A Dancing Date at the City Clerk’s Office

A stereotypical date night out includes dinner, drinks, and maybe dancing to a band.  Turns out that is also a stereotypical list of licenses you need to get if you are starting a place where people will enjoy those behaviors.  The license that I, at least, hear the least about is the Entertainment License.  In … Read more

Rock and Hard Place: Non-competes for new employers

Non-compete and non-solicitation provisions have been in my mind lately.  Almost like I had a presentation on them recently. Usually, I get asked by employees about the limitations placed on them and by employers how they can use this tool to be fair to employees and contractors but still protect the company’s assets.  A question … Read more

Who runs the world?

Turns out, it isn’t girls who run the world, but contracts that do.  Sorry, Beyonce  You can barely get through a week without agreeing to one whether it is getting a cell phone, signing up for a new social media account, or getting an oil change.  The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory … Read more

Hey, that’s what I said!

I have already written about aspects of copyright law, but exactly is copyright protection?  Copyright protects original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.  One way to think of it is it protects creative works that you can somehow see or hear again and again.  Works of authorship include the following categories: … Read more

Swim, Bike, Run: A Business Plan

I have a friend who has completed multiple Ironman competitions (7 of them, I believe).  For those not aware, an Ironman competition is a triathlon organized by the World Triathlon Corporation.  It consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile run, done in that order and without stopping.  It is … Read more

To Swoosh or Not To Swoosh

Often when looking to register a trademark, we have to discuss registering a word mark versus a logo.  Clients often default to registering words in a very specific font.  However, that locks the mark into that font.  Whereas, if we register it as a word mark, then a change in font doesn’t destroy the registration. … Read more

Shh, I Have A Secret

Ongoing disputes between Fitbit and Jawbone claimsthat Fitbit hired Jawbone employees, who in turn took Jawbone trade secrets and brought them to be used at Fitbit.  Last week, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge ruled that Fitbit did not steal any of Jawbone’s trade secrets.  Earlier, I wrote about protecting a trade secret, but what … Read more

Having a Capital Time

Capital letters are special things.  They mark the beginnings of sentences.  They show proper nouns are distinct from other nouns.  They help differentiate a title from a sentence and an acronym from a word.  All sorts of magic!  In contracts, they have an additional job:  They show that a term is defined somewhere within that … Read more