Franchising is a business strategy whereby a franchisor (or founder/developer of the business) licenses his or her procedures, intellectual property, marketing, general know-how, and the rights to sell branded products and services to a franchisee. McDonald’s is a well-known example of a franchise. When a person...
Your intellectual property is an asset of your business, and as such, it’s important to diligently protect your “IP” from theft or misuse. We often recommend that business owners, inventors, and entrepreneurs make “policing” their intellectual property a regular activity of their business, just as...
As the world collectively bands together in the fight against COVID-19, intellectual property issues are simultaneously surging alongside the crisis. Without the immediate benefit of time to deal with infringement claims in a court of law, many problems are instead being hashed out in real...
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, government agencies that handle intellectual property issues around the world are either closed or working short-staffed. As such, emergency policies related to intellectual property claims are being issued, such as the suspension of IP deadlines and altered rules for digital...
On January 29, 2020, President Trump signed into law an updated trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement, or “USMCA,” was a fresh attempt by Congress to address some of the deficiencies of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),...
Developing an app can be exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. While apps provide us with fast and easy access to mobile tools, functions, or services at the push of a button, creating an app behind the scenes is not so simple. There are...
Having a website created for a business or a brand is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Even simple websites with minimal pages and functionality can cost thousands of dollars in design and hosting fees before it goes live on the web. But what...
Building a brand is not easy. Not only does a brand need to definitively represent your product or service in the minds of your customers, but it’s also something that will likely need to change and evolve as your company grows over the years and...
Most business owners understand the importance of keeping trade secrets, well… a secret. A trade secret can be any unique process, procedure, method, or formula that you use in day-to-day operations that helps to set your business apart from the competition and gives you an...
The act of piracy no doubt sounds like an offense committed on the high seas by pirates in search of gold and treasures. Actual piracy, however, does involve a crime, but there are no pirates or swashbucklers involved. It’s simply the act of illegally downloading and...