Over the past couple of days, I’ve worked with clients who are addressing disciplinary issues for salaried employees. There seems to be a myth that salaried employees are subject to different procedures than an hourly employee. First, I want to dispel that myth. Just because an employee is...
I was recently approached by a client who has an interesting issue related to employee classification. When I talk about employee classification, I am talking about whether the person is exempt or nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Broadly, the Fair Labor Standards Act presupposes that every employee...
On September 25, the United States Department of Labor issued a final regulation dealing with salary levels for overtime pay. This is the overtime rule. This is not the first time I’ve talked about this, there are other blog posts. But, those posts dealt with the Obama administration. The...
As a General Counsel, I worry about a lot of different scenarios and a common concern is hacking and cybersecurity. I always farm out the technical side since, well I am a lawyer, not an IT guy. So I decided to ask an IT guy to...
What happens if the single owner of a business dies? It is a tad morbid, but it is a very important part of business succession planning that needs to be prepared and discussed. The first question you need to answer is: who gets the business? Family, Children, and Minors As we...
When an examining attorney is reviewing a trademark application at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), they must determine whether or not a trademark application should be moving forward. The examination process is as much an art as it is a science. But, let’s...
In previous blog posts we talked about some aspects of business succession planning, most recently how to proceed when a single owner of a company has a disability. In this post, we will focus on how a business owner can prepare for future risks by...
Many small and creative businesses are interested in trademarking their business name or logo. While it may seem like a daunting task and does take some time (approximately six months without any bumps in the road), registering a trademark is something that can be done...
Talk to any marketing professional and they will tell you that your business needs a website (advice that I concur with). But what is the primary risk of a website? False advertising? Nope. Misspellings and other typos? Unfortunate, but not a major risk. Poor domain name selection? Not even...