Yes. Trademark registrations expire after 10 years unless renewed. They are granted for a 10 year period, however between the fifth and sixth year you must also file an Affidavit of Continued Use to maintain that mark for the full ten years.

You can change your business organization type. Generally speaking, it's easier to go from a general partnership or a sole proprietorship to one of the corporate forms, either a limited liability company or corporation, than it is to take a limited liability company and transfer it over to a corporation. Those types of transitions involve dissolving one entity and forming a new entity. They're much more complicated.

Usually, you will have to sign a non-compete when you are the seller of the business. This protects the buyer from you going out and then opening the same business that you just sold to the buyer.

When a business is first starting, oftentimes cashflow is a big concern. Therefore, I think the priority should be that you select the appropriate business entity first. Then look at having contracts drafted for your business that will protect the assets of your business then, further down the road you can consider protecting your intellectual property through trademarks.

The first thing you should do is hire an attorney to send the infringer a cease and desist letter. Many times, this will alert the infringer to the fact that they're infringing on what you consider to be your exclusive mark, and that will stop at that point. If it continues, it will, at a minimum, put them on notice that they are infringing your mark and that continued infringement will result in legal action.

Offers to contract can be accepted, pursuant to the way the offer is made. How the acceptance is stipulated in the offer. If the offer includes performance, one of the ways to accept the contract is to begin that performance as well.

An offer can be rejected by specifically rejecting the offer, stating specifically in a correspondence that you're not accepting the offer or to simply let the offer expire pursuant to its terms.

Yes, covenants not to compete are enforceable, as long as they're reasonable in terms of scope and duration.

Generally speaking, it's better to sell assets and goodwill than to sell the shares of your company. This is to protect the buyer from unexpected legal liabilities that may carry over from the previous organization, and it cuts off liability for the seller from liabilities that might arise from the conduct of the business by the buyer.

You will definitely want to do a search on the trademark database to see if there are similar marks to the one that you're interested in registering, because once you file that application, it is non-refundable. If the initial cut of your application by the examining attorney shows a similar mark, you will not get your mark registered and you will not get a refund of your application fee.

The short answer is yes. There are a lot of moving parts in the transaction between a buyer and seller of a business. You are best served to have someone who is knowledgeable, and experienced about the ramifications of a sales agreement for that magnitude of a sale.

Exemption clauses in a contract are those terms that exclude something from the contract. As an example, in an asset purchase agreement, there may be assets that are not included as part of the purchase price, and that would be included in an exemption clause.

Express terms in the contract are those terms that are delineated as part of the agreement. They are terms such as price, delivery, and the goods and services being provided. There, again, those negotiated type terms. There are also express terms in the terms and conditions or boilerplate provisions of the contract.

Implied terms in a contract generally revolve around those things that are not written but what are expected. In other words, on a contract where services are being provided, one would expect an implied term to include the fact that those services would be provided in a workman like manner.

Generally speaking, there are four types of business types. Sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited liability company, and corporation. However given your particular circumstances, which entity type is best for you would be best discussed with a legal professional.

Limited liability partnerships provide liability protection for the partnerships of the business. Generally speaking, they're structured in a way where there will be a general partner who bares all the liability of the organization. And that person will have an agreement with any number of limited partners whose limited liability comes from the fact that they are limited partners and do not have management authority. Therefore, the advantage is that you can have an ownership interest, but with liability protection.

The big advantage of having an S-corp of course is liability protection for the owners of the company. The other advantage by making the S election is that you get the pass through tax treatment that you would get with a limited liability company and avoid the double taxation of the income to the corporation.

A primary benefit of a limited liability company is the liability protection that it affords the owners, the equity owners, of the limited liability company. There are other benefits, but that is primarily the biggest benefit is the liability protection.

The benefits of succession planning are numerous. It provides that there will not be chaos with regard to the management of the business if something unexpected happens to the current owners and managers. It also allows for making sure that there's planning for financial obligations, such as, inheritance tax or avoiding the maximum inheritance tax by having something unexpected happen to the owners. Those are some of the benefits of it, but it can also involve being able to address inequities between children who may be involved in the business and those that are not involved in the business. There are a number of benefits to having a plan as opposed to not planning at all.

Often business sales will fall through when the cash flow of the business isn't sufficient to provide enough financing for the buyer to operate the business and carry the additional carrying costs of the financing to purchase the business.

The most important terms of the contract are what we call the negotiated terms, the terms that the parties sit across the table from each other and agree to. And these typically involved the goods and services that are being provided, and the cost that's going to be paid for those goods and services, and the timing. There can be numerous boiler-plate portions of a contract, but the most important terms are those negotiated terms.

Warrantees in a contract are essentially guarantees as to the performance of the goods or services that are being provided. They can also protect the provider of the services by limiting the damages that the purchaser could expect in terms of the warrantee being provided.

Items that can be trademarked are brands, logos, and certain phrases that are unique to the products and services that you sell in the marketplace. You cannot trademark your business name unless it is part of the branding of the business.

A C corporation is a plain vanilla corporation. It is a separate legal entity formed by filing articles of incorporation with the state. It is a separate legal taxpayer as well, unless the shareholders of the company make an S election.

General partnerships are a contractual agreement between one or more individuals as to how a business would be operated. They are generally governed by a general partnership statute that can be varied by agreement between the partners.

A Limited Liability Company is a separated legal entity from the owners of the business. And, that is how the owners of the business acquire limited liability. Their liability is limited to the assets that they invest in the organization itself.

A sole proprietorship is an individual business owner. The business is you and you are the business. It is the type of business that is the easiest to form, but carries the most risk associated with it for the owner.

An S corp is a variety of corporation. From a formation standpoint, all corporations are the same. It is when you make the S tax selection that you differentiate the organizational types. It too is a separate label entity and provides liability protection for the owners of the business that are called shareholders.

The business name is the name of your business. It typically is either a fictitious name or the name under which you file your articles of incorporation or certificate of organization for an LLC.

A fictitious business name is the name under which you're going to conduct your business, and it's often called also a trade name or a DBA, doing business as. Fictitious names can be used by individuals or by corporations and limited liability companies.

Corporation is the separate legal entity created by filing articles of incorporation with the corporation bureau of the state in which the business is operating. It creates a separate legal entity and therefore limits the liability of the shareholders who are the equity owners of the company.

Non-disclosure agreements are agreements between typically like an employee and an employer, that when the employment relationship ends there isn't the use of proprietary information by the former employee to unfairly compete with the previous employer. You can also see non-disclosure agreements in the situation where a company may be soliciting another company to provide services, and in order to be able to provide those services they have to disclose certain secret aspects, trade secrets, or proprietary information for their company to do that. And in that situation they would want a non-disclosure agreement.

Business succession planning is a form of estate planning for business owners and it contemplates not only the estate planning for the individual owners of the business, but provides for the succession of the business. Not only in terms of the ownership of it, but in terms of the management of it.

Trade name is the name under which a business may conduct its business that is not its legal name. It also may be known as a fictitious name. This can be used as a way to differentiate different product lines or brands under the umbrella of your registered business name.

Succession planning is kind of a long process, but it pretty much involves understanding what the owner's desires are in terms of what will happen to the business upon their retirement or demise. It can involve discussions not only with regard to the financial plans of the retiring owners, but also for the management and control of the business and the equitable distribution of the ownership of the business.

 The difference between a C and an S corporation is not structural. It is in terms of how each corporation is taxed. By making the S election, the small business election, the corporation is allowing it to become a pass through tax entity for tax purposes and avoids the double taxation of the C corporation income being taxed and then taxed again when it is distributed to the shareholders.

The legal name of the business is the business name that is registered with the state in which the business is being operated. The business may register a legal name and have a number of other fictitious names or trade names under which it conducts business, but the legal name will be the name as registered with the state.

Contract law is governed by the state in which the contract is formed, generally speaking. But it can also be determined by the contract between the parties themselves, if there's a stipulation in the contract as to what state's law would apply to the contract, if there's a controversy.

What makes working with our firm different is our practical business experience. As business attorney's we not only have the legal expertise to provide you good legal advice for your business, but we have the background experience to provide practical business advice that also meets with the legal requirements.

If you're the buyer of a business you will definitely want to look at five years of the seller's previous business tax returns, and you will also want a current year profit and loss statement. This will ensure that the business will cashflow for the financing purchase that you will have to float for the acquisition of the business.

Sales agreement for a business should include, obviously, the sales price, how that price will be paid, and then what assets will be acquired for that purchase price. There can be numerous other aspects of a sales agreement, including which key employees may transfer over, what intellectual property is transferring over, and it's highly dependent on the nature of the business and the relationship of the buyer and the seller.

The types of contingencies usually revolve around the financing and how the purchase price will be paid. Your other contingencies may be the ability to transfer or acquire an existing lease for the location of where the business is being operated or for things like zoning to make sure that the business can be operated in that area. Those are typical contingencies that you see, but there can be many others, again, depending on the nature of the business and the complexity of the transaction.

Most of our business referrals come from our previous clients which is a statement in and of itself, but I think that they would say that we are knowledgeable, easy to work with, and professional.

Succession planning should start the day that you open your business. It's never too early to start planning for the succession of your business.

The old adage "you can pay me now, or you can pay me later" definitely applies to this question. Working with a professional, an attorney that knows the ropes and can get you started on your way correctly, is far better than doing it yourself with an online service. You have continuity of the relationship with an existing attorney that you will never have with an online service.

You must register to do business in another state if you are going to be having sales in that state, or a physical location such as a leased space, a retail operation. This will allow the state in which, that you're going to conduct the business to collect either employment taxes on employees that you may have in that state or on the goods that you are selling in that state.

As the buyer of the business, you will want to ask the seller to give you a noncompete agreement as part of the sales agreement. There will be consideration provided as part of the purchase price to secure that agreement from the seller.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will not conduct a search for you. When you file an application, the examining attorney will do a search to determine whether your name is registrable, but they will not do it in advance for you.