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Three Critical Legal Protections for New Businesses

By Stephanie Robinson

If you have started a business and have not already formed an organizational entity or protected your business name, you should swiftly move to protect yourself and your business from unforeseen liability or loss of intellectual property. New business owners should form a legal structure to add additional protection against personal liability. Establishing a partnership, professional corporation, limited liability company, or corporation will add additional layers or protection against claims related to your business. Business of all types ? retail, general services, medical, financial, technology, and media, to name a few ? should form legal identities at the early stages of their existence. Compared to defending a claim against you or your business, setting up a legal entity is generally affordable and straightforward. A good rule of thumb is: If you have customers or clients, you could have a lawsuit. Don?t risk your business or your personal assets. Protect yourself. In addition, registering your core trademarks is something every entrepreneur should investigate. A trademark registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office will establish your claim of right to a particular brand and will provide you with a stronger position when asserting or defending against infringement claims if another business contends you are improperly using their brand. Additionally, a registered trademark will enable you to pursue infringers with more confidence in achieving a successful result. A cease and desist letter accompanied with proof of a federal trademark registration is oftentimes all it takes to dissuade a would-be infringer from using your business name or a name similar to your business name. Preventing others from operating under business names similar to yours also will help you differentiate your business as a leader in your field and will ensure consumers do not confuse your products and services with those provided by business that may be offering inferior products and services. Finally, obtaining copyright registrations at the U.S. Copyright Office for any original content, whether written or electronic, that you own will provide you with a stronger claim of right over those materials. As with trademark registrations, copyright registrations also will prevent other business from taking your words and pictures and using them for their business. Obtaining a copyright registration for a website is often the first step a business takes in protecting its content. It also represents a strategic first copyright, because websites often include both textual descriptions of the business and images related to the business? products and services. Obtaining a website copyright is advisable because it can protect a large amount of original material with one legal tool.

Full post as published by Business and Technology Law on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).