Impacts of COVID-19 on Intellectual Property Registrations The US Copyright Office has announced that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the processing of paper applications and the examination of physical deposits will be delayed. It strongly encourages applicants to submit applications online. Special handling claims that are submitted electronically and for which electronic deposits are permissible under the regulations [...]
We take the health and safety of our employees and clients seriously. We are taking the following actions in an effort to minimize any risks: • We are rescheduling all in-person appointments to phone appointments (whenever possible). If you are in the office, we will offer you a sanitized pen for any required signatures or the like. • If you [...]
The CDC recently released guidelines for employers on how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations include actively encouraging employees to stay home if they have symptoms indicative of COVID-19, that is, any respiratory illness with fever, cough and/or shortness of breath. These employees should not return to work until they are free of fever (100.4° F or greater using an oral thermometer) [...]
Businesses often want to have a trademark that describes what they're selling, but in order to be protectable, a trademark must be "distinctive." That is, it must be used to identify the source of the product or service, not just describe it. Courts classify marks into categories of distinctiveness. The most distinctive marks are those that are arbitrary or fanciful. [...]
Coronavirus Disease 2019 The CDC has released guidelines for employers on how to deal with the likely outbreak of "COVID-19" in the US. There are, however, legal as well as medical concerns involved with such a situation. While the EEOC has stated that employers may send workers home if they exhibit flu-like symptoms during a pandemic, employers should be careful in what [...]
Many small businesses start out as sole proprietorships or partnerships, usually because they're the simplest to get up and running. For most businesses, though, the small amount of extra time and expense involved in setting up a corporation or limited liability company (LLC) will be well worth it. The most important benefit of doing business as a corporation or LLC [...]
You may have heard that in the US there's no need to register your copyrights, because they're automatically protected. While this is true, this is misleading. 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 receive either a certificate of [...]
Did you know that your failure to retain all relevant materials after litigation is "reasonably anticipated" could result in you being fined or sanctioned by the court? You may even lose the case as a result of failure to preserve evidence. Recently a federal court imposed a $10,000 fine on defendants who failed to preserve relevant text messages. The defendants [...]
Business filing scams have become so common that a number of state-corporate divisions have begun issuing scam warnings on their websites. For example, the Oregon Secretary of State Corporation Division is warning business owners about a Workplace Compliance Services (W.C.S.) or C.P.S. mailing resembling the official annual report notice from the Oregon Secretary of State. Similarly, the Washington Secretary of [...]
You're angry. Your employer fired you, or your neighbor plays loud music every day, or you slipped walking into the grocery store. Should you sue? Maybe not. Before filing a lawsuit, there are a number of things you should think carefully about, including these risks. 1. No matter how good your case appears to be, you might lose. 2. Even [...]
