Insights
Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.
Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property—from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.
Federal Trademark Application Checklists: From Preparation to Registration
A definitive, authority-rich checklist collection covering every phase of federal trademark registration—pre-filing clearance and distinctiveness assessment, filing-basis selection (Sections 1(a), 1(b), 44, and 66), goods-and-services identification and Nice classification, specimen preparation, application filing through the USPTO Trademark Center, office-action response, publication and opposition, intent-to-use prosecution, and post-registration maintenance under Sections 8, 9, and 15. It reflects the USPTO's January 18, 2025 fee overhaul (one base application plus surcharges, filed through Trademark Center; cloud-based Trademark Search replacing TESS) and the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (expungement and reexamination, flexible three-month response periods). Each checklist is paired with the legal reasoning and primary authority behind it, with worked examples that follow a hypothetical brand from idea to incontestability. Fees change—verify current amounts at USPTO.gov before filing.
Patent Subject-Matter Eligibility After Alice: A Practical Checklist
More than a decade after Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, software and business-method patents still face a brutal invalidity rate under 35 U.S.C. § 101—yet meaningful protection remains achievable for those who understand the rules. This checklist walks a drafter or prosecutor through the Alice/Mayo two-step framework as the USPTO applies it (Step 2A Prong One and Prong Two, then Step 2B), through the Federal Circuit guideposts that mark the narrow path to eligibility (Enfish, DDR Holdings, McRO, BASCOM, Finjan), and through the recurring patterns of ineligibility to avoid (the collect/analyze/display trap, the specification-claim disconnect, "do it on a computer"). It translates each into concrete claim-drafting, specification, and prosecution moves, including the Berkheimer factual showing and the 2024 AI guidance examples, and it flags the unsettled state of § 101 reform (PERA). The goal is to draft and prosecute claims that live on the right side of the line.
Payroll Taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty: Personal Liability for Business Owners
Payroll taxes occupy a category of their own because part of the money never belonged to the employer. Amounts withheld from an employee's wages are held in trust for the United States, and a business that spends them has used government money to pay its own creditors—which is why the collection tools are severe and why liability reaches individuals personally through a penalty equal to the entire unpaid trust fund amount. The two elements that determine personal exposure, responsibility and willfulness, are broader than nearly anyone expects, and they reach bookkeepers, minority owners, and outside directors who never thought of themselves as decision-makers. This article covers the deposit and reporting system, how the penalty is assessed and defended, the classification and outsourcing questions that create the underlying liability, and the resolution paths available once an assessment exists.
Trademark Licensing and Quality Control: How Naked Licensing Kills a Brand
A trademark license is not like a patent or copyright license. Because a trademark exists to tell consumers who stands behind a product, a licensor who lets someone else use the mark without controlling the quality of what the mark appears on is not just being careless. It may be forfeiting the mark entirely, a doctrine courts call naked licensing. This article explains why quality control is a legal requirement rather than a business preference, what the leading cases in the Ninth, Seventh, and Second Circuits actually demand, and how much control is enough, including the reasonable-reliance line of authority that saves some licensors who never inspected anything. It then works through the anatomy of a trademark license clause by clause: grant and scope, quality standards and approval mechanics, audit rights, marking, goodwill and assignment, sublicensing, term and termination, post-termination sell-off, and what happens in bankruptcy after Mission Product v. Tempnology. A long section covers the accidental franchise problem under the FTC Franchise Rule and state franchise statutes, which turns many ordinary licenses into regulated offerings without anyone noticing. It closes with drafting checklists, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.
Patent Basics: A Plain-English Guide
A warm, beginner-friendly introduction to patents for inventors, founders, and the merely curious—but with real legal teeth. It explains what a patent actually is (a bargain: you disclose your invention to the public, and in exchange you get a time-limited right to exclude others) and walks through the four statutes that govern patentability—35 U.S.C. 101, 102, 103, and 112. It covers the three types of patents, the claims that form the heart of every patent, the term of protection, and the first-inventor-to-file system created by the America Invents Act. It explains step by step how you actually get a patent, what it costs, and how long it takes, and it explains what happens after a patent issues, including how third parties can challenge it. It debunks the two most persistent and dangerous myths in this field—the "poor man's patent" and the idea that "patent pending" gives you enforceable rights—and closes with guidance on hiring a registered patent attorney, an FAQ, and links to deeper resources.
The Criminal Case From Arrest to Appeal: What Actually Happens and When
A criminal case is a sequence of deadlines and decisions, most of which are made long before any trial and many of which are irreversible. This article maps the whole sequence from the first police contact through appeal and collateral review, explaining at each stage what actually happens, who decides what, and which choices cannot be undone. It covers the constitutional rules that govern police contact and interrogation, the mechanics of charging and bail, the discovery obligations that are frequently misunderstood, the suppression practice that decides many cases, the plea bargaining process that resolves almost all of them, and the sentencing framework. It closes with collateral consequences, record clearing, and the difference between a direct appeal and habeas corpus.
Franchise Toolkit: Building and Buying a Franchise System
Franchising is two businesses at once. The franchisor sells and supports a system and lives under a disclosure and registration regime with real penalties. The franchisee buys a contract drafted entirely by the seller and largely non-negotiable, secured by a personal guaranty that outlasts nearly everything else. This toolkit covers both sides. For the franchisor: whether the arrangement is a franchise at all, preparing the disclosure document and registering, designing the agreement and the economics, managing the sales process, and the relationship statutes and antitrust constraints that govern the system. For the franchisee: reading the disclosure document for the items that actually predict outcomes, conducting validation calls, modeling unit economics honestly, and understanding what the personal guaranty covers.
Federal Registration and Constructive Use Under 15 U.S.C. § 1057(c): A Practical Guide
The single most valuable date in a trademark owner's life is often its application filing date, and the reason is a doctrine called constructive use. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1057(c), filing a federal application that later matures into a registration is treated as use of the mark everywhere in the country as of the filing date—conferring a nationwide right of priority against almost everyone who comes later. This guide explains, in plain language for lawyers and business owners alike, exactly what constructive use does and does not accomplish. It distinguishes constructive use from the older concept of constructive notice, explains why the priority is "contingent" on registration and relates back to the filing date, walks through the crucial "except for" carve-outs that protect prior users, prior applicants, and foreign-priority claimants, and analyzes how the doctrine interacts with the Tea Rose-Rectanus common-law framework. It covers Zirco, WarnerVision, Allard, and Sengoku, the burden of proof, the Madrid Protocol's earlier-still constructive-use date, and closes with worked examples, a litigator's playbook, and an FAQ.
Social Media Law Basics
Social media sits on top of a surprisingly deep legal stack: federal immunity statutes, copyright law, advertising regulation, labor law, constitutional doctrine, and a patchwork of privacy rules. This article maps that stack for anyone who posts, markets, hires, moderates, or governs online. We explain Section 230 and its limits, the 2023-2024 Supreme Court decisions in Gonzalez, Taamneh, Moody v. NetChoice and Lindke v. Freed, the FTC's endorsement rules for influencers and its 2024 fake-reviews rule, the Consumer Review Fairness Act, the line the National Labor Relations Act draws around employee venting, the state laws protecting employees' account passwords, who owns a work account when an employee quits, the rules for content ownership and DMCA takedowns, and how defamation, anonymous-speech unmasking, impersonation, and contests actually work. Plain-language explanations and worked examples throughout, with cross-links to deeper articles. It closes with an FAQ and the usual reminder to get real counsel before you act.
Breaking a Deadlock in a Two-Owner Company: A Practical Guide
A fifty-fifty company works until it does not, and when it stops working there is no mechanism inside the company to restart it. Every decision requiring a majority fails, the board cannot act, the annual meeting cannot elect directors, and the business keeps operating on inertia while the owners stop speaking. This guide covers what to do when that has already happened and how to prevent it in the first place. It works through the contractual deadlock-breaking devices and their failure modes, the statutory remedies including judicial dissolution, custodians, and provisional directors, the practical mechanics of a negotiated buyout from valuation through the release of personal guaranties, and the drafting that would have avoided the problem. It closes with candid advice about timing and cost.
Running a Rebrand: A Practical Legal Guide
This guide walks a company and its counsel through a rebrand from the first conversation about why the name must change to the year after launch, with a parallel track for the senior user whose objection forces a rebrand. It starts with the decisions that shape the project: the reason for the change, its scope, whether it is a refresh or a replacement, and the budget and timeline. Twelve numbered steps follow, each with what to do, why, the governing authority, pitfalls, timing, and cost: inventorying the existing brand estate, setting legally sound naming criteria, knockout and full searches, resolving conflicts, filing intent-to-use and foreign applications, securing domains and handles, planning the transition, changing corporate names and notifying counterparties, launching and perfecting registrations, deciding the legacy mark's future, and monitoring after launch. A separate section covers rebrands required by a demand letter, settlement, or injunction, from both sides. A timeline and cost table, a worked example following a pet food company from PAWSOME BITES to KINDLEWOOD, common mistakes, an FAQ, and takeaways close the guide.
Filing an International Trademark Application Under the Madrid Protocol: A Practical Guide
This guide takes a U.S. trademark owner through an international application under the Madrid Protocol, from choosing the basic mark to renewing the international registration ten years later. It begins with the decisions to make before filing: eligibility, whether Madrid suits the target countries, which U.S. application or registration to rely on, the Paris priority window, and the goods and services specification. Twelve numbered steps then cover building the specification, choosing designations, computing fees in Swiss francs, preparing the USPTO's TEAS international application, answering USPTO and WIPO irregularity notices, docketing the registration, handling provisional refusals through local counsel, surviving the five-year dependency period, and managing subsequent designations, changes, replacement, and renewal. Separate sections address foreign owners extending protection to the United States and third parties who want to oppose a designation or mount a central attack. A timeline and cost table, a worked example following a skincare company's filing, common mistakes, an FAQ, and takeaways close the guide.