Protecting Your Trademark from Becoming Generic: Top 5 Do's and Don'ts

Massachusetts trademark attorney Ashley Long warns in her law firm's blog, Good Company, against the phenomenon of over-familiarizing the world with your brand to the point of it becoming generic. Writes Long,

"Be wary, dear branding enthusiast. The specter of genericide haunts those marks that venture beyond the safety of proper trademark usage. What is genericide? It’s what happens to trademarks when they become the thing they were used to describe."

She uses the yo-yo as an example of a trademark that became part of the public lexicon and lost its brand status.

Long provides 5 tips for how best to promote your trademark while protecting it at the same time. To read the full article, click on: Trademark or Generic?

Publishing Attorney Reveals Secrets of Writer's Agent Contracts

Waltham, MA — Publishing and licensing attorney Howard Zaharoff explains in Agency Contracts Declassified the value of writers having an agent as well as how best to negotiate the book agent's contract. He details three main points to keep in mind when negotiating with a writing agent:

1. Agents should represent the work, not the worker.
2. Agents must earn their keep.
3. Writers need an exit strategy.

For sage advice on the ins and outs of book publishing and writer's contracts, read the full article available on by click on: Negotiating Book Agent Contract.

Faith Kasparian Joins Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton

WALTHAM, MA — Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton is pleased to announce that Faith D. Kasparian, former assistant college counsel to Emerson College, has joined the firm as IP and trademark lawyer.

Attorney Kasparian practices intellectual property law, and will focus on technology transactions (including development, distribution, and licensing matters) and trademark adversarial proceedings. She has significant experience in intellectual property law as it applies to higher education, arts, and entertainment areas.

To read the full release and attorney bio, click on: Faith Kasparian.

Law Firm Marketing Spending Is Up

Among the many findings of the BTI Consulting Group's latest study is that budgets climbed in law firms of all sizes in 2006. The largest law firms are dedicating a steadily increasing percent of firm revenue to marketing activities. AmLaw 200 firms are seeing a sharp spike in their marketing budgets as a percent of revenue. Additional staff is driving the bigger budgets. Over 50 percent of the marketing budget at the largest law firms goes to salaries and business development. Top marketers are making critical changes to staffing including: Redefining or creating new, discrete roles, and hiring practice-specific specialists to boost the firm’s profile in targeted areas.

Lawyers on Why Proposed Merger Not Always A Done Deal

Several sources on why deals fail...

Shannon Zollo on Why Deals Fail - Quoted in Mirus Capital Advisors' Newsletter
Attorney Shannon Zollo is one of several lawyers polled in the April issue of Mirus Capital Advisors' Viewpoint, a newsletter focusing this month on the common reasons why deals falter. In the article, Sellers Beware: Five Problems That Can Sink Your Deal, Zollo is asked to comment on disclosures and due diligence. "Buyers can't make a fully informed decision if they don't know all the material facts about a company," he said. Trying to avoid full disclosure, said Zollo, will "invariably come back to haunt you."

Also: Boston Business Journal's Randolph Savings says it has the means to grow without Bristol County details a series of unfortunate events that ultimately killed the proposed merger of Bristol County Savings Bank and Randolph Savings Bank.

After all, the deal was all but done. Bristol County Savings' corporators -- some 81 people -- had already approved the transaction unanimously. A detailed integration and operating plan was formally submitted to the Massachusetts Division of Banks. Randolph Savings CEO Ron Grant and Kelly, Bristol County Savings' CEO, had spent tens of thousands of dollars and scores of hours checking off the merger's final details.

Plus: Eleven Potential Deal Killers To Spot Early from Business Development Solutions.

Medical Malpractice Leader in Massachusetts

Announced last month in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and posted on Lubin & Meyer's web site are some noteworthy results in the matter of medical malpractice claims. Each year the newspaper lists the top verdicts and settlements of the past year, and each year Lubin & Meyer comes up as the standout in medical malpractice law. This year's list is no different. The law firm led by founding partner Andrew C. Meyer was successful in 17 medical malpractice settlements of $1 million or more. No other firm came close. They also were listed among the top verdicts. While the largest verdicts were dominated in 2006 by multimillion-dollar awards against well-known pharmaceutical, technology and engineering firms, they also included two cases won by lawyers from Lubin & Meyer — a sexual abuse lawsuit and a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a newborn's brain-damage at birth.