Drifting snow, chiming bells, and rosy cheeks mark the beginning of our merry holiday season.  And many businesses anticipate the greatest holiday gift of all: the economic outlook has begun to turn rosy as well.

Economists and CEOs alike foresee an increase in sales and a growth in capital during 2010. However, while companies plan to rake in more cash next year they don’t necessarily plan to hire new help. According to Business Roundtable Quarterly, large corporation CEOs anticipate a year of healthy economic expansion but not a resurgence of hiring. (more…)

One of the most fascinating and controversial legal decisions in the field of intellectual property is coming to a computer near you!  Charles Moster, the firm’s Senior Partner and writer/composer of several radio musicals on NPR, is releasing his latest on August 31st.  It is about the life of the brilliant Serbian inventor, Nikola Tesla, who invented radio and had a landmark Supreme Court case! (more…)

Trademarks are used to protect a name, word, or symbol that is used for the purpose of identifying the source of goods or services.  Many economists have shown the direct relationship between the increasing importance of branding and the value of securing your IP – a lesson that the “Octomom” has clearly not missed!

According to CNN, the Smoking Gun and a number of other news sources Nadya Suleman, aka the “Octomom”, has recently filed two trademark applications and wants to put her moniker on television programs, clothing and disposable and cloth diapers. (more…)

Health care – and who pays for it – remains an important topic for business owners. Recent legislation will require employers to pay for 65% of separated employees’ health care continuation payment for a prescribed period.  Previously, employers were required to keep separated employees on their health care plans as long as the employee paid up to 110% to cover the payment and attendant administrative cost.   (more…)

Bankruptcy is not a process that should be feared by the American people – or by General Motors.  Sometimes it acts as a grim reaper.  Sometimes it has the power of the Phoenix allowing failed businesses to rise from their ashes.  But always it is the great equalizer which is precisely what Congress intended.

So why are GM and the country so afraid?  The answer appears to be very straight forward – loss of the company and the attendant jobs.  That’s arguably never a good thing. (more…)

On Tuesday, March 3, 2009 the “Patent Reform Act of 2009” was introduced in Congress. This is the latest effort to pass this legislation, which has been knocking around Washington for years, into law. The 2008 version died in the Senate last year. It is thought by many observers to have a better chance of becoming law this time around.  In fact the bill was approved on April 2, 2009, in a 15-4 vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill now moves to the Senate floor. (more…)

As a bankruptcy attorney and former lawyer for the Feds, I feel compelled to point out the drawbacks of the current bailout to GM and other entities which might seek Chapter 11 protection.  The bankruptcy laws afford no special protection to taxpayers in a bailout situation.  As such, the massive outlay advanced by the American people may never get fully repaid in a Chapter 11 proceeding which is highly problematic. (more…)

(Originally published by Fred Patterson, SBIR Coach)

Imagine that you just stepped off the elevator having traveled 30 floors talking to the CEO at your top prospect.  You gave the most stirring elevator speech in the history of elevator speeches, and captured her imagination with your tale of cutting-edge technologies and memorable branding. (more…)

Well, Benjamin Franklin always said it best and with a unique fervor, “There is nothing certain in life except death and taxes.”  However, in the topsey turvey “Alice through the Looking Glass” world of Chapter 11 bankruptcy only one thing was certain.  At least for a while. (more…)

For many lawyers practicing bankruptcy law, the operation has become routine – “mechanized” is perhaps the more apt description.  Particularly in the area of consumer bankruptcy (Chapter 7 and 13), there are a lot of forms being generated behind the scenes because software has made it easier to spin out what’s needed to secure a filing at rocket speed.  However, the world of Chapter 11 bankruptcy has remained a bastion of creative lawyering notwithstanding the improvement in technology.

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