Whether you start your business on a shoestring or have millions in venture capital behind you, one thing is certain. The success of your business depends on you and the actions you take, and sometimes the actions you fail to take. Below are the seven most common legal mistakes made by startups and how to avoid them.
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You may want to consider filing a federal trademark application if you haven’t done so yet. A trademark is any symbol, word, slogan, design, or any combination associated with your particular goods and/or services. A trademark can also be a sound, color, or smell. Anything can be considered a trademark if it helps avoid confusion among consumers by distinguishing your specific goods and services from that of others.
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Netflix started out 2019 with a fresh Trademark lawsuit filed over their “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” film. The film has been a big hit as Netflix took advantage of the strong following their original series, Black Mirror, already had. Bandersnatch allows viewers to dictate the story line and ultimately decide the ending. There are several different choices that can be made throughout the film with the main character setting the scene early on in the movie, and coincidently for this lawsuit, by informing his father that a videogame he wants to create is based on a fictional “’Choose Your Own Adventure’ Book.” Unfortunately for Netflix, Choose Your Own Adventure books are very real, and the owners of the book series brought suit against Netflix for trademark infringement and dilution.
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For many business owners, a fresh new year means a fresh new “look and feel” for their business—including updated websites, logos, branding, or product packaging for 2018. In the legal world, we refer to the look and feel of a business as its “trade dress.”
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How do businesses set themselves apart from their competition, who may be selling a comparable product or service at a similar price point? The marketing term is branding, but in the legal world, it’s all about trademark law. To learn about how one Portland company does it, we interviewed Ian Williams—owner of Portland, Oregon's Deadstock Coffee.
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