"May It Please The Internet" is a podcast brought to you by RevisionLegal.com, lawyers who represent businesses that make money online.
In this podcast discussion, various trademark infringement cases are examined, each presenting unique elements and legal intricacies. The cases discussed include disputes between the Pike Place Fish Market and the Pike Place Market Authority over the usage of the name "Pike Place Market" in a lease agreement, Rolls-Royce's legal action against HexClad for marketing its cookware products as "the Rolls-Royce of pans," Trader Joe's lawsuit against a labor union called Trader Joe's United for logo and merchandise similarities, and a trademark dispute between Skittles and the cannabis company Turpogs, which used a mark resembling "Skittles."The discussion starts with a Michigan-based client's trademark dispute involving a cannabis company, leading to a demand letter. The potential for licensing the trademark to the cannabis company is considered, but the client opts against it due to concerns about being associated with cannabis. The hosts also speculate about the possibility of larger companies, like Skittles, licensing their brands to cannabis products in the future.The conversation shifts to a case involving Fyre TV, an older streaming service compared to Amazon's Fire TV, resulting in a "reverse confusion" scenario where Amazon's brand overshadows the original mark holder. The hosts emphasize the risks and complexities of trademark law, suggesting that Amazon should have settled the case sooner.Subsequently, the podcast delves into a case involving the Isley Brothers, a band with a history of trademark disputes, where two brothers are suing each other over trademark ownership, highlighting the common issue of intra-band conflicts regarding trademark rights.Lastly, the hosts touch on a Michigan lawsuit concerning the denial of a state trademark registration due to a matching business entity name. They express their belief that this denial is inconsistent with traditional trademark law, as registering a business entity does not constitute a use in commerce, which is a fundamental element of trademark law. They express interest in discussing this case further in a future podcast episode with an attorney handling it. Overall, the podcast provides insights into the complexities and challenges inherent in trademark law through the examination of these diverse cases."May It Please The Internet" is brought by Revision Legal.
This episode discusses the troubles faced by Amazon aggregators, which are companies that buy and manage multiple Amazon businesses. These aggregators experienced a boom in 2020, with high multiples and easy access to funding. However, various factors, such as supply chain issues, rising shipping costs, and operational challenges, have led to their difficulties. Many aggregators used deferred payment structures in their deals, making it hard for sellers to get paid when issues arose. Private equity firms provided financing to these aggregators, but as the market changed and interest rates increased, the money dried up, leading to defaults and restructuring. Some aggregators still operate, but they are more focused and cautious in their approach. The podcast advises sellers to seek legal counsel and maintain communication with aggregators if they face payment issues.May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought by Revision Legal.
John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich of Revision Legal discuss the legal considerations that game developers should keep in mind. They start by emphasizing the importance of entity formation and corporate governance, highlighting the need to formalize ownership and establish a proper operating agreement to avoid future complications. They share a cautionary tale of an indie developer who faced issues with copyright rights due to the absence of clear ownership documentation.Moving on, they delve into the significance of publishing, licensing, and distribution deals for game developers. They stress the need for developers to understand the extent of control they may be giving up and thoroughly review contracts to ensure their rights are protected. They emphasize the value of involving an attorney in negotiations to avoid unfavorable terms or misunderstandings, recounting instances where developers suffered financially due to inadequate legal representation.Legal compliance and regulation also come into play as the hosts discuss the evolving landscape of regulations surrounding the games industry. They mention the potential for lawsuits and class action suits if developers fail to comply with relevant laws and regulations, urging developers to proactively ensure compliance to avoid legal challenges.The podcast concludes with a discussion on the importance of employment practices and policies within game development studios. They emphasize the need for proper agreements, clear rights assignments, and comprehensive employment policies to prevent controversies such as harassment allegations, overwork, or disrespectful management. They stress the legal consequences of such issues and advocate for seeking legal advice to mitigate risks.Overall, this podcast episode provides valuable insights into the legal considerations that game developers should address, highlighting the potential pitfalls and the importance of legal support throughout the development process.May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought by RevisionLegal.com
John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich discuss the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and recent enforcement actions taken by the FTC. They explain that the FTC is a government watchdog that protects consumers from unfair and deceptive acts in business. The FTC has broad regulatory and enforcement authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair methods of competition and unfair and deceptive acts or practices that affect commerce.They highlight that businesses need to be cautious about how they portray their goods or services online and avoid crossing the line into unfair or deceptive practices. The FTC can enforce its rules through strong monetary fines and other measures to shut down businesses engaging in wrongful activities.They discuss examples of recent enforcement actions, including cases related to lead generation services provided by Angie's List and Home Advisor, deceptive claims by TurboTax regarding free tax filing, and review manipulation by Fashion Nova. These cases demonstrate the FTC's efforts to hold businesses accountable for misleading practices.John and Eric emphasize that businesses of all sizes can be targeted by the FTC, and even if a business falls outside the FTC's scope, state-level regulations may still apply. They highlight the importance of compliance and the potential consequences businesses may face if they engage in deceptive acts or false advertising.They also mention that the FTC's enforcement actions can benefit consumers and level the playing field in the marketplace. Despite the perception of toxicity surrounding government actions, they appreciate the role of regulatory bodies in policing deceptive practices and protecting everyone equally.
This podcast episode discusses the law applicable to artificial intelligence (AI), which is increasingly being used in various industries and applications. ChatGPT, a large language model, is introduced as an example of a neural network that can generate text, but sometimes produces false information. Other examples of AI discussed are Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, which can create images from textual descriptions. The podcast also covers the legal frameworks that apply to AI, including intellectual property law, contract law, tort law, and criminal law. The issues surrounding intellectual property protection for AI, liability of AI systems for harm caused, and the current state of regulation of AI in different jurisdictions are also discussed. The importance of understanding the legal landscape surrounding AI is emphasized given its increasing use and potential impact on various aspects of society. May It Please The Internet is a podcast by RevisionLegal.com
In this episode of May It Please The Internet, John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich talk about content sites, and five particular ways that you can protect them. Content sites are websites with very niche topics, which produce rich and expert content in a specific area. Listen in as John and Eric discuss DMCA compliance, independent contractors, and trademarks & photographs as well as many other crucial factors involved in protecting your content site.•••May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by RevisionLegal.com
This week on May It Please the Internet, John is joined by Chris Carroll to discuss the Open Gaming License, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, and what you can & can’t do with IP Properties. Listen in as they talk about the history of D&D, first publishing, and the Satanic Panic, as well as the prior license, Copyright Law and how it covers content.
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by Revision Legal
Intro
But end of the year is approaching, it is time to pull out that dusty list of legal needs and start making plans to get things done
i. Clear outline on ownership/managers
ii. Buy/sell agreements
b. Relations with investors
You should be able to clearly, and without question, answer:
If you exit, this must be 100% clear or it will cause problems.
a. Employment agreement
i. Non-compete
ii. Confidentiality
iii. Work for hire
b. Independent contractor agreements
i. Work for hire
c. Phantom stock / incentive agreements
d. Employee handbooks
i. Workplace policies (time off, sick leave, benefits, etc)
e. Service agreements (how you get paid)
f. Real terms of use
g. Real privacy policy
h. Real copyright policy (copyright registered agent)
i. Manufacturing agreements
j. Insurance
ii. Property/personal property
iii. Key man
iv. health
You should have organized documents that all have signatures. You will need to produce all of these documents in an exit.
a. Trademark
i. Federal/state registrations
ii. Process to clear names before investment
iii. Trusted counsel
iv. Make sure registrations are owned by the correct entity
v. International trademarks
1.US only good for US
2.Take advantage of Madrid
b. Copyright
i. Understanding what can/should be registered
c. Patent
i. Knowing basics of when/how to act if you want to seek patent protection (or at least who to ask)
ii. Contracts with employees help to make sure you have all rights
d. Trade secrets
i. What they are
ii. How you maintain trade secrets
You should be able to:
Have a domain portfolio of domains registered for your brand, including defensive registrations to cover typos or even gripe site type domains
a. Understand tax structure, tax planning
i. What states for sales tax – nexus
b. Trusted CPA
c. Paying quarterly
d. Taking advantage of tax laws
i. Cars
ii. Spouses / kids
e. Not trying to nickel and dime, just do it right
a. Clean books
In this episode, John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich dive into the issues surrounding lawsuits over the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and ecommerce websites.
Before we dive into this topic, let’s visit the history of shitty lawsuits attorneys/companies file in the online space
copyright trolls
Freeplay music
Confusing on what license you actually have / synch license - bit torrent lawsuits on porn
Prenda Law
ADA/state law, in general, says that all persons are entitled to full and equal accommodations in all business establishments”
What do these plaintiff have to prove?
These plaintiffs must have “bona fide intent” to use the D’s services
This leads to some ridiculous examples of blind people wanting to buy guns, cars, etc
This used to be somewhat up in the air
WCAG 2.1 standards
In this episode of May It Please The Internet, John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich talk about work for higher agreements and assignment clauses and how you get stuff from one place to another when you're working with contractors and employees in the context of intellectual property law. It can be a problem in a business sale. It has killed deals and cannot be stressed enough how important this type of stuff is. There are very few things that will kill an M&A deal in the e-commerce space and not having the IP rights is like point number one.
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May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by Revision Legal.
This episode focuses on Copyright law in music and entertainment. John and Eric discuss Taylor Swift's music and the significance of "Taylor's Version" on download and streaming platforms. There is also some time dedicated to John's love of the Insane Clown Posse.
First – intro into copyright law – few quick definitions then pull it together
What are copyright rights –
Display the work
Second, copyrights in music/albums
There are always two copyrights at issue: the music itself/lyrics and the musical recording.
Record label owns the recording
Now to Taylor
He sold it to a private equity firm, estimates are $300 million
Contract Law
But isn’t that infringing on the PE firm’s rights?
Copyright law, specifically 17 USC 114
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by REVISIONLEGAL.com
John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich share how Revision Legal took down thotsbay.com, the process, the push back, and the positive results.
Short Story: Through a copyright infringement lawsuit, we were able to have a haven for leaked paid adult content taken down.
What was Thotsbay?
What we did
Filed a lawsuit in the ND IL for copyright infringement
We conduct discovery
Not able to freeze a substantial amount of money, they switched into only accepting bitcoin shortly after the lawsuit began
That judgment requires third parties to act
Subscription bomb, other bad actions
Next steps
Fight isn’t over
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought by RevisionLegal.com, lawyers who represent businesses who make money online.
Christopher Carol, Attorney at Revision Legal joins Eric Misterovich to talk about taking the stress away from hiring an attorney. They cover how to know it's time to seek legal assistance, how to go about hiring an attorney, what to ask during the initial meeting, and making your decision. In this episode you will learn how to avoid surprises, gauge experience and responsiveness, and build mutual trust with reasonable expectations.
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought by RevisionLegal.com
Eric is joined by Chris Carol, Associate Attorney at Revision Legal. Chris shares his prior experience as in-house corporate legal counsel for a variety of different entrepreneurs throughout his career and how he applies this to his work with Revision Legal.
Is Your E-commerce Business Ready for In-House Counsel?
Episode Outline:
Intro
• Welcome to May it Please the Internet
• Intro to Chris
◦ Chris joined in 2021, previous experience working in-house
◦ Chris, explain who you are, past experience in general terms, etc.
• Topic
◦ Here today to talk about whether your eCommerce business is ready for in-house counsel
◦ What is in-house counsel and what do they do?
▪ Oversight over legal issues for entire business
• Handle certain issues for the business
◦ Internal corporate matters
◦ Contracting
◦ Some employment
◦ Regulatory / licensing issues
• Outsource and work with outside counsel for other matters
◦ Litigation
◦ IP
◦ Employment
◦ Tax
◦ Property
▪ Quasi-business advisor
• Identify risk
• Ask tough questions
• Generally kill dreams (but just playing devil’s advocate)
▪ The main point is that you have someone with legal training in the room, part of the planning process, and hearing the input/issues raised by various departments within the company
◦ Different types of “in-house” counsel
▪ Standard is hiring an attorney and putting them on the payroll
• This is right for certain types of businesses
◦ VC firm, highly regulated industries, or big enough where legal is a constant issue
▪ But “in house” can be a good fit even for businesses that don’t fall into those categories, but it would be at a smaller scale
• Fractional in-house or “outsourced in-house”
◦ What it really means is having a regular and constant legal voice in the business, on whatever scale makes sense
◦ We do this in a number of ways
▪ Attend certain meetings
▪ Regular weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly meetings
▪ Being a part of a company’s Teams/ Slack channel
▪ Attend company retreats
• What are the benefits?
◦ We touched on this already, but its about having that voice in the room
◦ Yes, we may identify more problems than a true risk-taker, but we can also save time
▪ If you come up with a plan for doing a massive online sweepstakes as a central marketing effort, spend a bunch of time and money, then at the last minute say, we need to run this by legal, you may have wasted a bunch of time
▪ Of course cost is a concern, but in my experience, the problem with legal fees is usually the unpredictable nature, not the cost itself.
▪ If you can find a predictable budget, even flat fees, then this can work
▪ Wrap it up
• In house essential for some businesses
• Can benefit all businesses and the cost can be made predictable
• Having that different voice in the room can save time
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by REVISIONLEGAL.COM
Handling Legal Problems on Amazon
Actions by Amazon competitors
Specific types of problems
Hijacking listings
Demand letters
Litigation
Types of claims
Describe the problem
Specific types of problems
IP infringement
Arbitration under BSA
"May It Please The Internet" is a podcast brought to you by: Revision Legal
Talking Trademarks – 5 Things Every Business Owner Should Know
1. What are Trademarks?
The term “trademark” includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof—
(1) used by a person, or
(2) which a person has a bona fide intention to use in commerce and applies to register on the principal register established by this chapter,
to identify and distinguish his or her goods, including a unique product, from those manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown.
2. What is the Purpose of Trademarks?
Protect consumers
Coffee example
3. Are some Trademarks Better than Others?
i. Fanciful
ii. Arbitrary
iii. Suggestive
iv. Descriptive
i. descriptive
ii. geography
iii. surnames
iv. foreign languages
4. How Close is too Close to Another Trademark
5. Do I Need to Register a Trademark to have one?
Bonus – why hire an attorney for a TM?
"May It Please The Internet" is a podcast brought to you by: RevisionLegal.com
APA Series
Reps and Warranties
What are they – Promises
What happens if they are not true
Disclosure schedules!
Explain connection to indemnification - Fundamental v general reps - Baskets and caps
Parting Shot
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by RevisionLegal.com
How to Think About Litigation
Basics of litigation – big picture
Outside pressures play a big role
Loss of profits, waiting on money, financing, online listings, etc.
Procedure
Complaint, summons
Answer/MTD
Its balancing all of these factors, determining whether it is worth the investment, the odds of success, the consequences of losing, peace of mind, loss of production, etc
May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by: RevisionLegal.com
Mini-APA Series: Purchase Price and Closing
Last week, we covered the basics what exactly is an APA; how is it different than equity, the parties to the agreement, what you are selling, what you are not selling.
This week we want to talk about the fun stuff: Purchase Price and Closing
Purchase Price
First want to make sure you confirm the number is correct and when does it get paid
Deferred payments
Hold back
Other deferred payment issues
When are deferred payments made?
Performance based Earn out payments
Inventory Payment
When is this paid
All types of options
Seller estimates pre closing
Parting Shot – If you are about to be in a lawsuit, or maybe in a lawsuit, don’t email everyone in the world about it. Those are all discoverable. If a lawsuit is possible, phone calls only. Limit emails to attorneys. Don’t forward your attorney’s emails to other people!
**May It Please The Internet is a podcast brought to you by RevisionLegal.com*, lawyers who represent businesses who make money online.
Stolen Digital Assets!
This used to be about domain name
Revision Legal past experience in litigating stolen domain name issues
Recent lawsuit – Armijo v OpenSea and Yuga Labs (BAYC) – District of NV
FACTS
Complaint goes on to detail many other similar situations, complains of lack of gov regulations - CAUSES OF ACTION
Alleges OpenSeas grew too fast, not sufficient security protocols, same w LooksRare, says BAYC doesn’t do anything to prevent this
Negligence as to OS and LR – not maintaining the database for stolen items, not sufficient customer service
What is a sim swap
"May It Please The Internet" is a podcast brought to you by: RevisionLegal.com, lawyers who represent businesses who make money online.
On this episode, Eric and John explain what Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are, the utility of NFT, and more importantly, the legal issues surrounding NFT. It's just a .jpg, right?
Show Outline:
Part 1- Legal Stuff in the News/More lighthearted discussion – of course lots of NFT stuff
Nike sues StockX for its Vault collection of NFTs relating to Nike shoes
May It Please The Internet is a Podcast brought to you by Revision Legal. For more information visit RevisionLegal.com
In this weeks episode, Eric and John break down the fundamentals of Asset Purchase Agreements (APA). The basics: What is it, who signs it, and what are you selling.
What is an APA, how is different than equity
The Parties
Individual liability – how does this work
The Assets
What are you selling,
Goodwill
Cash
Parting Shot of Truth
May It Please The Internet is a PODcast brought to you by Revision Legal. For more information and legal advice, visit RevisionLegal.com
John Di Giacomo and Eric Misterovich open the Revision Legal Podcast: May It Please The Internet series with a discussion about getting your business ready for sale. They dive into eCommerce, economies of scale and large roll-up funds.
Show Outline:
a. Take a hard look at your business, what is sloppy?
b. Getting books in order
i. Knowing your landed costs of inventory without question
ii. Document and organize loan documents, get a personal contact with the
lender if possible
iii. Clean up internal house – operating agreement, who owns your
business, who needs to approve the sale, etc
c. Independent contractor agreements
d. Supplier contracts
e. Registering and chronicling IP
i. Make sure right entity owns it
For more information visit: RevisionLegal.com