>> is this news from the capital regigion. this is "washington business report, at" witith rebca cooper. >> thanks for joining us for a a firstook at businesss and finance and the washington region. today in o small business spotlig, the top for legal tips you need to know. and coming up,he market gyrations, google's privacy expectatioions, and twitter takg on t fed. all that and more. but first -- ebola. it is aumanitarian tragedy. it is already having an impact on business and e econy. lalastly, howard university hospital in d.c. had a susptedd case. this turned out to be a false alarm,m, but it showed how transparency is a key tool for

business. >> every day is busy at the howard uniniversity hospital emergency room. the hospital got its start in 1862 is the only d.c. hospital where free slaves could receive medical care. its one of the leading health care providers and serves as a level one traumama center. headlines the past year had focused on financial difficulties plaguing the nonprofit institution. goodies downgraded its credit rating twicen one year. now, the hospital is in the news for a different reason. presbyterian hospital in dallas was criticized for initially turning away a patient with a ball up. howard got it right, having protocols already in place, so when a patient came to the emergency room with it bola symptoms and a travel history to west africa, he did not make it past the receptionist before staff at howard were put on high alert and the patient quickly

isolated. while tests determined he did not have ebola, it was a warning lesson. every hospital has been getting bored about ebola. you are also dealing with andrew virus -- antswer hrovirus. >> ass ebola has been in the news, we have been preparing for current and potential patients. we eduducacated all of our front-line staff about what to look for in potential cases. it is most important that frontline staff is educated and can bring the patients in, appropriately isolate them, and follow the appropriate protocols. prototocols from cdc, the department of health, and what weave incorporated into everyday operations. >> everyday operations are being changed at the international airport, one of five that will not tatake the tempeperature of

ssengers arriving from western africa. business flyers and the $2 trillion travel indudustry are o high alert, waiting to seehat will change travel plans. toy have suspended flights liberia. carnival cruise lines have changeged ports of call. while a virus is hard to trtransmit, ethical experts s sy there is cause for alarm, this strain proving particularly deadly. tell me some of the things you e looking for. what symptoms ought people beon the lookout for? >> leavers, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. any bleeng. patients will feel nauseated, and profoundly miss. what is imimportant about -- profound weakness. ebola, the symptoms do not go away. they continue to progress. it is important to follow the

patient over time to s if symptoms are worsening. if they are improving, ebola is not on the list, and there are otr diseases we need to test for and look for. >> howard's expeence can serve as a lesson for all business leaders. hahave your protocol in place. make s sure it is followed. the tranarent when a newsmaking incident occurs. howard wanted d to prevent what spreads ster than this virus. is the enterovirus more of a concern right now? where does it rate in terms of concern in the mededical community? >> this is a very concerning disease. what is more important to me is that people understand it, that they institute good controls of washing their hands. i cannot emphasize enough how important that is. and then not to spread fear. i think it is fear that makes this disease more dangerous. peopople do things that arare nt

practical, and put themselves more at ri. >> wash r hands and do't worry too much. thanks so much.. wen you come back, whado need to learn from small businesses? our top story tips iour small business spotlight.

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>> many small business owners manage to go itit alone when it comes to publilic relalationand branding. creating your own legal fund might not be so easy. our next guest sws us how to oid potentially huge leg pitfalls. were joined by the president andd c ceo of the geller l law .

show.a, welelcome to the this is a tricky part for r many small businesses. i don't have a huge budget. big legal bills scare them. you say better safe than sorry, and you can avoid larger offenses down the road. mostmportant, u say, don't rely on online legal websites and tools that were not inintend for small businesses. they may be a w for individuals, b but small businesseses bewarare. not even good for individuals. they have so many problems. when legal documents are brought up t to the court, they are knked down. they e not respected by the court. at a time when you need the cume to protect you the most, th are ignored by a court. >> some are better than others. and they certainly beat not having any legal advdvice and doing it c completetely your o. that there will l be things that alter theracks.s. you mamay wa to get statarted wh

some of the better revwed once. i do not thi that is going to be t full prottionou need. whwhat arere somways of takking online documents with h a quick way to get to a a lawyer? >> a lot of online documents are very cookie-cutterer. wh may be rit foone businessss is not right for another. needs and aant medical technolology cpany are very diffeferent. what are your state lawsws? last week, a clilient came to me with a legal docent they downloaded. i said, are you movina business to nenew yorkrk? she said, , no. but the document was b based on new york law. wtry to like when diagnose ourselves on e we youay permitting really doeoes matter. especially y in the washinington area,e take permits very seriously i had a client this week who came to me andnd had creed a

business and gotteten a tax i.d. number from the irs, but did not know anythg about county business licensing. if you don't have a business license, you have to figure out what your local jurisdiction is gogoing to require. if you do not do it, you will get fined. >> o-stop shopping. you cannot figure t all the different plalaces you wi need in the statete and the couounty. ththat is really slippery slope people c can fall down. you sasay onour ip. -- own your ip.p. >> people will launchch a a buss but forget the trademarkspect of your nameme. if you do not ever look to see if your business is infringing on a currently listed trademark,

many times you can and will get sued. your infringining onomebody else's trademarks. >> people rely more and more on go daddy and other places they think they can register their website name, and then they own the name, but itit is not as simple as thatat. >> not at all. or they think, i have gotten a domain and registered it. a trade rk is a federal issue. there is a company in californ that has a simil sounding business name to yours -- and it is notot even exactbut it is similar, then you have not registered the trademark a they have, you are going to get sued. a client recenently came to me d we looked at it. i s said,ou will get sued very quickly. >> a prescol in california had disney characters in their playground, and disney sd for that they go after businesseses large and smal so boboulware. -- beweware. short t and simple can be

dangerous. a lot of people in ts add world want everything, even legal documents, cap short t and to the point. you say there are reasons for pages of legal documents. i want one pagege my customers can sign off on, not too complicated. the proboblem , the devil really is in the detai. how are you getting paid? can you charge a l late fee? what happens that you are asking somemebody else to do? u really want to have protections,nd not just a short and sweet document. if you have aroblem and have to go after that person, you need a document that governs the interactions. doesn't needi, to be referred t to the adddden,

or can it be upfront? >> you can refer to addendum, as long as i is drafted by problem. -- as long as it is drafted clearly. >> would you s suggest you have someone on a monthly basis, an annual basis, an hrly basis? what should they expect to pay in their budget. >> legal fees should not be a significant expense. i usually recomommend, do it onn as needed basis. a a lot of times, you have somet the beginning for employee contracts, customer contracts, vendors. afterward, you just want a longer you can ask questions to. usually on an as needed basis. >> spend the m money upfront, so you do not spepend way more down e road. good advice. when we come back, more and more people are fighting for their right to be forgotten, and

twitter isuing for the right to watch.

>> time for the round table. this week, dickens pretty much sums it up, the st and worst of times. a 270 point surge on wednesday, followed byy 334 point plungnge on thursday. google gives us an insight this week into the new ght to be rgotten laws in europe. [indiscerble]

most likely tore want their past forgotten on google, followed by the germans. far fewewer requests happen from asia to be reremoved from googl. in the u.s., privacy is also cause for concern at t twittere. the company is suing the u.s. government, saying they shoulld be allowed to tell users about all requests f information from the fed. j joined to the chi econist and dictor o of resear at the consumer electronics associaon. evangelist,nt his joto ecate government officialals about government standards aroundpen sources. i will havave to c check that t. apparently the new wororld has w titles..

whehere we will be talking out a lot of different topics of interest to the te community. we welcome our audience to join us. i want to talk to you first about twitter. going to the fed -- why? >> when the governrnment makes request for national security, they typicically p prohit the security provider from disclosing the existence of that request. >> the provider is prohibited by the government. >>hat firms do is, they will say they have not received any request. thtypicacal cary inin the coal mine -- coal mine -- when it is not there,e, you know the requet has been made. twitter is suing for the right to say they have not received a request. >> what t is your take on this? for twitterer?s it >>n the digital econonomy, it is

key to able to balanc security and pricy. companies are trying to be as transparent asossible. twitr is trying to do that in this case. they want the users to have good vivisibility into what the government is doing. sayaying thisent is is national security. say, ourpany members userhave the rht to know, and we are not comfortable for this information without letting ththem know. tocompanies want to be able be as transparent as possible. they want to share withth their users all the inforormation that they have available to share with those users. >> who is going t to win this fight? >> if i had the ney, i wou put it on twitter. going to be a fundamental question and a right to know wh the government and is not doing. >> about the google case in

europe --- european courtsuled there is a right to be forgotten there. we do not have that right in the u.s everything you have done will found on google. say theyn respond and ll not take information down. reportle just released a that they have taken down about requests, and almost 60% the requests, they have not abided by. definitely a very delicate balance, trying to balance between what they shouldld take downwn, th requireme for privacy, but also that demand from the public, and be able t o adhere to their mission in life and share thatat information wih the public. >> the balance thagoogle is trying to strike -- the court ruled they have the right. how is google denying some

requests? >> only think about privacy, we think about the ability to control what can a and cannot be made public. the right to be forgrgotten is being able to control what is alady out there. you have to balance that against the other individual's first amendment right to talk about that once it has already been public. is ththat how privacy experts arare doing it? are they researching every individual requestst? >> closer t to the line, that is exactly what they are doing.g. the transparency report is individual stories frosomebody from the financial industry who wanted taken down his history of bad financial dealings. googlele took it to the court of public opinion to show thehey ae in the rightht. >> they most set up an advisory c council to help guide those discussions, and guide the company direction in how they respond to this. they rognize it as a very delicate balance, trying to feed our hunger for information,, but also adhere to our desire to

keep something o of the public view. >> this could get "asia or the united states, but right now, our courts are notot givining ue right to be forgotten. on wall street -- you are our expert on predicting theuture. it was a rough week, and it seemed eveone was joyous on wednesday. by thursday, experts were saying this pasure cruises over. the market is headed for a correction. are you saying the possibility of a correctition of 20% downtun in this market? -- it is ais always highly volatile period. we are into that s seasonal. -- seasonal perd. is a market trying to get ahead the fed. you have labor markets and. the dollar value is improving.

something positive e to the economy and the market brbroadly. madade on the gains wednesday -- thereas no reason for the market o wednesday t tht got as high as it did. later in the week, they were saying, this does not lo so good. are you an optimist or pessimist? >> i think i am an optimist on the economy. the economy is definitely moving in the right direction. in some instances, it has gotten ahead of thahat. there is a little bit of a pullback taking place. markets, bull markets, we have exceeded that inuratn and appreciation. it would be natural to see a pullback from both of those viewpoints. >> some of the big storiries inlve tech companieses. you were struck by the hp announcement, and paypal. tallk about those aouncents and wt it means for average investors. >> hp andymantec were

splitting into essentially a consumer and enterprise division. -- you seenouncement the technology on the consumer side of things is being adopted at faster rate. further on technologyhan enterprise. firms are no longer able to dress both partrts at the same time as ththe same firm. >> we cannot take them all on this week, but which of these strike you as a good idea? >> you look atat paypal, a the key thing is, they e trying t hone in andefine what they are providing thmarket. in a digital economy, these platforms become paramount to success and competing in this global enomy.. if you can define how you offer it, you have a better chance of cocompeting. that is what you see these companies trying to do -- succeed in a comtitive environment, f focusn what they are offering. .> thanks

we will be right back.

>> that's all for this week

>> t this week on "government matters." >> it will be hard for the small wireless carriers. >> we discussed the implications. >> sequestration has certainly made things worse. >> dense acquisiti reform gains steteam. >> people watching these numbers are not sure. >> the numbers don't add up. and there is a forecast for a wave of federal retirements. "government matters" starts now. to our vieiewers around ththe wd on the american forces network and here in n the nation's capital, thanks for joining us. government is the engine that runs this city. that'