You are at the grocery store stocking up on the basics you and your family need for the week. While in the beverage section look around you. What are you drawn to? What did you put into your cart?Maybe you picked the American classic Coca-Cola. You like the taste. But...
Intellectual Property
On World Intellectual Property Day, review how IP laws impact you
There are awareness efforts and holidays that cover just about anything. Most of these days of observation are for good reason. Life and history give the world reasons to celebrate, become informed, advocate for change and join together for common causes. Today,...
Tips for protecting business assets from cyber attacks
While large scale cyber attacks have not garnered national headlines in a while, cyber-theft should remain something that businesses worry about. This is because Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies are not the only entities hackers will try to attack. In fact,...
Does your company have trade secrets?
Many businesses may not realize they have trade secrets, much less understand how to protect them. The term "trade secrets" encompasses more than just recipes. A wide range of intangible assets fall under this category, including formulas, methods of operation, client...
Defend yourself against copyright infringement
Copyrights are potent legal tools that can benefits individuals and companies. A copyright is a legal right that protects an original work of authorship that is fixed in a tangible form. This "fixed" form means that the work must be written down or recorded in some...
Discussing copyrights and how to enforce them
Copyrights extend broad legal protections to individuals and businesses that create original works of authorship in a fixed and tangible form. What the latter part of that first sentence means is that the work must be written down or recorded in some way. You can't...
Unfair competition is a difficult matter to pin down
Unfair competition laws are on the books in every state, as well as at the federal level. These rules are in place to ensure companies that they are not being undercut or unfairly treated in the marketplace by their competitors. In addition to that, the law helps to...
Acquisition leads to intellectual property lawsuit
Back in 2012, the company CoStar Group Inc., which specializes in commercial real estate data, acquired LoopNet Inc in an $860 million deal. LoopNet held a partial stake in another company, Xceligent, which was a competitor of CoStar's. So in order for the acquisition...
Iceland vs. Iceland: trademark dispute embroils country, store
Iceland is a tiny country off the eastern coast of Greenland and to the north and west of Europe. Iceland is also a supermarket that primarily is known for its frozen foods in the United Kingdom. Why are we talking about these two entities?Well, Iceland Foods has a...
On trade secrets and the litigation they can be involved in
If every soda company knew the ingredients to make Coca-Cola, don't you think there would a flood of new versions of sodas that mimicked Coca-Cola? If every car company knew who to make Tesla vehicles, wouldn't it be logical to assume that they would all make...