Legal Blog

What’s the ETA on Cannabis TMs?                 As of the date of this article, a total of 33 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have legalized the use of medical marijuana within their jurisdictions.[i] Florida ranks among one of these thirty-three states, having passed comprehensive legislation, embodied in section 381.986 of the Florida Statutes, addressing the...

Many companies overlook the trademark portion of registering their business, eager to sell their products and services and start earning money. But registering your trademark is a crucial step in the process. What is a Trademark? A trademark is a name, word, phrase, logo, design or symbol that companies use to give an identity to their products and distinguish their business from other manufacturers or sellers. The trademark is an essential part of offering recognition to customers. As...

In many respects, the legal landscape governing social media, the Internet, and data technology as a whole is relatively undeveloped. Federal law remains a patchwork of various laws attempting to regulate bits and pieces of an expansive whole. Many pieces of the puzzle remain altogether unregulated. The glass half-full mentality, however, begs us to spotlight the recent development in Florida’s sexual cyberharrasment law and the positive implications that this development will...

Triple Threat: Range of Legal Liability for Influencers While the world was busy criticizing millennials for being glued to their phones, they were busy creating a multi-billion-dollar industry . . . on their phones, of course. Brand marketing is no novel idea but the booming influencer industry sure is. Thanks to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, brand endorsement is no longer just for the rich and famous. Seemingly anyone with a large enough following on social...

A relatively new development in the influencer industry has been the proliferation of influencer fraud in various forms. Influencers have capitalized on the wide array of technologies available, which allow them to simulate user engagement and secure more lucrative endorsement contracts. When choosing their influencers, brands judge the value of prospective influencers based on their base, i.e., the number of followers they have, and their engagement, or the amount of likes or...

Intellectual property is often the backbone of a company. It is the essence of a brand’s or business’s success - the how and why of where they are. With that in mind, it only makes sense that keeping those ideas and details protected from theft and unlawful imitation is a top priority for businesses both big and small. When most people think of protecting the property of a business, they think of a patent. You might even hear someone jokingly reply to a friend who comes up with an idea that...