Articles by William Carleton

Yes, billionaires do use LLCs: Legal insights on the new Chan-Zuckerberg charity

by William Carleton on December 5, 2015December 5, 2015 at 10:31 am 3 Comments

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to form an LLC, through which they’ll conduct charitable and philanthropic activities, made headlines earlier this week. The New York Times notes that other Silicon… Read More

Angel investing: The walls come tumbling down

by William Carleton on September 23, 2013September 23, 2013 at 1:53 pm 2 Comments

Today is the first day it becomes legally permissible for startups and emerging companies to advertise their offerings. Or to tweet that they are raising money. Or to generally solicit for… Read More

Visual language: Stagecraft in Obama’s Google Hangout

by William Carleton on February 15, 2013February 15, 2013 at 9:47 amComment

The President may be a master of the teleprompter, but Google+ hangouts ain’t television. You can replay yesterday’s hangout with Barack Obama here, though sometimes the visual language of a… Read More

Legal lessons from Amazon’s ‘noncompete’ battle with Google

by William Carleton on December 31, 2012January 1, 2013 at 10:21 pm 9 Comments

As Geekwire reported last week, a federal judge in Seattle has pretty much rejected Amazon’s recent attempt to restrict what a former Amazon Web Services sales exec might do in… Read More

Driverless cars: Looking under the legislation’s hood

by William Carleton on September 26, 2012September 26, 2012 at 9:40 am 2 Comments

So driverless cars are to be street legal in California! I thought it would be fun to look “under the hood,” so to speak, at the text of the legislation… Read More

Questions I’d ask before listing a startup on FundersClub

by William Carleton on August 23, 2012August 23, 2012 at 12:52 pm 7 Comments

Every day I engage with at least one person about how startup investing will change because of the JOBS Act. Crowdfunders want to know when they can set up platforms and… Read More

Boss signing in to your Facebook account? There’s a law for that

by William Carleton on June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 at 9:51 am 2 Comments

Legislatures, state and federal, are starting to react to the trend of employers — at least the creepy employers — requiring job applicants and employees to turn over usernames and… Read More

Facebook may be discovering that mobile users don’t like ads

by William Carleton on May 12, 2012May 12, 2012 at 3:18 pm 6 Comments

The story is out that Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook’s current priority is improving users’ mobile experience. And I know there has been press about the amendment to Facebook’s SEC filing… Read More

Reality Check: Twitter’s patent pledge not what it seems

by William Carleton on April 18, 2012April 18, 2012 at 11:43 am 6 Comments

On Twitter’s corporate blog yesterday, the company’s engineering infrastructure VP Adam Messinger wrote that Twitter intends to implement an “Innovator’s Patent Agreement,” or “IPA,” which he characterizes as “a new way to… Read More

Fiddling with user timelines: A wrong turn for Twitter?

by William Carleton on March 29, 2012March 29, 2012 at 9:02 am 9 Comments

As social web services proliferate, I’m finding Twitter, my first love, the only one that’s truly become a natural feature of daily life. New pretenders feel fun and flashy at… Read More

The JOBS Act means different things to different people in the startup community

by William Carleton on March 27, 2012March 27, 2012 at 1:25 pmComment

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act cleared its final legislative hurdle today. It is now on its way to President Obama for signature. The JOBS Act is a big… Read More

Crowding out angels from startup financings?

by William Carleton on March 3, 2012March 3, 2012 at 9:37 pm 11 Comments

As early as next week, we may know whether Congress will change US securities laws to permit startups to sell stock to the general public over the internet. You know… Read More

Why Facebook’s privacy settlement may not be a done deal

by William Carleton on December 9, 2011December 9, 2011 at 1:55 pm 3 Comments

Guest Commentary: “Facebook,” observes Seattle lawyer Venkat Balasubramani, writing about that company’s proposed settlement with the FTC, “is like the stereotypical person in an abusive relationship. It doles out the… Read More

On the Scene: A Geek’s Guide to the Wall Street Occupation

by William Carleton on October 16, 2011October 16, 2011 at 12:04 pm 17 Comments

Editor’s Note: Seattle lawyer William Carleton spent several days last week in New York’s Zuccotti Park, the nerve center of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He had two goals —… Read More

Lawmakers demonstrate that they understand smartphones, even if judges don’t

by William Carleton on September 25, 2011September 25, 2011 at 1:09 pm 2 Comments

The law is starting to catch up to an undeniable reality of modern technology — recognizing that smartphones are not just devices unto themselves but rather portals to a much… Read More

Does the patent reform bill really eliminate red tape?

by William Carleton on September 9, 2011September 9, 2011 at 3:36 pm 6 Comments

In his speech before Congress Thursday night, President Obama said, “Today you [the Congress] passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process, so that entrepreneurs can turn a… Read More

Tech Law: A new era for startup financing documents

by William Carleton on August 1, 2011October 1, 2011 at 2:35 am 3 Comments

Startup investors Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson have an interesting take on the standardization of legal documents used in angel and venture financing. It’s found in the early chapters of… Read More

Technology Law: The Dropbox Doth Protest Too Much

by William Carleton on July 7, 2011July 7, 2011 at 12:49 pm 2 Comments

Dropbox updated its terms of service last week and a firestorm of controversy ensued. Many thought Dropbox was setting itself up to take license rights in user content that went beyond… Read More

The Google+ rollout on Android and iPhone, compared

by William Carleton on June 30, 2011June 30, 2011 at 10:35 am 11 Comments

Guest Commentary: Since last night I’ve been trying the new Google+ social networking service on both an Android phone and an iPhone. Two very different experiences! But the service looks… Read More

Reading the Situation Room photo with startup eyes

by William Carleton on May 5, 2011October 1, 2011 at 2:35 am 6 Comments

Guest Commentary: Blogging Tuesday about the already famous White House photo of the Situation Room during the bin Laden operation, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic writes: “[T]he President seems so… Read More

SEC to review rules on how startups raise money

by William Carleton on April 8, 2011April 8, 2011 at 9:59 amComment

Guest Commentary: Breathtaking, front-page news in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Securities and Exchange Commission chief Mary Schapiro has sent Representative Darrell Issa a letter stating that the SEC… Read More

Tech Law: Fred Wilson’s $5,000 Startup Lawyer Challenge

by William Carleton on March 23, 2011October 1, 2011 at 2:23 am 5 Comments

Fred Wilson issued a challenge this morning to startup lawyers: can we close a startup’s seed financing round for legal fees of $5,000 or less? Yes, it can be done,… Read More

Tech Law: When a phone is actually more like a footlocker

by William Carleton on March 21, 2011October 1, 2011 at 2:23 am 3 Comments

Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court decided it was OK for police to search the text messages on a cell phone taken from a person after his arrest. Although… Read More