Legal

sean_flammer

Choosing a Business Partner: Lessons from the Dark Side

I’m a litigation attorney. Much of my practice is business litigation and disputes between partners—whether that means partners in a legal entity or partners in the more general sense of the word, such as manufacturers or suppliers.  I’ve seen great ideas fail in large part because the team dynamics don’t

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Bob Villhard

Don’t Stop the Train: More on Developing Products and Trademark and Prior Art Searches

It is a rare pleasure when a new entrepreneur (or one with a new product/service) approaches an Intellectual Property (IP) Attorney with concurrent requests for trademark (TM) and prior art searches early on.  Both types of searches can save avoidable costs.  But, this is not to suggest that you slam the brakes on the train before you get their results.  First, the name of your company might change during your marketing efforts.  In the meantime, you can usually use a working name for the company/product without seriously impeding your efforts.  But, keep records of what names you use and if you do develop any advertising, packaging, trade dress, etc. keep a dated copy of it.  You will want a “sample” of those materials for your trademark application.  In the meantime, hold off committing serious money to such advertising until you receive the results of the TM search

Legal Archives

Bob Villhard
Trademark Search First, Then Brand
All too often an entrepreneur requests a trademark search after they have settled on a branding strategy.  Indeed, in many cases, the company has been formed under a particular name, ...
Bob Villhard
Patent Reform: First To File Effective March 16, 2013
Patent Reform arrived as law on September 16, 2011.  The good news is that the Patent Office will soon have a “micro” entity fee structure which will allow many entrepreneurs ...
Bob Villhard
What Makes an Idea Likely to Click?
Often an entrepreneur concludes that their once-brilliant idea is unpatentable and they let it wither on the vine.  Yet a patent attorney (if they had been consulted) might have thought ...
Bob Villhard
Angels, Entrepreneurs, and Gadflies: How Angels View NDAs
Many entrepreneurs ask angel investors to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA) prior to discussing their businesses. They never hear back from the angels and wonder why. One reason may be that, ...
Bob Villhard
A Lot of Zeros for Patents
$12,500,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros to pay for intellectual property (IP). But that was the price Google paid for Motorola Mobility and, mostly, for their patent portfolio. In ...
Bob Villhard
3 Bizarre Things About Patent Applications
Sometimes a business owner, eager to see the company’s first patent application, opens the draft -- and barfs. Never have they paid for such gobblygook. Many things about patents might ...
Matt Scherer
Legal prep can help businesses deal with 900-pound gorillas
As a rule, gorillas and apes typically take a peaceful approach to life, but as the trailers for the Aug. 5 “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” have ...
Bob Villhard
Things Entrepreneurs Should Look For in a Patent Attorney
Shopping for a patent attorney may seem pretty simple.  You simply find one with expertise in your technical area.  Right?  However, focusing on the technical qualifications of a candidate ...

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