Throughout my time at Full Sail University, I have gained valuable advice on things I need to do or keep in mind in order to build a small business. I found a podcast from Stanford University's Entrepreneur Corner with DLA Piper partner Martin Nichols. Stan Christensen, Stanford lecturer and Arbor Advisors Managing Director, interviewed Nichols about legal advice for start-up companies. Nichols brought up many great points that I found useful to help me in my search for the right attorney. According to Nichols, initial questions people should ask when searching for an attorney is where did they practice law and are they an equity partner? Those aren't the only two important pieces of information needed though. Find a referral and ask that person what their dealings with the attorney have been: did the make good judgment calls, did they get the deal done, are they as valuable as they claim? Also think about who you deal goes to, does the attorney get personally involved, hand it off to an associate, or get too involved and therefore increase fees? If they are a large firm, will they make time for your start-up business? Nichols tells anecdotes that help convey his points. He discusses that you want an attorney who you can trust, who will listen to you, who has experience in the start-up area, and who doesn't get emotionally involved.
To view this podcast go to Stanford's Entrepreneur Corner.
The next podcast I found was a lecture by Keith Weinstein at MIT discussing Copyright Applied to Music and Computers: Peer-to-Peer File Sharing. I chose this lecture because it breaks down the area of copyright that has been infringed upon for years. He thoroughly breaks down copyright law using everyday examples. I need to be aware of copyright when building my business because I'm using other people's work to run my website. If I don't get a license, I'll be broadcasting artist's music videos, breaking the copyright performance clause. Weinstein breaks down what it means to buy copyrighted material for personal use versus broadcasting it to an audience. He also discusses mp3.com and their copyright infringement case where they allowed people to have a copy of the music, claiming the person has the original CD, so it's not an issue. They later went out of business because they were found to have reproduced material, which is in violation of copyright law.
To watch this podcast visit Copyright Applied to Music and Computers.
The final podcast I watched can be found on iTunesU titled Anatomy of a Record Breaking Trademark Victory. I decided to view an actual case, involving trademark because I need to be careful about trade marking logos for my company and not infringing on anyone else. This example helps put into perspective how serious trademark infringement is and what can happen during a court case. The speaker is R. Charles Henn, Jr. speaking in front of UNC's law school. His case involved his client Adidas versus Payless. Adidas claimed that Payless copied Adidas' signature three-stripe pattern with a four stripe pattern as well as other similarities. Henn says that Payless is "the world's largest retailer with 5,000 stores in the United States." Based on that fact and their revenue, Henn revealed that Adidas was awarded $300 million at the conclusion of the case. There were 268 styles of shoes involved in the case. Henn says that the interesting part of this case was that Payless relied on the advice of counsel if they should produce the shoes and their attorney's gave them the green light to produce. Payless sold $400 million worth of their knockoffs, so Henn feels that what Adidas was awarded was still low. When discussing the case, Henn says that they needed to focus on is the question "is this infringement? is the mark strong?" Henn also used a commercial tactic and included the commercials as evidence. The first commercial he showed was of a game show asking the teams which of four brands used three stripes. It's consumer knowledge that it's Adidas and any shoes that look similar will be thought to be Adidas. It's the visual marking that makes Adidas recognizable. They also showed athletes that use Adidas to show how revered the show company is to not only everyday consumers, but also to athletes.
All of the podcasts helped me to gain a better understanding of considerations I need to build my company. I need to be aware of the attorney I'm choosing as well as avoiding any copyright and trademark issues. My attorney needs to be able to fit with my company and have an interest in the future of it. When dealing with copyright, I need to get all of the proper licensing and have protections against any kind of file sharing. Lastly, the trademark court case brought up many great points about what I need to avoid when designing items and that owning a trademark is beneficial to protect my brand.
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