Although many of us are avoiding travel during the pandemic, some people still plan to use their vacation time to travel, whether to enjoy the great outdoors, tour colleges with their children, or visit with friends and family. But will these employees put others at risk when they return to work? How can the risk be reduced while still allowing [...]
Why You Should Always Register Your Copyrights as Quickly as Possible You may have heard there’s no need to register your copyright, because it’s automatically protected. But this is only half the story—you can’t enforce your copyright without either a certificate of registration or a denial of registration from the Copyright Office. Plus, there are a lot of reasons to [...]
Businesses often want to have a trademark that describes what they’re selling, but in order to be protectable, a trademark must be “distinctive.” This means it must be used to identify the source of the product or service. Courts classify marks into categories of distinctiveness. The most distinctive marks are those that are arbitrary or fanciful. Examples include EXXON for [...]
Supreme Court Ruling on LGBTQ Employment Discrimination A federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment "because of" or "on the basis of" such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The prohibition against discrimination based on sex was [...]
While your work is automatically copyrighted once it's fixed in a tangible form, you can't enforce this copyright, because you can't bring a lawsuit for copyright infringement until you apply for and receive either a certificate of registration or a denial of registration from the Copyright Office. In addition, the registration has to be "valid." Last month the Court of [...]
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that, among other things, prohibits employers, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against those with disabilities. The ADA defines a qualified employee (or qualified applicant) as anyone who can perform the essential functions of the job, either with or without "reasonable accommodations." Reasonable accommodations are modifications provided by an [...]
You've probably seen the viral video of the white woman calling the police on a black man birding in Central Park who asked her to leash her dog (in accordance with park rules). The woman's employer quickly fired her, issuing a public statement that it had done so after an internal review of the incident and that it does "not [...]
Earlier this month, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued guidance requiring employers to investigate whether employee COVID-19 infections are "work-related" for the purpose of determining whether a record must be made of such infections. Federal OSHA requirements apply to virtually all employers and are in addition to the rules your state, county or city may have. Under [...]
Last week, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Lucky Brand Dungarees v. Marcel Fashion Group that Lucky is allowed to assert new defenses in its decades-long trademark dispute with Marcel. This might not sound very interesting, but it has significant implications for all lawsuits, and especially those involving trademarks. Background of the Dispute The first lawsuit, which Marcel filed in 2001 [...]
As states begin to reopen their economies, employers and employees alike are concerned about the safety risks. Obviously the risks vary greatly from one workplace to another, and some states will issue rules or guidelines for reopening, so this Alert cannot go into the specifics for each type of business in each location. There are, however, some issues that virtually [...]
