New Legislation that May Affect Your California Business in 2020

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

SEC Issues Guidance for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets

by

On April 3, 2019, the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology – known as “FinHub” – of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published a “Framework for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets” (“Guideline”) to provide additional guidance to market participants in determining whether a “digital asset” meets the definition of an “investment contract”, …Read more

Federal Legislation Dealing with Cannabis Finance is on the Horizon, We Hope

by

Two bills currently making their way through Congress suggest 2019 might be the year when Congress finally prevents U.S. law enforcement and regulatory agencies from enforcing federal prohibitions on marijuana in states where cannabis is legally cultivated and sold in commerce. The SAFE Act On March 28, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee voted to …Read more

How Not to Protect Your Company’s Valuable Trade Secrets

by

A federal district court in Illinois recently reminded all of us of how important it is to take the necessary steps to protect the proprietary information that you consider to be a trade secret before any misappropriation occurs. If you do so after the fact you may lose your ability to enjoin the thieves from …Read more