Sam Kavalier 
Today’s post revisits something discussed several years ago on this blog: fair use. If you are looking for background or further reading, check out Erin’s posts here, here, and here, as well as Collin’s post here. As a quick TL;DR to those previous posts, fair use is a defense to copyright infringement claims for a … Read more
Those following the news in Wisconsin may have heard about a December 2022 court decision, which ordered the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) not to enforce Wisconsin law against producers of certain kinds of homemade goods. This blog post intends to break it down a little more to provide the context … Read more
After a long hiatus from this blog, I decided it was time to revisit S-Corps. If you are unfamiliar with S-Corps, go check out Collin’s first and second posts on S-Corps, which provide helpful context. With the foundation laid for the basics of S-Corps, we can turn to the main focus of this post: electing … Read more
Christmas and all of its “Christmas magic” is so ingrained in American culture, it can tempting to assume that the holiday is immune from IP considerations. For those who have been reading our blog for a while, you know that this is not the case (shameless plug for my post from last year on a … Read more
Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Legislature passed Act 258, which will bring updates to Wisconsin’s LLC Law. These changes are set to take effect on January 1, 2023. At a high level, the major updates include the following: For those out there reading, you might be wondering, “What does this have to do with me?” … Read more
After moving to Wisconsin, I came to appreciate many things about Wisconsin culture, including the near-universal adoration of Kwik Trip. After a few visits to Kwik Trip, I realized that Kwik Trip was something I had experienced long before ever having been to Wisconsin. In my native state of Iowa, Kwik Trip had been present … Read more
When advising clients on forming new companies, the question comes up about where to form the company. Should the client form the company in the state where their business is located (Wisconsin most of the time), or somewhere else? When the client elects for “somewhere else,” their entity is considered a “foreign entity.” This means … Read more
Product placement, by which I mean the placement of branded products in films and TV shows, is a prevalent feature in media. As a viewer, I appreciate when product placement is used (in admittedly rare instances) to drive the plot. As a trademark attorney (since I can’t seem to turn it off), I appreciate the … Read more
Welcome back to our discussion on 501(c)(3)’s, inurement, and excess benefit transactions! If you missed the last post that provided an overview of the rules related to this topic, you can find the link to the previous post here. Now that the overview is out of the way, here are some ideas on how to … Read more
Non-profit organizations, by their nature, provide great value through their missions and services. That is at least part of the reason why they typically receive tax-exempt status, including under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). However, that tax-exempt status is fragile and contingent on meeting and maintaining certain requirements, and an organization can … Read more
