Legal Blog

Beware the Instagram DM  Sliding in the DMs has reached a whole new meaning in the influencer world. A simple direct message from a company can mean an offer of hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single endorsement post! Who wouldn’t be eager to jump on that deal? After all, brand endorsements are one of the main ways influencers make money.  But what happens if after you post, you don’t hear back from the company for payment? What happens if you did not post exactly...

Do you take care of at least some of your shopping through Amazon? It wasn’t that long ago when the tech giant attempted to patent its one-click payment option. Of course, that didn’t go over well, as the court eventually ruled that such a move was simply too obvious of an idea to patent. But figuring out how to deal with patent infringement can be tricky on any level. As a business owner, you need to be prepared in case someone infringes on your patent or if someone else makes a patent...

A widely popular misconception about trademark law among consumers is that once a federal trademark registration is obtained, there is no way the trademark owner can lose their rights in the trademark. On the contrary, there are a number of different grounds an opposing party may assert to cancel a registered trademark though the available grounds vary depending on how long the trademark has actually been registered. Generally, cancellation of a trademark is accomplished by filing...

Veronika Balbuzanova, Esq. of Johnson | Dalal was recently interviewed and published by theLawQ.com regarding trademark law.  Below is a link and a copy of the article:https://thelawq.com/overview-of-trademark-law/ A Trademark is a distinctive term, expression, slogan, name, graphic symbol, image, emblem, device, design, logo, or any combination thereof that is used for commercial purposes to identify and differentiate the products or services of a company...

"Hey, what a great song! Where have I heard it before. Oh. Wait. That's mine." All artists work hard to perfect the mastery of their craft, and despite that hard work, all artists are vulnerable to theft of their intellectual property including copyright infringement. With music copyright infringement, it can be difficult to find out that your music has been stolen and presented as another artist's work - and it can also be financially and emotionally devastating.  Case in...

What is a false Amazon infringement claim? A false infringement claim occurs when a competitor or angry customer submits a form on Amazon, claiming that you are either selling a counterfeit product or selling a patented product without the permission of the patent owner. As long as the person fills out the form fully and correctly according to Amazon, Amazon can then pull down your listing and bar you from selling your product. In the worst-case scenario, Amazon can actually ban you from...