Blogs

Business and Financial Services

Virginia Employers: Are Your Non-Competes Enforceable?

Restrictive covenants continue to be among the most hotly contested employment law issues in Virginia. Non-solicitation and non-competition clauses are fundamentally important to a business like yours. Drafted well, they provide your company with significant legal protections against a key employee usurping the sales opportunities and client relationships developed while in your employ to start a competing business or to provide an unfair advantage to one of your competitors. However, Virginia…

August 1, 2018

Intellectual Property

Supreme Court Strikes Down Trademark Registration Ban on Free Speech Grounds

In a significant victory for free speech advocates – and fans of the Washington REDSKINS – the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that section 2(a) of the Lanham Act’s prohibition on the registration of “disparaging” trademarks violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The Court held in Matal v. Tam that the statute “offends a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.” The decision pared back the “government-speech…

July 6, 2017

Intellectual Property

Privacy Policies for Mobile Apps: One Size Does Not Fit All

Online privacy is a growing concern for us all. As a mobile app owner or developer, you must include a privacy policy in your app that details the information you collect from users and the manner in which that information is stored and used. Although borrowing a privacy policy from a similar app or purchasing a template online may be tempting, doing so can potentially create huge legal and financial liability for your company, and ultimately carries more risk than benefits. The key to your…

January 15, 2015

Intellectual Property

Common Myths about Copyrights and the Internet

Myth: If it’s on the Internet, it’s in the public domain. Mostly False. “Public domain” refers to works which are NOT protected by copyright law. There are only three ways in which something can be considered “public domain”: The work is not subject to copyright protection in the first place . For example, ideas and facts, titles and names, short phrases and slogans, or government works. The work has been assigned to the public domain by its creator . For example, some works may be marked “No…

November 12, 2014

Intellectual Property

Common Copyright Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Small businesses often expose themselves to legal risk by misunderstanding who owns creative content and how copyrighted materials can be used. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article published in the BKK Business Law Newsletter, Ashley R. Dobbs explains that one of the most common mistakes is failing to secure ownership of intellectual property created by non-employees, such as designers or developers, when no written “work for hire” or assignment agreement is in place. The article also…

January 1, 2014

Intellectual Property

Copyright Law 101

Copyright protection extends far beyond books, music, and movies, and many businesses own copyrightable material without realizing it. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article, the analysis explains that copyright law protects “original works of authorship fixed in a tangible form of expression,” including written materials, photographs, software, websites, architectural works, videos, marketing materials, training manuals, and other business content. The article also notes that copyright law…

November 1, 2012

Business and Financial Services

Protecting & Registering Your Intellectual Property

Businesses often focus heavily on protecting physical assets while overlooking intellectual property such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, customer lists, and proprietary business processes. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article published in the BKK Business Law Newsletter, James V. Irving explains that intellectual property protection often begins with identifying what information or material has value and then determining which legal tools are available to protect it. The…

September 1, 2009