“Fashion Law”. It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? After all, fashion, which typically evokes images of supermodels and Anna Wintour, is more “The Devil Wears Prada” than “Devil’s Advocate”. Long considered too frou-frou for serious lawyers to be concerned with, fashion law has proven to be an emerging practice area in recent years, housed […]
Attending a Startup Weekend is like riding a rollercoaster for the first time: after you’ve attended once, you decide whether you’re a rollercoaster-person or not. If you are, you want to take another ride. And maybe another after that! Startup Weekend is a weekend full of hands-on experience where experienced and aspiring entrepreneurs’ work together […]
Something momentous happened in my life at Seattle Angel Conference VI (SAC). On November 12th, 2014, together with a community of supportive investors, I officially became an angel investor. But I am a lawyer and this is our firm’s blog, so why do I want to write here about my exhilarating experience of becoming an […]
Are you thinking about running a social media contest to engage your users and help your business stand out? We’re sharing our top ten things to think about to run a successful social media contest and create a positive experience in the process. What Kind of Competition are you Running? We start by noting the […]
By Megan Wargacki: Doissant. Cronut. Doughssant. These are variations on a croissant-donut hybrid. The Cronut is sold in New York, the Doughssant is sold in Ohio, and the Doissant is not yet on sale. Which name sticks in your mind the best? When you next visit Ohio, and you want to try this new pastry, […]
By Megan Wargacki: Globally, 46% of online consumers use social media when making a purchase decision.[1] So, if your business isn’t advertising on social media, it probably should be…but you must know what you are doing because the FTC has rules about online advertising. Thankfully, in March 2013, the FTC published a guide for businesses […]
By Megan Wargacki: Economic espionage, cybercrime and trade secret theft against U.S. businesses has doubled in the last seven years from 1988-199, doubled again in the nine years between 1995 and 2004 and is slated to double again by 2017. Business’ trade secrets are vulnerable to disloyal employees, neglectful employees, competitors, hackers, or even foreign […]
In the 2 years since Pinterest launched itself as an invite-only social bookmarking service, the size of its user base and web traffic have made Pinterest into a social network heavy weight. Consequently, we need to understand how Pinterest handles third-party intellectual property. In relation to such content, in this post we discuss how is used on the […]
With the recent Internet-based blackout by big names in protest of the two bills, it’s worth going over the proposed law and its potential impact on online piracy. Targeting Piracy With Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) The current mechanism for addressing internet piracy utilizes takedown notices through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This allows rights holders to ask […]
Before we get into this blog post, I want to point out that copyright registration is optional and it is not a requirement for copyright protection. So why seek copyright registration at all? There are three key incentives to register your work: Filing for copyright registration is a prerequisite for bringing a lawsuit for infringement. Registration […]