Musings on Intellectual Property
After the Florida Bar changed its rule on credit card fees, an attorney reached out to me still worried about whether lawyers in Florida could lawfully pass on the costs associated with accepting plastic. His concern stemmed from one of Florida’s consumer laws—a “no surcharge” law—that purported to prevent nearly
...continue readingYou know what’s annoying? Finding a form online that isn’t fillable. You know what’s even more annoying? Having a form with additional pages that require re-entering the same information from the first page multiple times! Well, the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts has just such a form for a civil court
...continue reading
Attorney Griffin Klema has been quoted in the Florida Bar News on the Florida Supreme Court’s recent approval of an ethics rule change allowing lawyers to pass along credit card fees to judgment debtors and parties entering into settlement agreements. I am pleased that Floridians now have greater freedoms to
...continue reading
Calculating Statutory Settlement Offers Trying to figure out what an opposing party would have to get in a judgment to beat your proposal for settlement? Want to make an offer of judgment under Florida’s statute (Section 768.79) and need to calculate the amount? The math seems pretty straightforward, but in
...continue reading
The Supreme Court opens the door for collecting lost profits and royalties on patent infringement that occurs beyond U.S. borders. What if you have a U.S. patent, and a competitor makes some of the parts to your patented product in the U.S., but assembles them outside the U.S., say in
...continue reading
Can you use a trademark as a defensive shield to protect yourself and your business, besides using it to enforce your brand? Most people think of a trademark as a weapon to prevent a competitor from stealing their customers, ripping off their brand, and taking marketshare. True, that’s the primary
...continue readingRecently I felt compelled to see if I could have an impact on all Florida attorneys and their practice. Currently, the ethics rules prohibit lawyers from charging a losing party (or their client) the transactional costs associated with accepting credit cards, or other forms of payment. Current Rule The prohibition
...continue reading
No Trade Secret Protection for Uber’s Rider Data On January 10, 2018, the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals held that rideshare company Uber (through its subsidiary Raiser LLC), could not claim trade secret protection to prevent the disclosure of its rider data. The case resulted from traditional taxicab company,
...continue reading
How long does a trademark last? What do you need to do to keep your trademark? Here is some insight into the life of a trademark, how long it lasts, and renewal process and deadlines. So you have a trademark, are using the “circle-R” to show it off, and now
...continue reading
What happens when a brand becomes so well known that people start referring to all products according to the brand name? For example, what is the first term that comes to mind when you think of a box full of facial tissue? Kleenex perhaps? (Technically, this brand remains alive, though
...continue reading