Posts by Feras Mousilli

July 9, 2024

Why Do Startups Incorporate In Delaware?

Reasons Why Tech Startups Incorporate in Delaware:Establishing a US Presence. Some international ventures and non US residents prefer a Delaware Corporation to establish a US presence and have access to US resources, inc...
Why Do Startups Incorporate In Delaware?
July 9, 2024

How Long is a Copyright Valid?

The copyright duration in the US depends on a number of things. One must consider whether the work is published or not. If published, the next question is if it was published first in the US or abroad. Copyrights can be ...
How Long is a Copyright Valid?
July 9, 2024

When Should You Incorporate Your Startup?

As soon as you’re ready to materialize your idea and take the next steps in forming a team, building the idea or developing the application, entering into contracts, seeking investor funding, issuing stock options to you...
When Should You Incorporate Your Startup?
July 9, 2024

What’s the Difference Between a C-Corp, S-Corp, and LLC?

Incorporating a business is the process of forming of a new entity that is recognized as a separate “person” under the law. At the very early stages of your business, you will need to decide which entity is the best fit ...
What’s the Difference Between a C-Corp, S-Corp, and LLC?
July 9, 2024

What is a Registered Agent?

Other nuances, which we’ve covered about Delaware that you should know about are the Delaware Franchise Taxes and Annual Reports. We describe the steps required with forming and maintaining your company in the startup ch...
What is a Registered Agent?
July 9, 2024

Understanding the Term Sheet

IntroductionPeople often compare the founder and investor relationship to a marriage- both parties have high expectations going in and expect it to last forever (or, admittedly less romantic, at least a long-ish term). T...
Understanding the Term Sheet
July 9, 2024

Understanding the USPTO Trademark Timeline and Examination Process

Trademarking is a critical step for businesses seeking to establish their brand identity and protect their intellectual property rights. This article walks you through all the steps involved in the USPTO trademark proces...
Understanding the USPTO Trademark Timeline and Examination Process
July 9, 2024

Trademarks

What is a service mark?A trademark is essentially a brand name. It’s a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that distinguishes the source of goods of one party from another. A service mark is any word, name, symbol, devic...
Trademarks
July 9, 2024

Trademark vs Copyright - Understanding the Different Protections of Intellectual Property

We will discuss the different types of objects that can be protected, with specific examples, and highlight the contrasts between trademarks and copyrightsTrademarkOne of the essential functions of a trademark is to allo...
Trademark vs Copyright - Understanding the Different Protections of Intellectual Property
July 9, 2024

The Startup Conference 2017

The 2017 program includes: Ron Palmeri is a famous entrepreneur and investor. He founded Layer, winner of TechCrunch Disprupt 2013. Previously, he was at Grand Central before the acquisition by Google. David Hornik of ...
The Startup Conference 2017
July 9, 2024

Trademark Protection for Your Small Business

The valuable time that you invested in coming up with just the right creative name and developing the branding and marketing around that company name is impossible to measure. After creating signage, letterhead, and adve...
Trademark Protection for Your Small Business
July 9, 2024

Thinking about the End: Equity Buyout Agreements

When a business is organized or expands ownership ranks, the owners need to consider what will be done when the relationship has run its course and it becomes necessary or desirable for the company and/or the owners rema...
Thinking about the End: Equity Buyout Agreements
July 9, 2024

Terminating Your Texas LLC

BackgroundThere are a variety of circumstances that could lead your business towards the decision to terminate your Texas LLC. For the purposes of this article, we are referring to a voluntary termination.Step 1: Ensure ...
Terminating Your Texas LLC
July 9, 2024

Supreme Court makes it much harder for Patent Trolls to sue in East Texas

In a unanimous decision, the justices held that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles all patent appeals, has been using the wrong standard to decide where a patent lawsuit can be brought. Today'...
Supreme Court makes it much harder for Patent Trolls to sue in East Texas
July 9, 2024

Specifics on Service Specimens - Meeting Trademark Hurdles

Often our clients will ask about how they can meet the requirements for a "specimen" in their application to register a service mark with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), since it's usually easier to ...
Specifics on Service Specimens - Meeting Trademark Hurdles
July 9, 2024

Social Media Game Plan: IP and Marketing Law Playbook

For those corporate attorneys that are still waiting for this social media “fad” to fade out, the statistics can no longer be ignored- two thirds of the global internet population visit social media sites. In fact, visit...
Social Media Game Plan: IP and Marketing Law Playbook
July 9, 2024

Provisional Patent Applications Overview

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers inventors the option of filing a provisional application for patent which was designed to provide a lower-cost first patent filing in the United States than traditional...
Provisional Patent Applications Overview
July 9, 2024

Registering a California Fictitious Business Name

BackgroundCompanies of all structures andsizes often find themselves desiring to conduct business under a name that isdifferent from the legal name that the business entity was formed with. Thevariance could be as slight...
Registering a California Fictitious Business Name
July 9, 2024

Scam Correspondence- How to Avoid Becoming a Victim

Naturally, this type of message is quite alarming, and the perceived immediacy of the time constraints may not afford recipients the time to thoroughly review the details. Some business owners, seeing this message and wa...
Scam Correspondence- How to Avoid Becoming a Victim
July 9, 2024

Patents

There are three different types of patent applications that can be filed. Please select from the three options to learn more.1. Provisional Patent2. Design Patent3. Utility PatentPROVISIONAL PATENTSecuring a Provisional ...
Patents
July 9, 2024

Patent Application Preparation Outline

ProcessOutlineThe general timing for each step in theapplication is provided in the outline below. In case of urgent needs,expedited processing is available as required.The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers...
Patent Application Preparation Outline
July 9, 2024

Overview of Foreign Employer Identification Numbers (FEIN)

OverviewStarting a business, opening a business bank account, and filing taxes are just of few of the tasks that require setting up an Employer Identification Number (Tax ID). How do you obtan an EIN? The process is fair...
Overview of Foreign Employer Identification Numbers (FEIN)
July 9, 2024

Non-Provisional Patent Applications Overview

Definition A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Generally, the term of a patent is 20 years from the filing date of ...
Non-Provisional Patent Applications Overview
July 9, 2024

New Trademark Filing Fees Effective January 2021

Previously, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that in August 2019, the trademark filing fees would be increasing. Due to the pandemic, they had to delay rolling it out.Just recently, the new...
New Trademark Filing Fees Effective January 2021
July 9, 2024

LLC NOW, Corporation Later?

Founders have been known to set up LLCs at the earliest stages of their ventures for obvious reasons, including:  LLCs tend to have flexible management structures and are often easier to maintain. Unlike corporations, LL...
LLC NOW, Corporation Later?
July 9, 2024

Incorporate In Delaware

This is the essential first step prior to purchasing your Delaware Post Incorporation Documents and issuing stock to founders in your company.Incorporating in Delaware is the overwhelming popular choice for anyone who is...
Incorporate In Delaware
July 9, 2024

How to Slice the Startup Equity Pie

Get 'er DoneThis allocation is so critical and pressing that teams often push themselves to make a decision very early on, with very little information. In fact, a 2016 study, T. & N. Wasserman, The First Deal: The Divis...
How to Slice the Startup Equity Pie
July 9, 2024

How Companies Collect And Use Personal Information

It’s quite common, and even expected, for apps and online services to collect some type of personal information from users, ranging from names and emails to log and device information. Users have some expectations of pri...
How Companies Collect And Use Personal Information
July 9, 2024

How to Open a Company Bank Account

Congratulations on registering your new business! Or if you're still contemplating forming your business, and just trying to better understand the steps required for having a bank account under the company name, you're i...
How to Open a Company Bank Account
July 9, 2024

Delaware Franchise Taxes and Annual Reports

How is Delaware’s franchise tax calculated?The franchise tax is calculated using either the Authorized Shares Method (in which case the minimum tax is $75 or the Assumed Par Value Capital method (in which case the minimu...
Delaware Franchise Taxes and Annual Reports
July 9, 2024

Delaware Post Incorporation and Checklist

Our corporate and transactional practice helps you generate the necessary corporate and founder formation documents and provides you with a detailed guide for how to use them. (Read the process of incorporating in Delawa...
Delaware Post Incorporation and Checklist
July 9, 2024

Why Terms of Use are Critical for Your Company Like Playground Rules

Every time you’ve installed a piece of commercial software, you’ve invariably been presented with what must have appeared to be legal gibberish- a seeming difficult to read, needlessly long, solid block of text that was ...
Why Terms of Use are Critical for Your Company Like Playground Rules
July 9, 2024

Why Your Business Needs to Register Copyrights

What Is Protected Under U.S. Copyright Law? A Copyright is a form of protection for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works. In short, ...
Why Your Business Needs to Register Copyrights
July 9, 2024

Corporations – How Many Shares to Authorize Upon Formation?

Whenever you are seeking to incorporate in Delaware, one of the first questions that you must address after selecting your entity type, you must determine how many shares your company should authorize upon formation.Ther...
Corporations – How Many Shares to Authorize Upon Formation?
July 9, 2024

Can I Form an LLC In a State I Don’t Live In?

Can I Form an LLC in Any State? Exploring Your OptionsCan you form an LLC in a state you don't live in? The answer is yes. Companies have flexibility when choosing where to establish their domicile. An LLC formed out-of-...
Can I Form an LLC In a State I Don’t Live In?
July 9, 2024

Amazon and the Pitfalls of Counterfeits and Wrongful Takedowns

E-commerce has fundamentally transformed the retail marketplace and has changed the way consumers shop. Fast and inexpensive shipping, the convenience of being able to shop at any time of day from anywhere, and the abili...
Amazon and the Pitfalls of Counterfeits and Wrongful Takedowns
July 9, 2024

2019 Tax Deadlines for San Francisco Startups

JAN 1: San Francisco companies with 20+ employees: Post Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO) and Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO) posters and begin compliance.JAN 31: Send 1099 ‘s to Contractors. Send W2 ‘s to Emplo...
2019 Tax Deadlines for San Francisco Startups
July 9, 2024

Can a Non-US Resident Form a Delaware Corporation?

For more on this topic of Delaware corporations, you can read our article, Why do Startups Incorporate in Delaware. One popular reason for international startups to form a Delaware corporation with accelerated growth is ...
Can a Non-US Resident Form a Delaware Corporation?
July 9, 2024

California Consumer Privacy Act: What to Know for Business Owners

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), formally known as Assembly Bill Law 375, is officially in effect. The law is broad in scope, and imposes many new obligations on companies that collect “personal information”...
California Consumer Privacy Act: What to Know for Business Owners