Last week, the Federal Trade Commission released guidelines for social media influencers clarifying when and how influencers must disclose sponsorships to their followers. A social media influencer is someone with a dedicated group of followers who is viewed as an expert within their niche. When these influencers recommend specific brands, their followers tend to trust their advice. In other words, [...]
Some of you may know you have common law rights in your protectable trademarks just by using those marks in interstate or foreign commerce, so you might wonder why you should pay for a trademark registration. Seizure of Knockoff Goods US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized 34,143 shipments of infringing goods from [...]
We frequently get questions from our clients about requests for payment of registration, publication or renewal fees for corporate, domain name and intellectual property filings. Requests may also be received for monitoring fees or the preparation of minutes. The scam requests typically look like invoices or letters, often containing false due dates or threats about loss of rights if you [...]
A number of celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and Gigi Hadid, have recently been sued by paparazzi for sharing photos of themselves on their social media accounts. Since few of us are followed around by paparazzi, you may not think this is relevant to you, but the same laws apply to photos you commission, like [...]
Last month, a federal judge in Colorado ordered Thomas Kutrubes to pay his former employer, Atlas Biologicals, Inc., $2,048,180.50. Kutrubes had been an employee, board member, and owner of 7% of the stock in Atlas, which specializes in the production of bovine serum, a byproduct of cow blood used for cell culture and scientific research. While still working for Atlas, [...]
New overtime rules developed by the US Department of Labor (DOL) are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2020. These rules, announced last week, are expected to make 1.3 million American workers newly eligible for overtime pay. Employees are excluded from overtime protection if they are salaried (that is, their pay is not subject to reduction based on [...]
Professional basketball player LeBron James is known not only for his skills on the court but also for his love of tacos. He frequently uses the term "Taco Tuesday" in his social media posts about his family's celebration of Taco Tuesday. His company LBJ Trademarks, LLC, recently filed an application to register the mark TACO TUESDAY for use in connection [...]
A number of states (including Oregon and Washington), counties, and cities have enacted pay-parity laws which usually, among other things, prohibit employers from requesting or relying upon the pay history of applicants or employees. A third of the states now have laws prohibiting or restricting an employer's use of pay history, though a few apply only to state employers: Alabama, [...]
Could you be liable for the infringing activities of your tenants? It may surprise you to learn that the answer is "yes." In a number of cases, commercial landlords have been held responsible for contributory trademark infringement. Although contributory trademark infringement is not specifically addressed in the federal trademark statutes, the US Supreme Court has endorsed this judicially created doctrine. [...]
Myths about copyright infringement abound. Many people believe they're not infringing if they change the original by a certain percentage (sometimes as low as 10%), or if they copy less than a certain percentage of the original work (e.g., 30%). Unfortunately, it's rarely that easy to know when copying is infringing, and if you're going by one of these fake [...]
