Erin Ogden 
As we have discussed before, January 1 brings a new year and a new crop of copyrighted works entering into the public domain. This year, works from 1924 become available. We wish you a wonderful, fulfilling new year with lots of great works to build on! A few of my favorites: All these shorts and … Read more
Perhaps one of the most important questions that someone thinking of starting a business (or adding a new line to their existing business) is: Will you make money? Or as Gary put it: Can you compete and still make a reasonable return on your investment? This is an easy, yet hard question. Often, people will … Read more
Last time, we took a look around to see if people are actually buying handmade soap. We found my friend from kindergarten and some other sellers on Etsy. But, does that really answer Gary’s second question? Who else is selling a competing product, and at what price? Not really. It is just saying that some … Read more
Back to our little soap opera. What dilemma is our start-up hero facing today? Last time, we discussed what it is that we want to sell: Handmade soap. The next question is: Does anyone need or want what you are planning to sell? Wow. Harsh reality hits fast and hard. Just because I want to … Read more
Last time in my soap opera, I discussed professionals that I would need to talk to before I started any soap business. I received a nice email from Gary Barber, a committed volunteer at the Madison Chapter of SCORE. He proposed that his first steps are not the professionals, but rather something else: My first … Read more
If you have heard me present lately, you will know that I have started to make soap. I have gone full nerd on it using graduated cylanders and all. It has been fun to build a new knowledge set, bust out my old chemistry and lab skills, and try out a whole bunch of fragrances. … Read more
We’ve all seen the legal dramas on TV where the lawyers storm into court with vicious questioning and killer closing arguments. But in the real world, most disputes don’t end up in court. Many go to what is called “alternative dispute resolution” or ADR. The two most common of those are arbitration and mediation. Arbitration … Read more
Last night, I had the great honor of talking with a Girl Scout troop about intellectual property so they could earn their intellectual property patch. After all, the founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low was a patent holder (make her trash can liner). We had to cover what patents, copyrights, trade marks and trade … Read more
Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference, Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope said: “We believe the evidence is clear and compelling that brands with purpose grow. In fact, we believe this so strongly that we are prepared to commit that in the future, every Unilever brand will be a brand with purpose.” That seems to … Read more
FDA labels for food require a lot of information. There are two main panels of requirements with lots of sub-requirements: Principal Display Panel Information Panel For the principal display panel (PDP), you need: The statement of identity, or name of the food, and The net quantity statement, or amount of product. In addition to that … Read more
