Tag: Phoenix small business lawyer

• Independents Week Specials at Carter Law Firm

  One of the things I love about being a solo attorney in Phoenix is I get to be part of Local First Arizona. This is an organization for locally-owned businesses and it’s a great place to meet and connect with amazing professionals in the state.

  Independents Week is coming up June 30 – July 7, 2013. Local First created the Golden Coupon program for this week to celebrate these businesses and give you another reason to check out the independent businesses in your community. Dozens of businesses will be giving patrons a 20% discount if they shop with a Golden Coupon during Independents Week. Dozens of Local First members all over Arizona are participating. Check out the full list on the Local First website and my list of places I’m excited to visit on The Undeniable Ruth.

  After seeing the success of last year’s Golden Coupon program, Carter Law Firm is participating in this year’s program and offering 20% off legal consultations. Since there are only so many hours in the day, the firm only requires you to contact us during Independents Week to get in on the discount. You can schedule the consultation itself anytime in July 2013 and use your Golden Coupon.

  Here’s how to use your Golden Coupon with Carter Law Firm:

  1. Print the Golden Coupon from Local First Arizona.
  2. During Independents Week (June 30 – July 7) contact the Ruth and say you want to book a legal consultation with your Golden Coupon.
  3. Schedule you appointment for any mutually agreed upon time during July 2013.

  Please note, that you should schedule an appointment to talk about your business, intellectual property, social media, or flash mob law needs. All other legal questions are outside the firm’s scope of practice.

  Don’t forget to check out all the other locally owned businesses that are participating in the Golden Coupon program. This is a great opportunity to try out a new place or revisit a business you love in your community.

  You can connect with me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or you can email me. You can also subscribe to the Carter Law Firm newsletter.
  Please visit my homepage for more information about Carter Law Firm.

  June 27, 2013

  •

  Ruth Carter

  •

  News

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• How To Trademark a Business Name

  

  Last week a friend asked me if a business could trademark their name. Anyone who’s spent much time with me knows that the answer to every legal question is “It depends.” In this case it depends on whether your business name is trademarkable and if anyone else had claimed the same or a similar name for your category of goods or services.

  When you start a business, check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database to see if anyone has registered the name you want to use (or a similar one) for selling the same goods and services as you. If someone’s already using the name you want, you will likely be infringing on their trademark rights if you use the name on your products. They could force you to change your name and rebrand if you use the name that someone’s already registered. If you were using the business name on your products and someone registers the name before you, you’ll be in the Burger King situation where you can keep using your name, but only in your established market.

  Once you establish that your desired name hasn’t been registered by someone else, you have to look at whether the name you want is trademarkable. Not every business or product name can be a registered trademark. Here are the five types of trademarks.

  1. Fanciful Marks: Fanciful marks are words that didn’t exist before you stuck it on your products. Examples include Exxon and Kodak. These marks can be registered with the USPTO main registry.

  2. Arbitrary Marks: Arbitrary marks are words in real life, but they are stuck on a product that has no connection to the word. For example, the mark “Apple” for computers, cell phones, and digital music players is an arbitrary mark. The fruit has nothing to do with digital machines and gadgets. These marks can be registered with the USPTO main registry.

  3. Suggestive Marks: Suggestive marks are marks where if you think about it, you can make a connection between the mark and the product. “Playboy” as a mark for a men’s magazine is a suggestive mark. These marks can be registered with the USPTO main registry. It’s sometimes hard to discern the difference between suggestive and descriptive marks.

  4. Descriptive Marks: Descriptive marks merely describe the product. This includes businesses where the owner names the business after themselves. These marks can be registered on the USPTO main registry after they’ve established “acquired distinctiveness,” which usually means you’ve been using the mark for five years.

  5. Generic Marks: Generic marks are the name of the products themselves. It would be if you had an apple orchard and wanted to sell your apples using the mark “Apples.” If the USPTO let you register that mark, no other apple farmers could call their apples “apples” without infringing on your trademark rights. Generic marks can never be registered with the USPTO.

  This video may help. You can watch it below or see it here.

  If you want to know if your business name can be your trademark and the risks and rewards surrounding registering your mark, contact a trademark attorney in your community.

  You can connect with me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or you can email me.
  You can also subscribe to the Carter Law Firm newsletter.
  Please visit my homepage for more information about Carter Law Firm.

  May 23, 2013

  •

  Ruth Carter

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  Business Law, Intellectual Property

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• Does Your Employer Have a Social Media Policy?

  

  Does your company handbook have a social media policy in it? And I mean a policy that talks about what you can and can’t say on your social media accounts. I don’t mean the policy that a lot of employers have about not being on Facebook and Twitter during company time or on company computers.

  Seriously, go check. I’ll wait.

  If you don’t have one, don’t feel bad. About a year ago 76% of companies didn’t have a social media policy. That’s disturbing. I’m surprised when I meet someone who isn’t involved in some type of social media. It’s staggering that employers haven’t kept up with the times.

  People visit this site all the time looking for information about what their employers can and can’t do regarding social media – Can my employer require me to promote them with my personal Facebook account? (No.) Can my employer control my Facebook? (No.) Can my employer require me to delete my social media account? (No.) Can my employer print my Facebook pictures? (Yes.) Can I be fired for how I spend my personal time? (Maybe.) Can my employer monitor my personal Facebook page? (If it’s public, yes.)

  That’s just a handful of the questions I’ve gotten in the last month.

  The issue is clear – If your employer doesn’t have a social media policy, ask for one. And tell them they better check the latest report from the NLRB before they write it.

  Left to their own devices, most employers will write a social media policy that says you have to promote the company with your personal accounts and/or you can’t say anything negative about the company online. Both of these provisions are illegal. The former violates Facebook’s terms of service; the later violates the NLRA.

  What’s the NLRA? It stands for National Labor Relations Act. It protects employees’ abilities to talk amongst themselves about things like wages and work conditions. You’re allowed to do it publicly (even on the internet) and you don’t have to be respectful about it. If you’re ever fired for something you did on your social media account and you think it was protected by the NLRA, you can file a complaint with your employer with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In the worst-case scenario, your employer will be required to give you back pay, pay you damages, and offer you your job back.

  My lawyer friend who litigates these cases recently told me that $10,000 was a low amount that an employer would be ordered to pay in these situations if they fired someone for a reason that violated the NLRA.

  I tell every employer that they need a social media policy that provides a list of dos and don’ts for employees. I also tell them to hire an attorney to write the policy for them to ensure that it complies with the NLRA. Then I tell them to at least have their attorney review it every 6 months. The NLRB regularly publishes new reports based on their cases so the policy that was valid when it was written may be invalid now.

  This is one of those times when you can’t just download a social media policy template and call it good. This area of law is changing too often.

  It’s better to pay a chunk of money now to have someone write your social media policy than to have to pay $10,000+ in back pay, damages, attorneys’ fees, plus whatever it costs for your headache and stomach pain medication to treat the stress of dealing with an NLRB investigation. This is a problem a lot of employers don’t realize they have until it’s too late, and it doesn’t have to be. Call an attorney who understands social media and the NLRB to draft your policy for you.

  If this was TL:DR, I made a video. You can watch it below or here.

  You can connect with me via Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, or you can email me.
  Please visit my homepage for more information about Carter Law Firm.

  February 21, 2013

  •

  Ruth Carter

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  Business Law, Employment Law, Featured Post, Internet law

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