Law & Business Anthony M. Verna III, Esq.

It's a fun Super Bowl weekend!







So this video blog talks about trademarks for the Super Bowl, the NFL, and teams.







Enjoy!

Let's talk a little bit about the Post cereal lawsuit against OkGo.







I think there's been a lot of confusion about that. So I figured even though I'm on the road, let's chat post filed a lawsuit against the band. Okay go. Why Post wants to file a trademark called OkGo for a line of cereals. Probably ready to made cereals is my guess.







The band sent the post a what we call a cease and desist letter. Now, we've heard a lot about cease and desist letters, but we haven't really heard a lot about what happens after you send a cease and desist letter. One of the pitfalls of sending a cease and desist letter is that the potential defendant in a lawsuit who receives that cease and desist letter may have the ability to go to federal court, especially in trademark law, because everything is federal.







We want the court to say "We are not infringing upon this trademark."







Now, in that particular case, what has to happen then is that the now defendant who asserted the trademark claims, who would have been a plaintiff, also has to file a counter lawsuit for the trademark infringement, as well as answering the the complaint that's there. So really what's happened here is that post started using the phrase, okay, go on cereal. Okay, go. The band did not like that particular use of the phrase. Okay, go. Despite the different sets of goods and services, that lawyer said the cease and desist letter. And in response to the cease and desist letter post decided to take that issue to their home district court and they filed a what we call a declaratory judgment asking the District of Minnesota that they are not infringing.







So that's one of the that's one of the things that happens when you send a cease and desist letter. It can backfire on you. And you might actually wind up being a defendant in a lawsuit where, you know, they're being asked to say that they're not actually infringing. You have to make sure that you write your cease and desist letters calmly. You must make sure that you need to write your cease and desist letters specifically, and you need to make sure that you're not really going to kick up dust.







But that is certainly one of the things that can happen.







And in this particular case, that is exactly what happened that a lawsuit just started. So we have a lot to to to determine, especially a lot to determine about. Okay. Go's use of the trademark. Okay. Go ahead. And if it's a trademark that is famous enough that all other uses should be banned. To me, that's going to be the one and only question on the trademark case.

The "Law & Business" podcast has returned.







Once again, we are with Heather Abissi, our co-host, from Abissi Law. We discuss domain names:







* How domain names are property;* How domain names relate to trademark law;* In which ways a person or business can challenge the validity of a domain name registration;* Arbitration or Federal Court?* What happens when the federal government seizes your domain name?







It's a fun conversation! Don't forget to subscribe and rate us 5 stars!

The "Law and Business" podcast is BACK.







And Anthony is joined by his new co-host, Heather Abissi. Heather M. Abissi, an attorney beginning her 15th year of practice, having served as an Executive Assistant District Attorney, Criminal Defense Attorney, Civil Rights Attorney, Tort Attorney, Family Law Attorney, Matrimonial Attorney, and Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, and Corporate Outside Counsel, has a practice focused on legal writing, editing, contract negotiation, oral argument, trial support and strategy. The goal of her practice is to improve the work-life balance of attorneys by allowing them to outsource time consuming legal documents, and peace of mind to corporate clients who need detail oriented personal attention to their contracts rather than boilerplate.







Heather Abissi







The sensitive topic is revenge porn. Heather tackles the topic from the victim's perspective in terms of criminal law, and how to report such an action. Anthony tackles the problem from the perspective in terms of copyright law and rights of privacy/publicity aka name/image/likeness - how a federal civil lawsuit may help a victim.

Coming aboard the "Law & Business" Podcast is Polina Chtchelok. Polina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. She started her career in the energy sector, where after having lived in 5 different countries and working on various investments and projects, she saw a business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services and she moved from working in-house to creating her own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment of Bolivia in South America. After completing Executive MBA from HEC Paris with specialization in finance end entrepreneurship her focus now is on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth.







This episode on how to define a business vs. how to define a startup was fun to record and we hope you enjoy it, also.







Anthony Verna: (00:02)All right. Welcome to the Law and Business podcast, the most blandly named podcast out there. With me today is Polina Chtchelok. Polina, how you doing?Polina Chtchelok:I’m good, and you?







Anthony Verna:I’m well. How badly did I butcher your last name?Polina Chtchelok:It was actually quite well.







Anthony Verrna:All right. Oh, good. Okay. That's because your last name is Polish in nature.







Polina Chtchelok:Russian.







Anthony Verna:Russian, I’m sorry, I keep making that mistake. I grew up near our Lady of Czestochowa, which is I believe a Ukrainian saint. So anyway, I've learned a little bit about trying to figure out some of the Eastern Europe…







Polina Chtchelok: (00:53)The region of my last name is Ukrainian Cossacks.







Anthony Verrna: (00:58)Okay. Okay. So, all right. Thank you for the diversion. Uh, Paulina is an Australian lawyer and engineer. Speaking of a diversion. You started your career in the energy sector after having lived in five different countries, working on various investment and projects. Polina, you saw business opportunity due to lack of specific legal services. And you moved from working with in-house to creating your own niche market law firm in a controversial and challenging business environment in Bolivia, in South America. And then after completing your executive MBA from HEC Paris, with specialization in finance and entrepreneurship, your focus is now on development of financial and operational strategies for business growth. So welcome because law and business is exactly where you and I collide and intersect and thanks for being on today.







Polina Chtchelok:Oh, thank you for having me here.







Anthony Verna:Hey, so we're going to talk a little bit about what you think of as an ongoing concern for a business versus a startup. And hopefully our listeners can take away some ideas for thinking about if you're a startup out there thinking about taking your startup, what do I need to do to be an ongoing business concern?







Polina Chtchelok: (02:14)It's a very complex subject, and it's a very current subject because as you know, with COVID-19, there's a lot of businesses being impacted. You have to shut down, but at the same time, COVID-19 accelerated in entrepreneurship. It's accelerated creation of startups. Its accelerated people being innovative and creative because of their restrictions they've been under. They had to think of new ways of doing a business, implement changes to keep the business afloat and, and even the current customers, they change their habits. And you had to adjust to these changes in the habits of your customers.







Anthony Verna: (03:06)I completely agree. And we see that as well. We're seeing a lot more trademark applications come through the door. We're seeing a lot of patent application inquiries, and a lot of people trying to figure out if their invention is so...

It's always fun when your friends drop in for a podcast episode.







My guest this time is my friend, the talented and lovely Andromeda Turre.







Andromeda is a jazz singer whose latest project is called Growing up Jazz, a series about the influence of jazz on the American soul that runs parallel to her life story as the daughter of two jazz musicians.







Andromeda had some copyright questions. These questions came from the musician's perspective, especially as we discussed the need for a copyright registration in the music and a need for a copyright registration in the sound recording (aka "sync license" when musicians license the recording). However, everyone who works in all media should find it informative and we want Andromeda back on soon.







BTW - nobody is allowed to use "poor man's copyright" on the podcast anymore. That term is officially banned.















Anthony Verna: (00:03)And welcome to the Law and Business podcast. I’m here with my friend Andromeda Turre. How you doing?







Andromeda Turre: (00:09)I'm so good. And thank you so much for inviting me on to talk to you today.







Anthony Verna: (00:13)Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. And by the way, let's tell everybody listening. as Andromeda is a jazz singer and where can everybody find your stuff on the web?







Andromeda Turre: (00:26)You can find it at andromedaturre.com. I'm on Spotify. I'm on iTunes, wherever you download or stream music, you can find my music and, yeah, that's it.







Anthony Verna: (00:36)Well, thank you for coming. And so let's talk a little bit about copyright stuff, especially for, for the musician, especially the musician inside. Well, you've got a musicians inside and outside of you, so…







Andromeda Turre: (00:55)But there's so many questions about copyright that I think so many musicians will want the answers to, and I know that you can help us out. So, I've got some questions for you today.Anthony Verna: Hit me with the questions. That's what we’re here for.Andromeda TurreOkay. My first question is: Why do musicians need to copyright their music? It can be expensive. And I know that you can copyright things as a group or as an individual song. Give us the pitch as to why we should do this.







Anthony Verna: (01:24)Sure. So, in the United States… Let's start here… In the United States, without any kind of registration, if there's infringement, you can't file a lawsuit. So, I always say with copyright law, number one, it's the entry for, for a lawsuit and really it's a catalog as well. So, if you register every single song, you will be filing the composer's name, the date that it was composed, chances are where. And so, in that particular aspect, as your career grows, as your catalog grows, your copyright catalog grows. So, you have that barrier court and you have a catalog. So this way, if somebody needs to license something from you… I'm sure a lot of musicians are also members of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. And therefore, they've got to have that catalog in there for licensing as well.







Having the copyright registration is kind of the glue to making all of that work. Now also, besides just entering court, if you have the registration before any infringement happens, you are entitled to at least the potential for more damages. So for example, if you've registered your song and somebody copies it, whether it's intentional or unintentional, but if somebody copies your song passes it off as their own, and you get no royalties from it, then you can file a lawsuit and you can ask for actual damages. In other words,