One provision often found at the end of a contract discusses jurisdiction, venue, and choice of law. It is one of those paragraphs that you probably skipped over and maybe even called boilerplate. But, guess what, it could matter a whole lot if the parties get involved in a lawsuit. First, let’s talk about jurisdiction. … Read more
Intellectual property rights all come with their very own symbols. They are signs to others about what type of rights are being claimed. I am sure you have seen them, but not everyone is sure which symbol belongs to which right. So let’s go back to grade school, do a matching game. Didn’t know there … Read more
When signing a commercial lease, it is very important to know what is included as part of the rent payment and what additional payments may be due. Often tenants go into a lease negotiation with a belief that as long as they are paying their base rent, everything is covered. However, that may not be … Read more
Everyone needs someone that you can ask dumb questions and get good answers. One of those people for me is Ryan Waite at Neckerman Insurance. Whenever I have (or a client has) an insurance question, I know that I can call over there and get a good, full, and not dumb answer in a timely … Read more
Intellectual property tends to be a land of first come-first serve. Patents are only awarded to inventions that are new and non-obvious, which means your invention isn’t the logical next step based on what is already out in the world. Trademark protection looks at what marks potential customers have come into contact with in connection … Read more
When setting up a company, whether it is an LLC, corporation, non-stock corporation, or any of the other options, we always need to include the identity of the company’s registered agent in the Articles of Incorporation and Annual Report and update that information if it ever changes. Each company (again no matter what kind or … Read more
Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act, 15 U.S.C. §1052(a), is an absolute bar to federal trademark registration of immoral or scandalous matter. The ban on scandalous and immoral trademark registrations is not new. It first came into federal law in the Trade-Mark Act of 1905 and reaffirmed as part of §2(a) of the Act of 1946. … Read more
Somehow, somewhere, applying for a trademark became an invitation for junk mail and spam. It’s annoying, but some are worse than others. Some of the worst are notices that look like they are from the United States Patent and Trademark Office or foreign offices telling applicants they need to spend more money in order to … Read more
A trade secret is something that gives a company a competitive advantage because others in the industry do not know the same thing. It could be a recipe, a formula, a compilation of data, an algorithm, computer code, and more. It is whatever can be used to gain an edge over competitors by being the … Read more
Photo: © 2008 flikr, flikr2639, licensed by Creative Commons You are looking for a nice photograph to take your website from “meh” to “yeah!” After tooling around, you find the perfect one on someone else’s website. It has everything you could hope for in a photo. It is pretty, professional, and just the right amount … Read more