It’s five o’clock Friday afternoon and your top sales person, Sally Jones, marches into your office to announce that she is resigning and, starting Monday, she is going to work for the competition. To add insult to injury, she informs you that she convinced two of your other three sales people to follow her—leaving your sales force nearly gutted and the competition stacked with successful sales people having intimate knowledge of your business and, worse yet, your customers.
Apparel companies use a variety of methods to protect the designs of their products. Often, trademark and trade dress registrations are used to protect the apparel design of a company’s product from duplication by third parties without permission. Recently, however, there has been a trend by courts toward limiting the scope of trademark and trade dress protection for apparel products.
Employers often declare that, “Employees are our most valuable asset.” The time and expense of locating, recruiting, training, and assimilating new employees into the workforce (particularly during periods of labor shortages) and the vital connection of key employees to profitability certainly supports that principle.
Most of us have resorted to checking out online reviews of companies when conducting our due diligence prior to engaging a company for their services or buying its products. A wealth of information is available online, and if it is online, it must be true, right? WRONG! Businesses are more susceptible than ever to negative, misleading and false reviews with the surge in popularity of social media. It is important for business owners to remain proactive in monitoring and, when necessary, correcting or defending their online reputation from defamatory reviews.
How will the trade tariffs on China affect you and your business? If you provide goods or services to others, the proposed tariffs very likely will affect you. So what should you do?
Today’s real estate markets have certainly heated up in recent months. It is a seller’s market on the used residential side and a buyer’s market with substantial new construction being outpaced by the market of buyers. Even though it seems like the commercial market is flush with opportunities, we are seeing an uptick in new construction, sales and leasing.
It has become cliché to say that we live in an era of widespread technology use. Yet, in spite of the increased use of technology in businesses, many companies have done little to revise their policies and procedures that address the protection of trade secrets that are stored digitally. In order for these digital assets to qualify for trade secret protection under the law, a company must take reasonable efforts to maintain their secrecy. Companies that store their trade secrets in digital format should be sure to take some of, if not all, of the following steps to ensure their trade secrets receive proper legal protection.
For businesses that require customized equipment, purchasing capital improvements can create a substantial liability. So, too, for vendors that manufacture the customized equipment – often investing significant manufacturing costs over a production period that can last several months. Vendors who cannot (or who will not) agree to carry the manufacturing costs will demand prepayment for its work and materials. What is the legal risk of prepayment?
In 2015 Congress enacted a new partnership tax audit regime, which became effective for all tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. The primary difference between the old rules and the new rules is that the IRS will audit a partnership on the entity level versus auditing each individual partner. Accordingly, the new rules affect the individual tax liability of partners, the responsibility of each partner during and after an audit and how the IRS conducts a partnership audit in general.
Until recently, Wisconsin was one of 18 states that prohibited on‑line shareholder meetings. The Wisconsin Business Corporation law was modified November 27, 2017 to permit Wisconsin corporations to hold virtual shareholder meetings. Previously, Wisconsin law required corporations to hold in-person shareholder meetings, although the law permitted virtual Board of Director meetings. The new law doesn’t mandate that corporations conduct virtual meetings; it simply gives companies an option that previously wasn’t available.
Businesses of all sizes should be concerned with the recent tidal wave of sexual harassment claims. Since the initiation of the “#MeToo” campaign, the EEOC has seen a dramatic rise in harassment filings, and those claims are not limited to Hollywood or celebrities.
So what can businesses do to avoid this expanding legal and financial exposure? There are a number of steps which should be taken immediately.
Today’s technology allows users to simply drag-and-drop or copy images they find online. Given the ease of replicating and appropriating images online, how can the images’ creators protect their exclusive rights to display, duplicate, alter, and distribute their works?
Most business owners assume that their bank will bear the loss of honoring a fraudulent check on their account. For years, that was a sound assumption. Article 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which governs bank deposits and collections, the default rule is that a bank can only charge an account for checks that are “properly payable” (i.e., a check authorized by the business owner). However, in those situations where the bank offers – but the business elects not to participate in – a “positive pay” program, the law may be slowly shifting the risk of loss back to business owners.
“Street art” has grown more popular in recent years. Street art, or graffiti art, is unsanctioned art created in public locations, typically on the sides of public and private buildings. It is usually made without consent from the building owner.
Riddle me this—how can a company be liable for trademark infringement when the infringing material is invisible to a consumer? The answer—by using trademarked phrases in a company’s metatag.
Not according to the Seventh Circuit! Human Resource professionals are well aware of the challenges presented when an employee’s medical condition requires more time off than available to the employee under standard company leave or Family and Medical Leave Act policies. The critical questions in those situations are: 1) Does the employee’s condition qualify as a disability? 2) If so, must additional leave be provided as a “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act? 3) What if the need for additional leave involves extensive time off?
In March 2017, the United States Supreme Court resolved a copyright dispute between two manufacturers of cheerleading uniforms. The case, Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., focused on an unresolved question: to what extent, if any, does the utility of an article on which pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works are placed affect whether such works are copyrightable?
Whether as a self-proprietor or as an employee, you have probably spent a good portion of your adult life dedicating your time and energy to growing your business. You have made many sacrifices in order to focus on developing that one product or process that will provide a competitive advantage for years to come, or devoted countless hours to landing that key customer that will take your business to new heights. But now that you have developed the proprietary process or significant customer account, how do you safeguard them?
“Which is better: a Limited Liability Company or an S corporation?” This common question blurs two distinct concepts: how an entity organizes for corporate governance purposes and how an entity classifies itself for tax purposes. Because the vast majority of small business are LLCs, the more appropriate question is “what tax election is best for an LLC?” The answer, of course, is it depends.
On June 19, 2017, the United States Supreme Court ruled in an 8-0 decision (Justice Neil Gorsuch not participating) that the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause.