Totally overwhelmed by the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE!
August 22, 2017 | Carole Clark IsaksonThese days, everything is subject to being overhyped – cars, diets, clothing, the next snowstorm. When advertisers use words like “amazing”, “breathtaking”, and “life changing” we barely take notice. But having traveled to Nebraska to witness the total solar eclipse, I can tell you that those words, in all their glory, are not strong enough to describe the experience! Last Friday August 18th we began our eclipse road trip. Seven us (me, my parents, husband, niece, teenage daughter and her friend) took two cars and headed to the tiny town of Mullen Nebraska, located in the totality. We booked our three rooms at the Sandhills Motel in Mullen A YEAR AGO. The drive was gorgeous, through the sandhills, and we were delighted with the folks in Mullen and the small town’s events. We didn’t stay in Mullen for the eclipse however, as the weather forecast on the day of the eclipse warned of 70{a0c01d20c42349884e67ff80c137866b0a9fe47aaae8f8a86a605a369ae487c3} cloud cover. So we hopped in our cars and drove west, following RVs and campers clearly headed the same way, out of the clouds and into the sun. An hour later we turned off the little highway on to a dirt road that led to a park, and found a field with a few other cars parked on the…
Read MoreHELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!!
August 17, 2017 | Carole Clark IsaksonYep. Before explaining how this happens, a little background information is needed. Every state has an office charged with registering businesses that wish to do business in the state. In Minnesota, that office is called the Secretary of State’s office (hereafter SOS) and registering businesses is one of many tasks it undertakes. The SOS will not permit a company to be formed that has the exact same name as an already registered company, and other rules apply in choosing a name. Once the name is registered, it is yours to use – doing business in Minnesota. It is not reserved for your use beyond the borders of the state. There is a common misconception that forming an entity at the state level somehow reserves the name in the same way that filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does. It does not… in fact, on the USPTO website you will see the following caution: However, a state’s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks. Although a trademark is frequently a name (or logo)…
Read MoreWHO OWNS THAT SOFTWARE?
August 9, 2017 | Carole Clark IsaksonOwnership is important… especially in the context of a sale. If you want to sell your company, whether as an asset sale or through an ownership sale, the buyer will want to make sure that it can continue to use the software that you use. Conversely, if you are buying a company, don’t forget that the accounting software and whatever else is used in running the company is an important asset! Business owners FREQUENTLY forget about this. When investigating assets do not forget about the software (and make no assumptions…) Ownership is incredibly important, as this gives that person: The right to reproduce the code The right to create “derivative works” based on the code The right to distribute copies of the code The right to “display” the code, for example by posting to a web site. (17 S.C. § 106) The basic rule is this – the person that puts fingers to the keys and creates the code, owns it, except for three exceptions…. There are three exceptions to the basic rule that almost consume the rule itself. These exceptions are: Work “made for hire” Code written by an employee in the SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT Work specifically contracted for (i.e. project based) in one of ten named categories (see 17 USC 101)…
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