Author Archives: John DiGiacomo

In general, there are two methods of acquiring a business: a straight purchase (often called a stock purchase) or an asset purchase. One of the main advantages of an asset purchase transaction is the buyer’s ability to avoid taking on or accepting any of the seller’s liabilities. Indeed, obtaining assets needed or useful to your […]

A trademark is valuable property. As such, trademarks can be used in the same manner as other property. As examples, trademarks can be sold, can have more than one owner, be transferred, given as collateral for financing, be the subject of estate planning, and more. When a trademark is sold or transferred, the legal term […]

Summary: the legal question may become less complicated as the new Congress and President take office, but employers should still move with caution when requiring employees to execute non-compete agreements. At the federal level In further explanation, in early 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a Final Rule that made most employee non-compete agreements/clauses […]

Passed by Congress in 2010, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”) was intended to, among other things, regulate the deceptive billing practices of online businesses. Among the main targets of ROSCA were billing practices that allowed billing without a consumer’s explicit consent, including automatic renewal provisions that locked consumers into automatic payments from which […]

Yes and no. An applicant for trademark registration must eventually sell some products/services in interstate commerce to obtain a fully registered trademark. However, the application process can begin before the first sale. There are two types of applications for trademark registration. One type is called an “intent-to-use” application. As the name implies, this type of […]

When considering the sale of an e-commerce business, often, some of the most valuable assets being sold are the target’s trade secrets. These may involve confidential customer/user account lists, vendor and supplier lists, advertising methods, shipping and customer service models, and more. As part of the process of courting and finding buyers, many parties may […]

When social media influencers begin to achieve a certain level of success, it is time to start operating your business through a corporate business entity. Indeed, social media influencers are operating businesses. The purpose of creating a corporate entity is to protect personal and family assets from being seized by creditors because of business-related adversities. […]

Media and news reports in 2024 have reported a slowdown in funding and investment activity for e-commerce roll-up companies and aggregators. See, for example, this report from The Economic Times. However, despite the slow-down, funding for and acquisition of e-commerce brands continues. For example, aggregator Goat Brand Labs — focusing on the roll-up of India-based […]

As we have discussed several times on this blog, there are major issues with copyright laws and the use of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) programs like OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT. At least two dozen cases have been filed by various plaintiffs and groups around the United States making various copyright infringement claims against the companies that […]

More and more, morality clauses are becoming standard features in executive-level employment contracts. For decades, such clauses have been included as standard practice in sports, film, TV, and other types of celebrity employment contracts. Given how important reputation has become in modern business operations, morality clauses are now being added to employment contracts. Typically, morality […]