Business Law | Blog for Business Law

— By Don V. KellyJanuary 22, 20190 Comments

The Ongoing Ambiguity Over Which Inventions Are Patentable And Which Are Not – The Patent Office’s New Guidelines

On January 7, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued new 2019 guidelines on how it will go about determining whether an invention is one which the law allows to be patented. If you have been following the news on this topic then…

— By Gerry RichardsonJanuary 15, 20190 Comments

WHAT IMPACT WILL MEDICAL MARIJUANA HAVE ON MISSOURI WORKPLACES AND DRUG TESTING BY EMPLOYERS?

On November 6, 2018, Missouri voters approved Amendment 2, the Medical Marijuana and Veteran Healthcare Services Initiative by a margin of 66% to 34%. It legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Basically, the amendment allows licensed physicians to recommend marijuana use to patients with any one…

— By Alex HurstNovember 15, 20180 Comments

A Rose by Any Other Name: Making Sure Your Trade Name Smells as Sweet

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually. Most entrepreneurs are aware that their businesses’ trade name has value as a trademark or service mark and that using someone else’s name could expose them to liability for infringement, but that’s only part of the story. …

— By Joseph RolnickiOctober 8, 20180 Comments

THE “ON SALE” BAR AND “READY FOR PATENTING”

The On Sale Bar, set forth in 35 U.S.C. §102 of the Patent Statute provides that “[a] person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise…

— By Joseph RolnickiFebruary 19, 20180 Comments

INVENTION DISCLOSURE

If you are involved in a business that routinely introduces new products to the marketplace, or a business that exists due to a recently developed new product such as a startup business, you should consider protecting the new product or products with a patent. A…

— By Ron HackFebruary 12, 20180 Comments

APPLICATION OF THE “OPEN and OBVIOUS” DOCTRINE

What to most of us would seem to be an obvious conclusion, the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that if you try to move rolls of insulation in a self-service area, and notice that a stack of insulation is leaning, don’t expect…

— By Alex HurstOctober 11, 20170 Comments

The Serious Uncertainties Surrounding Series LLCs

Much as the limited liability company (LLC) took the country by storm in the early 1990s, forever changing the American landscape of corporate governance and small business taxation, a new type of entity is proliferating from state to state: the protective series LLC. Originally developed…

— By Ron HackJune 23, 20170 Comments

HAS THE U.S. SUPREME COURT PUT AN END TO LAWSUIT TOURISM ONCE AND FOR ALL? OR “3 STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT [OF THIS JURISDICTION]”

A General Counsel knows the situation all too well. He or she receives word that the Company has been named as part of a multi-plaintiff case in a plaintiff friendly jurisdiction which has nothing to do with the underlying facts, and most of the plaintiffs…

— By Ron HackJune 16, 20170 Comments

SEVENTH CIRCUIT SAYS PLAINTIFFS CAN’T ESCAPE WORKERS COMP EXCLUSIVITY BY ARGUING NEIGHBORHOOD/COMMUNITY ASBESTOS EXPOSURE

Under a new Illinois case, plaintiffs cannot avoid the restrictions of a state’s workers’ compensation statute by claiming exposure to asbestos in the plant’s neighborhood ambient air caused their asbestos related disease, rather than the exposures that occurred during their long employment history. The Seventh…

— By Gerry RichardsonMarch 29, 20170 Comments

Employer Forms Disclosing & Authorizing Background Checks Must Exclude Liability Waivers

Good Reasons Support the Use of Background Checks in the Hiring Process. Many employers run background checks on job applicants before they make an employment offer. Doing so enables such employers to confirm the truthfulness and accuracy of background information provided by job applicants, such as…