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.”
Read MoreFresh year, fresh you! This January, we are pleased to shine our Portland Business Spotlight on Flux Salon, a woman-and-stylist-owned hair salon with the fun philosophy that happy hair equals happy people.
Read MoreOn Monday, January 22, a California federal court awarded Grumpy Cat Limited $710,000 in damages for copyright and trademark infringement claims against Grenade Beverage LLC, a California-based beverage company.
Read MoreHow 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.
Read MoreThis December, Res Nova Law shines its Small Business Spotlight on Portland, Oregon's Liberation Barbell, a queer- and woman-of-color-owned lifting gym focusing on strength gains and empowerment instead of weight loss, viewed through a lens of body positivity and anti-oppression.
Read MoreAs experienced business litigators, we've helped our clients resolve all kinds of business disputes and have gained key insights on how to run a business smoothly and profitably. To get another perspective, we interviewed Consign Couture to learn about how its founder and owner, Tamara Young, resolved an unexpected dispute with her then-partner and built a thriving business in the face of adversity.
Read MoreWe encourage our clients to have solid, well-written contracts in place in order to protect their business interests well into the future. To help you get on the right track, we've compiled 5 tips for small business owners who are thinking about drafting or negotiating their own contracts.
Read MoreThis November, we're shining our Small Business Spotlight on Portland, Oregon's very own Mimi Ceramics, a woman-owned, creative business that shares hand-crafted pottery all over the world. We had the pleasure of chatting with ceramicist and founder Mica DeMarquez to learn more about what motivates her in terms of creativity and entrepreneurship.
Read MoreWe're excited to shine October's Small Business Spotlight on Portland, Oregon's very own Fetch Eyewear, a designer eyeglasses boutique that donates 100% of profits to animal rescue. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Fetch Eyewear founder and philanthropist Ann Sacks, to learn more about what motivates her, what makes Fetch Eyewear so unique, and how the Sacks family advocates for animal welfare.
Read MoreDid you know that colors can be registered as trademarks? The path to registration is not easy, however. This past summer, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that cereal giant General Mills cannot register the color yellow as a trademark for Cheerios. Read our blog post to learn more about the TTAB decision and color marks in general.
Read MoreTwo Portland businesses, Heart LLC and Heart Pizza LLC, are currently battling over the use of their very similar names. Heart LLC has been using the trademark HEART in connection with specialty coffee goods and services. Heart Pizza LLC, on the other hand, started using the trademark HEART in connection with—you guessed it—pizza-related goods and services. Check out our discussion of the eight factors that courts look at to determine whether a trademark is infringed.
Read MoreThis September, Res Nova Law is all about finding balance. That's why we're shining our Not-So-Small Business Spotlight on barre3, a whole body health studio that focuses on building, maintaining, and restoring balance through a unique 3-fitness-discipline approach.
Read MoreThis August, we're shining our Small Business Spotlight on ADX, a collaborative maker hub offering shared tools, work space, and knowledge for Portland's creative community. To learn more about ADX and its exciting new ADX Pro membership, we sat down for a quick Q&A with Kelley Roy, founder and owner of ADX.
Read MoreIf you're at all active on social media, you're likely to come across dozens of memes each day. According to Miriam-Webster, a meme is "an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media." Some of the most notable memes of 2017 so far include Salt Bae (view the original Instagram post) and the Babadook as a queer icon (read about it here). While memes can be humorous and widely appealing, it's important to keep in mind that creating, retweeting, reblogging, and otherwise sharing memes on social media can constitute copyright infringement if you don't own the copyrights to the underlying images or videos.
Read MoreThis July, we chatted with Damon Alley, founder of Lulu—a fresh Portland startup with a focus on sustainability and community empowerment through cycling. Damon gives us the scoop on his innovative first product, the Lululox, as well as what motivates him to be such a forward-thinking entrepreneur.
Read MoreIn a surprising Supreme Court victory for small and thrifty businesses, Impression Products, Inc. won a seven-year patent dispute against printer giant Lexmark International, Inc. Learn more about the Supreme Court decision, and what this means for patent infringement cases moving forward.
Read MoreIn this month's Small Business Spotlight, we chatted with Stella Ichsan, co-owner of Nucleus Portland, about what motivates her, her biggest personal and business goals, and more.
Read MoreIf you're a creative employee or independent contractor (e.g., a consultant), you may be wondering who owns the intellectual property rights to your creations. We'll explore intellectual property ownership in different situations in this blog post.
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