The FTC wants to kill Non-Compete Agreements and just took a big step in that direction.

Read this article to find out how this may impact your future career.

Enacted in 2021, the CTA aims to combat illicit activity including tax fraud, money laundering, and financing for terrorism by capturing more ownership information for specific U.S. businesses operating in or accessing the country’s market. Under the new legislation, businesses that meet certain criteria must submit a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), providing details identifying individuals who are associated with the reporting company.

Trademarks are a powerful part of any successful business. Many of my clients own and maintain valuable trademarks that are prized assets used to promote their products and services. Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous companies have decided to jump in and try to take advantage of trademark owners and applicants.

In the past, I’ve provided some examples of what not to do in the world of copyright and exposed some common copyright myths. In this post, I’ll present a more proactive view of copyright law and help you understand a few of the basics so that you can better appreciate this important area of the law for the creative community.

Here are some rules to live by.

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve spent hours creating the perfect photo, copy, or advertising content. You have the perfect picture, perfectly cropped, with the perfect lighting. Everything is perfect! You post it to your website and *sigh* as you bask in the glow of the wonderfully glorious perfection that is your latest creation.

Then, a few days later, while surfing the Internet, you see your picture. “Cool!” you think, “Someone linked to my post!” However, when you check it out, you see that the link is actually linked to a different blog, where your picture and your content have been posted without your permission and without even a link back or any acknowledgement whatsoever!

Over the years, I’ve identified a bunch of scary copyright myths are walking among us. These copyright myths are like zombies that refuse to die.  While they may not eat your brains, they can certainly muddle your thinking and expose you to some serious danger. Personally, I believe all zombies deserve to die so here’s my attempt to put them in the grave, once and for all.

I get a lot of questions about trademarks and, based on the type and quantity of questions I get, I suspect there is a need to clear up some basic issues that are common to trademarks in general. While this post is a bit longer and more detailed than some or my other posts, I hope you find it useful as you contemplate what a trademark might mean for you and your social media presence. Enjoy.

I am regularly contacted by clients who are concerned about contract issues. They often feel overwhelmed, unqualified, and even fearful when faced with a new contract, full of legal mumbo jumbo.  Since I work with contracts all the time, it seems like a basic primer on contracts from a lawyer’s perspective might be helpful in reducing the stress factor associated with contracts.

If you’ve been around the block more than once, you’ve probably heard the phrase “work made for hire.” It’s pretty common in the blogging world and a lot of bloggers think they understand it. Chances are they’re wrong. Few people, even lawyers, really understand what the “work made for hire” doctrine is, what it covers and, most importantly, what it does not cover. Most people think that “work made for hire” is a legal rule that can automatically transfer ownership of creative content from one person or company to another. While that is true in a few cases, it is not true for many, many situations – including the ones you are most likely to encounter.

The reason why having appropriate insurance coverage is so important is that you’ve worked hard to build a valuable business. You don’t want a misstep or mistake to strip the value out of your business.

Lots of designers, bloggers, and influencers have questions about the structure and format for agreements to license their creative content. This post will provide some basic information that will set the stage. Please remember that while the issues discussed below are important, there are many other considerations, depending on the specific details of the parties in the transaction and the type of content being licensed. Also remember that licensing and assignment are very different things so we are only talking about licensing here.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE ADA?

In this post, I’ll provide some basic information about the current trends in ADA compliance for websites that may help you understand what’s going on and how you can prevent or minimize the potential damage if you become a target. This is a bit longer than most of my posts and the information is rapidly changing so stay tuned for updates.