Business owners routinely hire an independent contractor ("IC") to perform one-off tasks such as website development, or to handle the more routine affairs for their company such as quarterly bookkeeping. While these relationships are common practice, businesses must be very careful to ensure that their use...
Portland-based business law grows along with local startup community Portland, Maine (March 21, 2018) - - Opticliff Law, a boutique business and trademark law firm, has expanded its team of attorneys and relocated its offices to 123 Free Street in Portland’s Arts District. After launching in...
With more than 1000 active short-term rental listings in Portland, the City Council has implemented a mandatory registration process. Those of you listing short-terms rental units have until the end of 2017 to submit a registration form and pay the required fees to the city....
For those of us who know our firm well, your reaction to this headline is less like, "Wow, awesome!" and more like, "Finally! Jeez, what took so long?" I feel like we grew out of our humble office at Think Tank about 2 years ago....
[Originally posted in 2012; things have changed since then, but the thrust of this post remains!] The “Art Works” sticker was created because of its many meanings to the philosophy of this law firm. A triple entendre, if you will. We support Creative Portland, the First Friday...
UPDATED Oct. 23, 2018: This post was updated to reflect an important change in Amazon's Brand Registry policies as the Brand Registry now accepts both federally registered word marks and design marks (i.e. logos). This is great news, read for more detail! Do you Sell on the...
This problem is getting worse of late, so please take note if you've filed a trademark application with the USPTO recently (whether using an attorney or not)! You are at risk of being scammed once you file a trademark application with the USPTO. How, you ask?...
Common question: I’m thinking of buying a business. What should I be thinking about and how do I prepare to do this? Buying a business At the risk of over-simplifying (e.g. ignoring the huge step of financing the transaction, which is a major hurdle and often not...
Many of our firm's clients are early-stage businesses. After we help them with their startup legal needs -- forming their company, applying to trademark their product, drafting their standard customer contracts, and so on -- their next step is to focus on growing their business....
School’s out for summer! Wa-hoo! Now, what are all these talented kids going to do with all their free time? ;) Welcome to the startup world, interns! I struggle with naming one person I know who hasn’t been an intern at some point in their careers....