do<\/i> is<\/i>: offer guidance on potential claims when you are considering bringing or threatened by a lawsuit; review existing litigation to offer a second opinion about likely outcomes, litigation strategy or settlement; and supervise outside litigation counsel.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 Can you handle our acquisitions, or our \u2018exit\u2019 merger with a competitor?<\/i><\/p>\n CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 <\/b>Yes.\u00a0 I have done or overseen hundreds of HSR filings and the resulting antitrust reviews.\u00a0 Perhaps more important, however, is assessing the antitrust risk beforehand, supervising any international filings, responding to competition agency demands and successfully bringing the deal to a successful close without an antirust challenge.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 For mergers involving competitors, when should we retain you, and to do what?<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>CALO:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 You should bring me in as soon as a merger with a competitor is a \u201cgleam in the eye\u201d of the Board or management.\u00a0 Within 7-10 days I can review any antitrust risks in the deal and propose a strategy for going forward, including possible remedies to a merger likely to be challenged.\u00a0 After nearly 1000 successful merger investigations, I have a unique perspective and judgment about the likely outcome of merger antitrust risks and investigations.<\/p>\n Question:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0 For<\/i> what other counseling services would we be well advised to retain CALO?<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i>CALO:<\/span><\/b> \u00a0Two areas:<\/p>\n 1). Marketing, pricing, distribution and IP licensing issues.\u00a0 After three decades I have seen (or helped create) just about every \u201cgo to market\u201d approach imaginable, so can offer suggestions to minimize risk consistent with the business objectives.<\/p>\n 2).\u00a0 Abuse of dominance issues. These are another specialty of mine, having defended IBM and Google, been adverse to Microsoft and AT&T and negotiated conduct disputes on behalf of innumerable startups faced with abusive or monopolistic behavior.\u00a0 Typical issues include denial of access to networks; refusals to license; predatory innovation; \u00a0bundling or loyalty discounts; and exclusionary or discriminatory pricing<\/p>\n ——————————————<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Competition Law for Startups \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 May 2013 As I deal with law firms, technology companies and their investors, I am often asked what role an antitrust lawyer can usefully play for startups having a limited budget and no in-house legal function. \u00a0As founder of Compton Antitrust Law Office (\u201cCALO\u201d), here are my responses to the questions most…read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comptonantitrust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}