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SERVICES FOR BUSINESSES AND START-UPS
Business Development
Businesses need a lot of attention to succeed. A poorly planned legal move could be devastating to a business, especially a young one. Having legal counsel involved from the inception onward is important for developing a healthy business and avoiding unnecessary costs. Businesses benefit from our integration of business and intellectual property law expertise. As intellectual property assets and globalization of the marketplace increase, it is more and more important for all businesses to be aware of intellectual property and the critical role it plays in business today.
Business Formation
Choosing what legal form of business you have is a critical first step. How much personal financial exposure do you have? Who else is in business with you? Where will your funding come from? How will the profits be distributed? What kind of taxation method do you want? These and many other questions help determine which form of business is best for your business. We can inform and guide you in your decision-making. Operational agreements, sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLPs , C Corporations, S Corporations, Professional Corporations, LLCs and Non-Profits, each has benefits and pitfalls that you need to know.
Business and Intellectual Property
All businesses today must deal with intellectual property. Simply by entering the marketplace, intellectual property becomes an issue. Trademarks and servicemarks as well as copyrights are the most common intellectual property encountered.
Trademarks and Servicemarks
These are sometimes called brands. They help consumers identify who is responsible for the quality of what they purchase. There are state and federal trademarks. If your business is international, you should have trademarks in those countries in which you market your goods or services. Seventy-four countries utilize the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks to allow easier international registration.
Having a strong, well thought of trademark or service mark is important for any successful business. It is also important to make sure that your mark is not infringing an existing mark in order to avoid possible liability for trademark infringement and the cost of having to change your mark after investing time and effort into it. Your mark needs to be protected so your hard work is not damaged by others who are infringing your mark and perhaps causing confused customers to stop buying your product or service. We can help you create and register a mark and we can help you verify the availability of a mark that you already created and register it.
Copyright
A copyright is legal right of the creator of an original artistic or intellectual work to make copies of his or her own work and to prohibit unauthorized copies of the work. A copyright exists as soon as the work is expressed in a fixed form. The copyright is intellectual property that can be licensed, sold, or otherwise treated like property. If someone creates an unauthorized copy of the work, this may be infringement of the copyright. Registering your copyright with the United States Library of Congress’ Copyright Office is legally advantageous and allows many legal advantages if unauthorized copying occurs.
Agreements & Licensing
Often intellectual property ownership leads to business ventures with new participants or licensing to those who are better positioned to utilize the intellectual property. The drafting and reviewing of the legal agreements or licenses is essential to making the most of your intellectual property. Also, many times you will find you simply need to use someone’s intellectual property to make your business work efficiently. Perhaps you need to use software or would like to include pictures from a favorite artist in a publication. Making sure the licensing agreement is comprehensive and advantageous requires a firm understanding of intellectual property and business law. |
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