Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers v TABC

In our ongoing coverage of the Supreme Court this term (apparently we’ve turned into a news feed), this week the United States Supreme Court weighed in on alcohol beverage distribution issues (Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Assn v. Tennessee Alcohol Beverage Commission, decided June 26, 2019). Justice Alito wrote the opinion for the majority (7-2), … Read more

FUCT Marks are Allowed

According to statue, someone could not register a trademark if it “[c]onsists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute; or a geographical indication which, when used on or in connection … Read more

The Legal Status of Mashup Music

I am a pretty big fan of mashup. If you haven’t heard of mashup music before, take a listen to Pandamonium [sic] by the White Panda: https://thewhitepanda.bandcamp.com/track/pandamonium-continuous-mix. “A mashup is a creative work, usually in a form of a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of … Read more

Lola To The Rescue

I was supposed to write the blog post for last week. You may be thinking, “Last week? What was last week’s post?” Or you may be thinking, “We were missing photos of Lola!” Because, yeah, my post last week was a photo of my dog sniffing a can with an OGS can coozie on it. … Read more

Ready to Provide Seller Financing? A Few Things to Consider…

Here is the scenario: You’re a restaurateur and are ready to move on. You own the restaurant’s assets and the real estate where the location sits. You’ve found a Buyer! But, the Buyer can only get a conventional loan to purchase the real estate and doesn’t have the cash to purchase the restaurant’s assets. What … Read more

Finding Your Articles of Organization

File this one under “Frequently Asked Questions.” Here is the scenario: You remember paying Wisconsin a fee to create your LLC years ago – you know it exists – but other than that, you don’t really know where any of your documentation is. Now, you want to open a bank account for your Company and … Read more

Raising with an S-Election

An S-Corporation is not a special type of company. Rather, it’s a special tax designation that a company can make with the IRS. So, if you are an LLC or Corporation, you can make an S-Election and become an “S-Corp” (although the reasons for doing so as an LLC or Corporation may not be the … Read more

Just Start Blogging Already

Here’s a secret: I hate(d) blogging. If you take a look at my LinkedIn profile, you can see the long lengths of time that passed between my posts – it was pretty clear that it wasn’t my favorite thing. At one point, I even considered totally giving up – what percentage of lawyers actually blog, … Read more