Understanding Families First Coronavirus Response Act

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On March 18, 2020, Congress enacted, and the President signed, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. This is the second piece of federal legislation enacted in the last two weeks to help the nation stave off the adverse impacts of the Coronavirus that is sweeping across the nation. For an overview of the first act, …Read more

Understanding the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020

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The global Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping across the planet without acknowledging whatsoever the wealth, ethnicity, gender or political affiliation of its victims. Despite the fact it appears to have originated in China, it has taken root with a vengeance across Asia, Europe, Iran and all 50 of our United States. As of May 26, 2020, …Read more

What to Do When an Employee Steals Company Trade Secrets

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If an employee of your company stole an item of tangible company property when he left to start another job – like a car, or computer, or airplane – would you just let it go? Of course not. Yet, studies show that 50 percent of departing employees take confidential business information from their employer before …Read more

New Legislation that May Affect Your California Business in 2020

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We’ve reviewed this year’s legislation coming out of Sacramento to bring you this concise outline of the key statutory changes that could impact your California business sometime in 2020. We hope you find it useful. California Consumer Privacy Act Provides New Personal Information Privacy Rights to Consumers. The legislature amended the California Consumer Privacy Act …Read more

How to Decide if You Should File a Lawsuit Against Your Former Employee for Trade Secret Theft

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Now that you know with certainty that a former employee has left your company for a competitor, and in the process, has stolen your company’s valuable trade secrets, you need to decide whether to file a lawsuit to recapture the stolen intellectual property and recover your damages from him and any other individual(s) involved. The …Read more

New Commercial Real Estate Loan Requirements for Delaware LLC’s

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Commercial real estate borrowers and mortgagors formed as Delaware limited liability companies (“LLCs”) should be aware of new loan requirements after recent amendments to Delaware’s LLC Act. The LLC Act amendment, which became effective in August 2018, allows Delaware LLCs to be divided into one or more newly formed Delaware LLCs and allocate assets and …Read more

Proactively Protecting Your Company’s Trade Secrets from Theft by Employees

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A few years ago, the Symantec Corporation and Ponemon Institute released the results of a survey of employees working for companies in six countries, including the U.S., Brazil, China, France, Korea and United Kingdom. The results were remarkable. They should place every chief executive on notice of the risks of data security breaches her company …Read more

What Would You Do if Your Family Business’ Property Were Contaminated

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Does your family business own a piece of property that may be contaminated? We often hear clients say they do not want to know the answer to that question because they will be forced to do something about it. We disagree with that approach because you can’t make a good business decision about your potentially-contaminated …Read more

Understand Federal and State Securities Laws Before Raising Money

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The applicability of the federal securities laws is remarkably broad. The Securities Act of 1933 defines a “security” to include stock, bonds, notes, fractional undivided interests in oil, gas and other mineral rights, and “investment contracts.” The Supreme Court analyzed such contracts in the Howey case to mean investments in a common enterprise with an …Read more

Trademark Office Issues New Guidlines on Trademarking Cannabis Products and Services

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) issued new guidelines on May 2, 2019, clarifying that trademarks for certain cannabis and cannabis-derived goods and services are now eligible for federal trademark protection. The PTO issued the guidelines to clarify the procedure for examining marks for these goods and services following passage of the 2018 Farm …Read more