What laws prevent a company from owning itself? There are a few places around with people asking if "a company can own itself". However, I have not found any citations of actual law that prevents such an arrangement. Which specific laws or combinations of laws prevent companies from owning themselves?
Some academics would describe any "non-profit" corporation that doesn't have transferrable shares as a company that owns itself. For example, the Red Cross or the United Way or Harvard University, are effectively companies that own themselves. In contrast, it would not apply to non-profits with transferrable interests such as country clubs or the New York Stock Exchange or an agricultural co-op which have members despite not being "for profit" entities themselves.
Since you asked two questions: No and No Does a company’s T&amp;C or their house rules supersede law No and is asking private health status (including the request to wear a mask) an offence? No A company cannot require you to do things that are against the law but they can require you to do things that go further than the legal minimum. The UK and Spanish governments do not require you to wear a mask but they do not prohibit private organisations (like airlines) for making it a requirement to access their facilities. The law requires that they make reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities. But you don’t have a disability, you just can’t sleep with a mask on. If you had a disability you would have no trouble in getting a letter from your doctor to that effect. The contract requires them to take you from the UK to Spain: they don’t have to enable you to sleep. If you read the T&amp;C, you will find that they can refuse to carry you if, in their reasonable opinion, you pose a hazard to the aircraft or the people aboard it.
The corporate veil can be pierced if the millionaire failed to sink in sufficient assets for the business to meet reasonably expected liabilities. In particular, the millionaire should have funded the LLC sufficient to hire qualified people and secure business liability insurance. Further, anytime a corporate structure is set up specifically to be a liability shield and not with other reasonable reasons, it will generally be vacated by the courts. See Asset Protection by Atkisson &amp; Riser, a must-read in this field. I know you are trying to create a &quot;straw man&quot; example for simplicity, but unfortunately the character and obvious purpose of the LLC does have a bearing on its survivability. Hardly anyone creates an LLC for a lemonade stand, which begs the question of &quot;why do it&quot;. It may be a defense against discrimination if the job listing was so particularly specific that the millionaire's child or ward was the only possible candidate, and then it could be defended as an educational exercise to show the ward how businesses are set up. Rather than an attempt to discriminate in any disallowed way.
First - do it all with an operating agreement in writing; always - no exceptions! Second - what you are describing in fairly simple for any competent lawyer to draft. The voting section of the operating agreement needs to include a provision stating something to the effect that until a Trigger Event occurs, Big Member will have 90% of the voting power of all membership interests; following the Trigger Event, Big Member and Little Member (assuming no other members join the LLC in the interim) will each own 50% of the voting power. The operating agreement (including this provision) is executed at the inception of the LLC, and will be self-executing, that is - when the trigger Event occurs, voting power should automatically shift without the need for any additional action. Have your lawyer make sure there's no hitch in the applicable state LLC law; that equity interests don't shift on the Trigger Event (that would cause tax problems) and, of course, don't forget to (very clearly) define the Trigger Event....
Can you prevent the government from using your patent? The opposite is actually true. If you patent something, and it is felt to be potentially of national security interest, then they can take your invention for the nation, produce it, and prevent you producing it or sharing the design indefinitely (though it will be reviewed annually). This has happened to about 5000 patents so far. https://www.wired.com/2013/04/gov-secrecy-orders-on-patents/ Even where it is not of national security interest, and the government (or its contractors!) is not using it directly as covered in user6726' answer, they can still take your patent under the equivalent of eminent domain... well, I'll quote from http://patentplaques-blog.com/eminent-domain-excercised-on-patents/ During World War I, the military took all patents relevant to wireless technology and put them in a mandatory licensing pool. Anyone was then able to use the patents and the patent holders received royalties. The pooling of the patents led to innovations including the mass production of vacuum tubes and a national FM radio network. So, in short, the government can use your invention for its own purposes; it can prevent you from using it; and it can force you to give it to others. They don't do this too often, but if you're working in an area that you think will be of especial interest to them, it's something to be aware of. In general, they will compensate you somewhat for your trouble, but not as much as the open market could have.
Patents are not that relevant in this case. Software patents are unenforceable in most parts of the world anyway. What matters here is copyright. Every work contract has a clause that everything an employee creates as part of their employment is copyrighted by the company. So using company-owned code to build an own project would be a copyright violation. There are also other legal tools in some jurisdiction which can be used against employees trying to misuse intellectual company property. But that's a topic for Law Stackexchange. Also, this isn't really related to a BYOD policy. Being able to bring your own device to work and then back home might make data theft more convenient, but isn't required. There are many other ways to steal sourcecode, like USB drives or uploading them to the internet. To prevent the first you would have to design your software development offices like a supermax prison facility with meter-high walls (so nobody can throw a device over it) and strip searches on everyone leaving the building. This is neither feasible nor reasonable for anything below matters of national security. To prevent the second, you would have to completely prevent internet access from developer workstations, which would greatly impede the productivity of any software developer. So most companies do not even try to physically prevent employees from stealing sourcecode. They rather rely on the legal safeguards and on maintaining a mutual trust relationship with their employees. It might seem counter-intuitive to some, but when you do not treat your employees like potential criminals they are in fact less likely to betray you.
The Constitution said people have the Rights to Properties. No it doesn't. There is no such provision. The closest I am aware of is the so-called &quot;takings clause&quot; in the Fifth Amendment, which reads: Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. There has been a good deal of litigation over just when when a &quot;taking&quot; occurs under this provision. The classic and most obvious case is the use of eminent domain to aquire actual title to the property by a government (Federal, State, or local). This is always a takign, and compensation nis required. The more questionable cases have occurred when some law or regulation leaves the owner with title, but significantly restricts the uses to which the property may be put, particularly when the existing use becomes unlawful. Courts have ruled in different ways in such cases, but I think the current standard is that when a regulation removes all, or almost all, economic value from the property there has been a &quot;regulatory taking&quot; and compensation must be paid. But as far as I know, a tax on the property has never been considered to be a taking inn this sense.
Licencing agreements The company producing these has successfully negotiated a licencing agreement with the IP holder to use the IP. These are extremely common. Subcontracting They have actually been commissioned by the IP holder to make these things for the IP holder e.g. for the IP holder to sell in their own outlets. As part of that agreement, they are also allowed to sell on their own behalf. Piracy They are breaking the law and hope they will be undetected, not worth prosecuting or operate out of pirate jurisdictions which will not enforce foreign judgements.