The trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets that make your business unique are assets that must be protected. Here are 3 ways to use legal infrastructure tools to help.
What would happen if you lost the assets you rely on to make your business work? You have invested a lot in your business’s physical assets. These assets are often the tools of the business necessary to deliver your goods and services such as your facilities, equipment, and data. Does your business fully protect its physical assets with a proper legal infrastructure?
Intellectual property (IP) assets are essential to running your business and protecting those assets is vital. Why? Your IP, such as trademarks, are valuable, and it is easy to inadvertently lose some or all of your company’s rights to them. A business must identify what IP assets they own and know how best to protect... View Article
Nearly every business will need to sign a software license agreement to purchase and receive services. Many service providers will present a “boilerplate” or “standard” agreement. Still, the truth is, there is no such thing as a standard or boilerplate software license agreement. When investing in software, business owners must understand what the contract says... View Article
As if losing employees wasn’t distressing enough, a former Google executive’s recent criminal indictment for trade secret misappropriation has served as a reminder as to how messy things can get if proper precautions are not taken. Often times, a business’s success is largely attributed to a trade secret – whether it’s a list of valuable... View Article
If you’re a fan of science-fiction dramas, you’ve likely seen the Netflix original series Black Mirror. The series is composed of stand-alone episodes that explore what Rotten Tomatoes refers to as ‘our collective unease with the modern world… exploring themes of modern techno-paranoia.’ However, the latest season has spurred an unintended kind of drama —a... View Article
Those of us old enough to remember our very first Star Wars figure, were too young when they first arrived in stores to realize (or, care, really) what it took for them to become and remain a reality for the next 40 years, earning over $14 billion in revenue. Primarily due to George Lucas’ desire... View Article
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) into law after flying through both houses of Congress with a near unanimous vote – quite a feat in a highly polarized legislature. Why the relative ease you may ask? Both the President and Congress have emphasized the importance of protecting American... View Article
As you plan for your business, I expect you look at your financials and plan the needed adjustments to marketing, staffing, capital purchases, and other operational activities to meet your goals for the coming year and beyond. In addition, there’s a component of strategic planning which includes review of your bigger goals (BHAGs for those... View Article