A High Court judge has construed the limitation of liability provisions in a research agreement as effective to limit a party's liability for dishonesty in the performance of the contract by their employee. Here, we look at the drafting implications of the decision. In Innovate Pharmaceuticals Ltd v University of…
Topics Innovation Innovation Strategy Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Growth-oriented companies that seek to foster a culture of innovation have no shortage of good project ideas. However, many of them will fall outside the control of existing business lines or the organization’s formal structures for managing innovation, such as…
Quick Hits The California Office of the Attorney General has been actively enforcing the CCPA since July 2023, and the California Privacy Protection Agency has indicated that it will take a very active role in CCPA enforcement. Covered businesses may be subjected to civil penalties or administrative fines of $2,500…
Did you ever wonder who makes those store brand “toaster pastries” that look just like Pop Tarts but cost a whole lot less? Kusum Ailawadi, the Charles Jordan 1911, TU'12 Professor of Marketing, teaches Marketing Research and Multichannel Route-to-Market Strategy in the Tuck MBA program. It’s a fair question. The…
In this presentation from the American Dynamism Summit, a16z General Partner Martin Casado lays out the case for AI as a driving force behind incredible advancements in technology, creativity, and the human experience — not to mention efficiency improvements on par with, if not greater than, those delivered by the…
California has long been ground zero for the new: new technologies, new frontiers, new arts and culture. In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, moderated by a16z General Partner Katherine Boyle, California Forever CEO Jan Sramek discusses building an ambitious new city between San Francisco and Sacramento, why…
Planetary systems like our Solar System seem to contain more rocky objects than gas-rich ones. Around our sun, these include the inner planets, the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. But scientists have known for a long time that planet-forming discs start with 100 times more mass in gas than…
In this talk with a16z General Partner Ben Horowitz, from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, Coinbase President and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi discusses, among other things, crypto’s potential to power the next-generation internet and bolster individual freedoms — two major reasons why America should not only embrace crypto, but…
In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) discuss why the United States must strengthen its technological advantage in areas like AI, develop next-generation manufacturing capabilities domestically, and rethink how Silicon Valley does business with China. Gallagher is Chair of the…
Technology companies have rediscovered their roots as innovators in national security and as critical partners to the Department of Defense. In this session from the a16z American Dynamism Summit, moderated by CNBC anchor Morgan Brennan, Anduril Cofounder and CEO Brian Schimpf lays out the case for how and why technology…
At January’s American Dynamism Summit, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks discussed the Department of Defense’s renewed commitment to innovation and the department’s new Replicator initiative, which is accelerating how the DoD procures and delivers capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale. (Read her full remarks here.) Following…
Welcome to our Drive to Subscribe blog series, created to provide readers with insight into the world of subscriptions while drawing parallels with the world of Formula 1. In this, part three, we look at the parallel between a subscription business model and how F1 teams operate. You can find…
(AdobeStock/Halfpoint)Sometimes we experience what Yogi Berra described as “déjà vu all over again.” It happened to me several weeks ago and left me wondering whether it’s déjà vu or whether things really have changed. Years ago, my colleague at Harvard Business School, Len Schlesinger, and I published an article that…
When US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Edward Chang noticed something interesting: To fill the vacancy, then-President Donald Trump replaced Ginsburg with another woman, Amy Coney Barrett, even though he had previously added two men to the bench.“There was plenty of…
Regulation does not necessarily stifle innovation, as many tech firms claim, but can in fact encourage a more sustainable, ethical side of proceedings, says Chirantan Chatterjee of University of Sussex Business School As we arrive in the last quarter of 2023, there is a general impression globally that while the…
California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, which passed in 1994, was one of the tough-on-crime measures that swept the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, as the prisons were overflowing, the stories started to come out: A man sent to prison for life for stealing a…
1. “Beyond the Buzz: A Look at Large Language Models in Production,” PDF (San Francisco: Predibase, 2023), https://go.predibase.com. 2. A. Rosenbaum, S. Soltan, and W. Hamza, “Using Large Language Models (LLMs) to Synthesize Training Data,” Amazon Science, Jan. 20, 2023, www.amazon.science. 3. “Storm Reply Launches RAG-Based AI Chatbot for Audi,…
Quick Hits In a recent decision, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge held that a percent-of-profit incentive payment under a profit-sharing scheme is not a commission subject to the Wage Act. The court reasoned that an executive’s profit-sharing incentive was tied to the company’s profits, but not to revenue that he…
Did you ever wonder what happens to your old smartphone when you trade it in for a new one? At Tuck, Laurens Debo, professor of operations management, teaches the Management of Service Operations elective in the MBA program. Most likely, it’s sold by your cell phone carrier to a phone…
After being dismissed for eating a leftover sandwich, a cleaner is taking legal action against a London law firm, Devonshires Solicitors, alleging indirect race discrimination. Gabriela Rodriguez, an Ecuadorian national employed by Total Clean, was contracted to clean the law firm. The United Voices of the World union (UVW), advocating…
The discovery not only points to possible ways to prevent or treat the condition, but could help explain why symptoms similar to those of long COVID are also commonly seen in a number of post-viral conditions and chronic inflammation.Although estimates are highly variable, as many as three in 10 people…
Trade marks grant their owner the exclusive right to offer the goods for which the trade mark is registered. Once the original goods are placed on the market within the European Economic Area (“EEA”), this right is however exhausted, meaning that the trade mark owner cannot oppose the further distribution…
This interview focuses on a chapter from A Nation at Risk +40, a report by the Hoover Education Success Initiative (HESI) that looks back at the birth, struggles, and future of the modern school reform movement. Maria D. Fitzpatrick is professor of economics and public policy in the Brooks School…
Please note: while we address certain country-specific updates, this Alert contains information regarding global requirements, policies, and procedures as they stand as of the date of publication. We highly recommend reviewing any global mobility inquiries on a case-by-case basis, including any consulate-specific or immigration authority resources, in “real-time” before traveling…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we check on the retail market legislation in Virginia. New Hampshire’s House of Representatives passed an adult-use cannabis bill. Arkansas’ Attorney General gives the go-ahead for advocates to start…
Seyfarth Synopsis: While New York State failed to pass a non-compete ban last year, a new bill in the New York City Council would eliminate non-compete agreements entirely, presenting new challenges and considerations for employers in the Big Apple. On December 12, 2023, the New York State Legislature delivered a…
Quick Hits The EO directs the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to set standards addressing access to Americans’ sensitive personal data by hostile nations and their affiliates through commonly utilized channels like employment, investment, vendor, and other commercial relationships. The EO…
This content first appeared in the February 2024 Fintech newsletter. If you’d like more commentary and analysis about news and trends from the a16z Fintech team, you can subscribe here. “The amount of innovation we’re about to see in tax is unparalleled in recent history,” says Jamil Khan, the Chief Strategy…
Since its launch, the Talent x Opportunity Initiative (TxO) has been more than a funding vehicle; it’s been a launchpad for culturally inspired innovation and a community of support for under-networked founders. Like the startups in our portfolio, TxO is constantly evolving to ensure we’re meeting the needs of our…
Welcome to our Drive to Subscribe blog series, created to provide readers with insight into the world of subscriptions while drawing parallels with the world of Formula 1. In this, part two, we will look at key considerations for successful subscription product development. You can find part one here which…
Harlan Krumholz: Welcome to Health & Veritas. I’m Harlan Krumholz. Howard Forman: And I’m Howie Forman. We’re physicians and professors at Yale University. We’re trying to get closer to the truth about health and healthcare. Harlan and I have intentionally set aside several episodes each year to cover a broader…
Just as there is no yin without yang, there is no leadership without followership. The two interdependent and complementary roles cannot exist without each other. Followership is the symbiotic interchange between a leader and those they seek to influence. However, the word has long carried connotations of subservience, implying that followers…
As artificial intelligence has begun to generate text and images over the last few years, it has sparked a new round of questions about how handing over human decisions and activities to AI will affect society. Will the AI sources we’ve launched prove to be friendly helpmates or the heartless…
Lawmakers in New York passed a bill in June of 2023 to ban noncompetes statewide. Although Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed the bill in December 2023 due to overbreadth, citing concerns regarding its impact on the economy, the governor noted she favored a ban on noncompetes for middle-class and low-wage workers.…
Children’s drawing and drawing recognition abilities change throughout childhood By Madeline Reinsel A child using a kiosk at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Drawings from the kiosk were collected and analyzed using AI to help the researchers better understand how children perceive the world, and how they communicate…
In a rapidly changing work environment, organisations grapple with retaining quality talent amidst an exhausted workforce, shrinking budgets, and an uncertain economy. The desire to stick around is decreasing among employees. According to Gartner, employee attrition averaged around 20% in 2022. The evolving landscape of employment—characterised by a surge in remote…
A geographical indication (or "GI") is a type of intellectual property protected by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as well as Canadian trademark law. GIs are akin to trademarks in that they help consumers identify and differentiate the source of products. However, GIs are…
As climate change accelerates and wreaks more and more havoc across the globe, a crucial question is how we can increase the share of power produced by renewables while simultaneously reducing demands on the electrical grid. Policymakers have an important role to play in this transition, but businesses arguably have…
In 2023, many consumer products (CP) companies focused on profitability and optimization of existing assets instead of making large growth-oriented investments in their business. Acquisition activity also slowed, as many companies focused on refining their core offerings in preparation for moves in the future. In addition, a challenging financing environment…
Gemini 1.5 Pro brings big improvements to speed and efficiency, but one of its innovations is its long context window, which measures how many tokens that the model can …