Iowa intellectual property lawyer Brett Trout offers a trademark law primer today on IowaBiz.com. Brett points out that companies seeking to protect their trademarks should consider federal registration of those marks for valuable trademark protection. He says,
Once you start using your trademark in commerce, you obtain what are known as "common law" trademark
I ran across this list of tips for new small businesses. Some terrific advice. Here are the ten tips as listed:
Like the Portland Trail Blazers drafting Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan, how is it that Trent Hamm’s Blog, The Simple Dollar, is not among the blogs listed on the Central Iowa Bloggers site? This guy is the Tim Duncan of the Central Iowa blogging community. Not flashy but extremely successful.
The
A couple of Central Iowa business updates for your information:
Pennsylvania business lawyer Anthony Cerminaro has a post on Legal Issues in Internet Contracting. The post references a comprehensive article from attorney Karl Belum of the Thelen Law Firm’s San Francisco office.
The article provides an excellent overview of the issues involved in Internet contracting. Belum advises:
"Entities engaging in repeat transactions can contractually
I am hoping you will provide me with some input. What do you think are the top legal issues facing small businesses today?
My general sense is that employee/human resource issues rank high. If you are a small business owner, what keeps you up at night from a legal perspective? If you are a lawyer
If you are in business long enough it is likely you will eventually face a dispute with a customer, employee or another business. Are you prepared to face the challenge?
Anthony Zaller of the California Labor and Employment Law Blog provides some Tips on Litigation that expand on the sage advice from Sun Microsystems general
On the Texas Small Business Law Blog there is an helpful post on the common mistakes made by small business owners. The common mistakes listed by business attorney David Willis include:
1) Under-capitalization.
2) Failure to plan and adjust for growth.
3) Over-emphasis on the type of business organization.
4) Failure to understand the
Many business owners I talk with are reluctant to enter into a non-compete with their employees. These business owners are afraid an employee won’t sign or a confrontation will occur. Some just don’t believe they should keep the employee from finding a job – even if it is to the employer’s detriment.
But to avoid
Brett Trout has a post worth reading on "Who Owns Your Website?" In the post Brett warns clients to carefully read the agreement and to take steps to ensure you own your Website and the domain name. As Brett says,
"Most clients think they are obtaining an “assignment” of these things when they write
