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Sol Systems, LLC and Cooley LLP are pleased to announce a webinar series on bankable solar contracts for solar installers, developers and investors. Each webinar in the series will lead participants through key terms and issues of a different contract and will provide an opportunity for Q&A. The webinars will be hosted by Sol Systems’ CEO, Yuri Horwitz, Cooley Clean Energy and Technologies group attorneys and guest panelists.

The webinar series is a complement to the strategic collaboration announced by Sol Systems and Cooley last fall. Through this collaboration, Cooley developed a suite of legal e-documents and tailored consulting services for Sol Systems’ SolMarket users. SolMarket is a transaction-driven community that facilitates solar project origination and investment and currently has more than $1.7 billion in aggregate partnership funds. Members of the SolMarket community have access to this network of business funding as well as transaction and financial resources. SolMarket members can view and utilize Cooley’s form legal templates as well as request direct consultations with Cooley attorneys.

“The Cooley collaboration and our suite of legal templates are critical to our overarching goal of driving efficiencies and uniformity into the solar space,” said Horwitz. “Cooley and Sol Systems are focused on connecting a fragmented solar industry and helping solar companies operate more efficiently.”

“This collaboration with Sol Systems is part of Cooley’s deep commitment to the innovative delivery of legal services and business insight in the clean energy and technology space,” declared Cooley Partner Tom Amis, co-chair of the firm’s Clean Energy and Technologies practice. “SolMarket is rapidly becoming a go-to resource for some of the most exciting and ambitious players in the solar and clean energy space, from across the United States and further afield.”

Webinar Series Schedule

* Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 12:30 pm EDT: Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Agreements Register
* Wednesday, February 29 at 12:30 pm EDT: Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) Register
* Wednesday, March 14 at 12:30 pm EDT: Securing Site Control Register
* Wednesday, March 28 at 12:30 pm EDT: Developing a Solar Lease Register

Questions regarding the webinars should be directed to info@solmarket.com and interested participants can sign up by visiting solmarket.com/events.

About Cooley LLP

Cooley’s 650 attorneys located throughout the U.S. and in China have an entrepreneurial spirit and deep, substantive experience, and are committed to solving clients’ most challenging legal matters. From small business with big ideas to international enterprises with diverse legal needs, Cooley has the breadth of legal resources to enable companies of all sizes to seize opportunities in today’s global marketplace. The firm represents clients across a broad array of dynamic industry sectors, including technology, life sciences, venture capital, clean energy, real estate and retail.

Cooley Clean Energy and Technologies group attorneys have been singularly focused on the renewable energy sector for over a decade. Cooley’s comprehensive strength throughout the clean energy value chain, from emerging cleantech startups to utility and refinery scale deployment, is unique among law firms and provides a compelling value proposition for our clients.

About SolMarket

SolMarket is a transaction-driven ecosystem for the solar industry that catalyzes investment in solar energy by transforming how solar projects are financed. SolMarket provides investors and developers with the tools they need to efficiently originate, evaluate, finance, and construct renewable energy projects. SolMarket has over $1.7 billion in committed partnership funds seeking qualified solar projects and hundreds of users from the solar community. SolMarket is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sol Systems.

About Sol Systems

Sol Systems, LLC is a Washington D.C. based solar finance firm, and the largest solar renewable energy credit (SREC) aggregator in the nation. Through its SREC offerings, it has promoted the development of the solar market by providing long-term business financing options for SRECs, facilitating over $100 million in solar development.

GS Battery Inc. just reported it has began to present its ECO R model SLC 70-4 and SLX246-12 batteries for use in Suniva’s Balance of System Solutions. Co-Branded with the Suniva and GS Battery logo, these exceptional capacity batteries supply longevity and outstanding cycling functionality based on a great deal of experience in Japan.

This collaboration allows Suniva and GS Battery to optimize their alternative energy products to improve the performance and reliability of the entire PV system, thus improving the Levelized Cost of Electricity. Custom engineering support to help meet individual project needs is also available. The ECO R batteries are a significant component to Suniva’s Balance of System Solutions.

“Market interest continues to be very positive for the ECO R batteries and has been aided by Suniva’s introduction of the Balance of System Solutions (BOSS) at Solar Power International,” said Jay Northey, Executive Vice-president and General Manager, GS Battery (USA) Inc. “We are excited to continue our collaboration with Suniva as our co-branded offerings expand globally.”

GS Battery Inc. is an American subsidiary of GS Yuasa Group of Japan, a world leader in automotive, motorcycle and standby storage batteries, which serves the power sports, telecommunications, UPS, and the emergency lighting markets. GS Battery Inc. recently announced that they will enter the renewable energy photovoltaic and storage market in North America.

Suniva® is an American manufacturer of high-efficiency crystalline silicon PV cells and high-power solar modules used in solar panels. The company uses patented, low-cost manufacturing techniques and industry-leading technology to produce its high-quality products and maintain competitive costs. Headquartered in metro-Atlanta, GA, Suniva sells its advanced PV cells and modules globally.

The law office of Lee Tran & Liang has obtained yet a new Ninth Circuit appeal; this will be its 4th specific success with regard to the Ninth Circuit since 2009. On January twenty-six, this year, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a grant involving summary judgment that LTL achieved for its client, the defendant in a copyright and trade dress case. Firm partner Enoch H. Liang – along with attorney at law Daniel Taylor – defended Bedrosian’s (in Orange County) and Hirsch Glass Company (in New Jersey) both before the District Court and the Ninth Circuit. The plaintiff was represented by notable intellectual property specialist Christie Parker & Hale.

As reported in LTL’s June 2010 press release, the District Court granted LTL’s motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff’s trade dress claims in mid-2009. Then, in September 2009, less than 4 days before a jury trial was scheduled to begin, the District Court also dismissed Plaintiff’s 17 copyright claims. In July 2010, Plaintiff appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the District Court erred in both holding that the scope of Plaintiff’s copyrights were “thin,” and finding that “there is no substantial similarity (much less virtual identity) insofar as the protectable items are concerned as between Plaintiff’s copyrighted products and Defendants’ glass tiles.”

After extensive briefing, on January 13, 2012, LTL Partner Enoch Liang argued the case, defending the District Court’s ruling. Fewer than 2 weeks following the oral assertion, the Ninth Circuit Judges W. Fletcher, Fisher, and Zouhary—issued their unpublished opinion. The Ninth Circuit held that “protection over designs is thin.” The Court further held that the defendants’ designs “are not ‘virtually identical’ to because the streaking effect, color blends, and appearance of randomness in designs are different…”

This conclusion reaffirms the significance of a two-pronged approach in copyright infringement actions. Often, the issue of infringement is determined by the “scope” of the copyright that the court determines as a matter of law. Hence, in litigating copyright matters, plaintiffs should pay particular attention to avoid falling into various limiting doctrines that may limit the scope of their copyrights. Defendants should do the opposite.

Lee Tran & Liang, APLC is a California based law firm focusing exclusively on business litigation. The firm’s partners have practiced at prominent law firms, and are graduates of top law schools including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan. Primary practice areas, as outlined by the firm itself and every attorney directory, include business disputes (breach of contract, aggrieved investors and professionals, and commercial disputes) intellectual property litigation (patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets), and employment litigation (defense). The thing that sets the firm apart is its ambition of aligning itself with its clients’ necessities, by delivering a number of creative payment arrangements in appropriate issues.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is telling small enterprises that February. twenty four will be the submission deadline pertaining to federal economic injuries catastrophe loans available in Lee and Scott counties in Virginia. The SBA declared a catastrophe as a consequence of intense storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and water damage that began on April 23, last year.

In addition, the Small Business Administration declared recently that federal economic damage disaster loans are offered to smaller businesses, small farm cooperatives, small firms operating in aquaculture and the majority of private non-profit organizations of any size based in the counties of Dillon along with Horry in South Carolina as a consequence of Hurricane Irene which came about in August.

“When the Secretary of Agriculture issues a disaster declaration to help farmers recover from damages and losses to crops, the Small Business Administration issues a declaration to assist eligible entities affected by the same disaster,” noted Frank Skaggs, director of SBA’s Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.

Under this declaration, the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is readily available to eligible farm-related along with nonfarm-related businesses that sustained financial losses as a direct consequence of this disaster. With the exception of aquacultural organizations, agricultural producers, farmers and ranchers are definitely not eligible to apply to SBA.

Financing for small business can be up to $2 million, with interest rates of 3 percent for non-profit organizations and 4 percent for small businesses. Terms can be up to 30 years. The SBA determines eligibility depending on the size of the applicant, type of activity as well as its financial assets. The agency sets loan levels and terms based upon each candidate’s financial condition. These may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred. These particular small business loans are not developed to substitute lost sales or income.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced this week that federal government economic damage catastrophe loans are offered to smaller businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small firms active in aquaculture and most private non-profit firms of all sizes situated in the counties of Dillon along with Horry in South Carolina as a consequence of Hurricane Irene that took place in August.

“These counties are eligible because they are contiguous to one or more primary counties in North Carolina. The Small Business Administration recognizes that disasters do not usually stop at county or state lines. For that reason, counties adjacent to primary counties named in the declaration are included,” said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA’s Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.

“When the Secretary of Agriculture issues a disaster declaration to help farmers recover from damages and losses to crops, the Small Business Administration issues a declaration to assist eligible entities affected by the same disaster,” announced Skaggs.

Under this declaration, the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible farm-related in addition to nonfarm-related companies that suffered monetary losses being a direct result of this calamity. Excluding aquacultural enterprises, agricultural companies, farmers and ranchers are not eligible to apply to SBA.

Loan options for small business can be up to $2 million, with interest rates of 3 percent for non-profit organizations and 4 percent for small businesses. Terms can be up to 30 years. The SBA determines eligibility in line with the size of the candidate, form of undertaking and its financial assets. The agency identifies financial loan levels along with terms based upon each and every applicant’s fiscal condition. These SBA small business loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred. The small business financing loan is not intended to replace lost sales or profits.

A non-profit organization, Hispanics Union of Buffalo, Inc. ended up being directed to rehire 5 various individuals that it terminated for protesting in regards to a co-worker on Facebook, as well as pay them back salary. The actual expenses of this social network mistake can be quite significant, particularly if individuals factor in ’ expenses. In the case of HUB, HUB had not retained replacement workers, however for quite a few companies the firing of employees, who had engaged in protected concerted activity would also mean salary or overtime to get the work of the fired employees done.

The U.S. Copyright Office soon is going to take into consideration a request which may actually make content security on DVD immaterial. Just about every 36 months the Copyright Office listens to inquiries with regard to exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and also this time around the consumer digital advocacy group Public Knowledge is asking the federal government to legalize the capability for buyers to make backups of DVDs protected with content scrambling system copy security software.

Wikipedia is going to go down for 24-hours so that it will demonstrate the U.S. anti-piracy laws – Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Worst-case eventualities of the projected new rules are now being discussed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation speculates, “Instead of complying with the DMCA, a copyright owner may now be able to use these new provisions to effectively shut down a site by cutting off access to its domain name, its search engine hits, its ads, and its other financing even if the safe harbors would apply.”

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