Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as one of the most important drivers of economic growth. But it’s also risky: The majority of new ventures fail, and many end in bankruptcy. Given that track record, when entrepreneurs consider a new international market, they regularly weigh such factors as logistics and differences in cultural attitudes and financial regulations.

But according to this paper, business owners would do well to also consider another crucial but potentially uncomfortable issue: Are the country’s bankruptcy laws friendly or onerous to entrepreneurs?

It’s a good idea for small business owners to put agreements in writing. Here are three agreements that you should definitely consider getting in writing.

An entrepreneur with a term sheet for investment has a range of decisions to make. Among the most important is which points to negotiate and which points to leave alone. You cannot negotiate every point or you will (a) drive away the investor and (b) fail to concentrate your firepower on terms that do matter.

Looking for venture capital? Don't be so quick to sign on the dotted line. Here's what you need to know about liquidation preferences and preferred stock.

I know that proper use of trademarks and service marks gets confusing for many entrepreneurs. The following is a simple and handy guide on the proper use of the marks in your business. It’s important to review your website and marketing material and make sure that you are preserving potential legal protection for your marks

If you think that you and your employees may be creating valuable IP, it is well worth the effort to require good idea and invention record keeping — from the start.

TechCrunch gives an overview of and link to a new basic term sheet for use by investors and founders, authored by Adeo Ressi, founder of The Funded, a site where people rate venture capitalists .

Bill Meade explains how organizations should approach reigniting intellectual property programs. Most organizations have IP programs languishing on their books. Bill specializes in turning these programs into steamroller, competitive advantages.

Failure to manage e-mail can cost millions in court. A popular framework (EDRM)and an archiving system can help get your house in order--and pay dividends in the legal realm and beyond.

There are many strategic product decisions business managers must make regarding product offerings, price and pricing structures, product characteristics and quality, research and development, and marketing, among other things. Included in these strategic considerations is how to sell one's products. It is not uncommon for a manufacturer to choose to "tie" its consumers' purchase of one product to a required purchase of another. For example, for many years Visa and MasterCard tied a merchant's acceptance of their respective credit cards to acceptance of their respective debit products. They explicitly would not allow a merchant to accept only their credit products.

It is important for a business manager to have a clear understanding of the potential economic and legal ramifications of a "tying" decision. This paper is intended to describe the current state and generally anticipated future state of the law and economics of the business practice of tying so that business practitioners may make better, more informed decisions.

This article discusses the issues for a company, and its counsel, to consider when inheriting different policies and procedures for information technology after a merger or acquisition. This article also includes a practical guide to integrating such policies and procedures and timing suggestions for completing the necessary steps. The article will also address special topics such as privacy policies, open source issues, and export compliance. [Hat Tip to themanager.org]

Thorough and comprehensive Intellectual Property (IP) due diligence requires much more than compiling a listing of the company's IP assets. Rather, IP due diligence requires assessing the strength of the company's IP rights in the marketplace, the strength of the competitors' rights in the marketplace, and the effect of the IP on the base company's products and other IP rights. [Hat Tip to themanager.org]

New research suggest that the best way to promote fraud detection is to extend the Federal Civic False Claim Act to corporate fraud.

Fred Greguras is a partner at the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick and West. In this interview, Guy Kawasaki asks him to answer the most common questions of newbie entrepreneurs.

Dave McClure blogs about how venture capitalists and associated lawyers have failed to embrace the technological advances that have helped nearly every other aspect of the business world.

Corporations today deal with an incredible number of contractual relationships. However, copyright issues and the assignment of rights are often neglected when using outside firms to create graphic design work, advertising, or to handle web development. While many top level executives understand the value of the intellectual property and copyrightable material they may create - and they work furiously to protect it - these same corporate leaders often forget to ensure that work done for their firm can then be legally used as their own. Christopher J. Kellner, associate general counsel focusing on intellectual property law in the Office of the General Counsel at Emory University, recently sat down with Knowledge@Emory to discuss the issue in an in-depth Q&A on copyrights and the assignment of rights.

If you're blogging, or even thinking about it, this is a clearly-written, concise resource on understanding copyright issues.

Companies have everything to gain from forging a strong link between regulation and strategy. By shifting their approach to regulation from confrontation or passive compliance to a proactive and informed dialogue with external stakeholders, they can help construct more balanced regulatory frameworks and ensure a better outcome for the organization.

While the Internet still retains some of the "wild wild west" feel, increasingly Internet activity, and particular blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn't helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. In this article we highlight twelve of the most important US laws when it comes to blogging and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them.

As IP has assumed greater strategic prominence in the boardroom, so has IP due diligence in funding and M&A activity. Part of managing diligence compliance is knowing what to expect. Cheaters ace the test by getting the questions in advance. In IP diligence, that's not cheating - just common sense. Funders and acquirers usually focus on three primary areas. [Hat tip to Themanager.org]

A policy of giving only basic employee references may lead to liability.

Editor's Note: this is an older article (Spring 1999) so the status of some of the legal issues discussed has undoubtedly changed, but the concepts addressed are of long-lasting value...

Roughly 30% of all companies, including big names like Wal*Mart and General Motors, subject their applicants and employees to some sort of personality test. Judicial decisions, however, illustrate the risks employers assume by using and relying on such tests for employment decisions. This article surveys the use of personality tests historically, their purported benefits to employers, and the potential liability associated with the tests. [BNET Annotation]

Joe Hadzima offers a look at the basics of patents.

I have often had entrepreneurs tell me with great confidence that they either do or do not want to set up their venture as a Subchapter S corporation. Equally often when I ask them why they want to take that course of action I find they don't really understand what is involved.

Firing an employee can be painful, emotional and, if done incorrectly, costly. Following some basic procedures and acting as a corporate humanitarian rather than a corporate assassin can help you avoid the agony of a legal battle.