Legal Matters | Archive

Reduce your company’s legal exposure and expense
How often have you complained about your company’s legal expenses? Do you feel hostage to these high legal expenses, or have you tried to reduce such expenses?
by David Faulders
October 1, 2007

Use of Confidentiality Agreements
Are you planning the sale of a business unit? Is a consultant ready to advise you on a new marketing strategy? Perhaps you are simply getting ready to have a technician come upgrade your computers. This should make you pause. Whenever a third party needs to see your company's secrets or talk to your employees about a proprietary business matter, that party will have access to private information.
by Richard Kay
October 1, 2007

Protecting your brands is important for business success
Establishing a strong brand is pivotal to business success. Protecting that brand is equally important. Yet many small businesses overlook an important first step in securing their brand: trademarks.
by David Zerbee
September 2007

Avoid common legal mistakes in business
Small companies frequently make legal mistakes that have a potential to create significant issues that divert attention from their core business. From time to time companies should perform a "legal audit" to help alleviate time-consuming, possibly disastrous, consequences of making legal mistakes.
by Dave Faulders
July 2007

Observing formalities
Are you lax with your company's record keeping? Do you use company assets for personal uses? If so, you risk losing the important liability protection your company structure offers you.
by Dave Faulders
June 2007

Advertising 101
What is advertising? Wikipedia's online definition says advertising is a "paid communication through a non-personal medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. Black's Law Dictionary gives a more technical definition, but all would agree that sales pitches in newspapers and magazines are included in the traditional definition of advertising.
by Richard Kay
May 2007

Government contractors: know your legal rights
Many companies provide support to federal government agencies. If your company is one of these, do you know what to do in the event there is a dispute?
by David Zerbee
April 2007

Selling or transferring your business
When you are formulating a long range plan for your company, one of the crucial elements to consider is the company’s exit strategy.
by Dave Faulders
February 2007

Company responsibility in the wake of disaster
Today, more than at any other time in history, we are faced with crises that have the potential to interrupt our businesses. Events of terrorism and major natural disasters have been devastating to business. In these situations, assistance to the affected people is paramount, but it is also important for businesses to be able to continue in the wake of such crises to help provide the necessary goods and services to those affected.
by David Zerbee
December 2006

Ethics policies: It's just good business
Are you concerned about the business reputation of your company and its employees? What would happen to your sales if your company is drawn into a scandal? Does everyone in your organization know the company's standards of behavior? These are basic and important questions that every executive should address.
by Dave Faulders
September 2006

Creating a capital structure to support your business
Alignment of ownership- that is, structuring the company so that that different owners, with different ambitions and different resources, are aligned in their both their incentives and ultimate goals - is essential in creating a capital structure.
by Nelson Blitz
July 2006

Cybersquatting: Can you recover a name that is yours?
In recent years, companies have found it increasingly difficult to select domain names that are similar to their own corporate names because "cybersquatters" have beaten them to the punch.
by David Zerbee
June 2006

Contract negotiation: Focus on Interests
What's the most important thing to keep in mind when you are negotiating a contract for your company? If you focus on your company's business interests and understand the other party's interests, many of the legal issues and sticking points will melt away.
by J. David Faulders
May 2006