by Alexander Woollcott

The proliferation of mobile devices and the accompanying growth of mobile content and applications are changing the face of business on a scale that has not been seen since the emergence of Internet-based commerce 20 years ago.   “Mobility” offers every company the opportunity to improve its internal business operations and drive its products and services to the market in a more focused and effective fashion.   As with similar technology revolutions, the impact of mobility is far outpacing changes in the laws and regulations that will ultimately shape the standard of care and compliance that companies will need to follow in order to protect the rights of the many players in the newly mobilized commercial world.

Mobility is already revolutionizing the way in which business services are rendered, products are sold and purchases are made.  This means that significantly more personal information (including protected financial data and health information) is being communicated through the channels of mobile commerce and a higher standard of care will emerge for enterprises that are entrusted with protected information.

By untethering entire workforces, mobility is empowering employees to target customers more effectively and to reduce the sales cycle substantially.  At the same time, mobility is giving employers powerful new tools to monitor employee productivity and activities and this  eventually will result in limitations on how far employers can go in exercising their rights as employers.

The new age of mobility is opening up an entirely new frontier for developers and entrepreneurs to lay claim to inventions and intellectual property for devices, applications, content and other mobility based products and services.

Unlike the “e-commerce” revolution of 20 years ago, mobility is coming of age in a global economy and, along with unimagined  opportunity, “global mobility” presents daunting challenges for business leaders and their professional advisers to ensure that, to the extent possible, mobility strategies and policies reflect the rights and expectations of members in their mobile ecosystems regardless of where those members may happen to be.

For more questions or additional information, contact Alexander Woollcott at awoollcott@mmmlaw.com