Need Legal Representation for a Software Company?
Let our Skokie Business Lawyers Help
Legal issues involving intellectual property and operations are a common concern of software companies. Motty Stone is a Skokie business lawyer who represents software companies across the United States on software license agreement negotiations, intellectual property portfolios, internet privacy and CAN-SPAM laws, and operations procedures on key personnel and distribution partner networks.
On intellectual property, attorney Stone counsels clients to diversify their portfolio to stay protected on the defense and offense. Common categories of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets.
Copyrights apply to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive, discrete, and fixed in a medium. Patents, still relatively new concepts in the software industry, offer legal monopoly in use, manufacture, and sale of inventions. Trademarks are words, phrases, logos, symbols, colors, sounds, or smells used to identify products, companies, or services, and distinguish products, companies, or services from those of competitors. Trade secrets are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. With software companies, intellectual property issues come up in license grants, use of open source, source code escrows, infringement indemnity obligations, and competitor use of confusing identification symbols. Stone is a qualified Skokie business lawyer who develops strategies to resolve intellectual property issues in the benefit of a software company’s market share.
These days, no successful software company that wants to expand nationally or globally can do business without doing business on the Internet. When selling products on the Internet, privacy issues inevitably surface. Some hot topics in privacy include the CAN-SPAM law, which sets rules for commercial email, and the European Union Data Protection Directive, which regulates the processing of personal data when doing business with individuals in the European Union. To keep up to date on these human rights, Stone, a Skokie business lawyer, is heavily involved with the Skokie Chamber of Commerce, is the hands-on attorney to consult.
Running a software company involves engaging the right personnel, such as engineers, getting the financing needed for working capital, and creating channel partners throughout the world to open new markets. Engaging the right personnel keeps operations flowing from not having to constantly expend on training, not having to deal with employment separation disputes, and having the right fit between workers for internal collaboration. Due diligence is necessary to investigate alternatives to debt and equity when seeking business financing. Getting the right working capital means not having to comply with too many stringent loan covenants, investing in securities products that will not cause excessive headaches with cash, and merging with companies that integrate well. To open new markets, a software company needs to seek out the right partners who may work remotely in different countries. Stone, a Skokie business attorney, has represented clients in tricky employment situations, conducted due diligence for financing, and created operating procedures for international product distribution.
Attorney Stone is experienced in many forms of business litigation and keeps costs down for software companies. He is a generalist who versed in many different practice areas and is a member of the Skokie Lawyers Roundtable- a group dedicated to helping lawyers meet each other for practice information, and interface with accountants and other business professionals to place on retainer for specific needs.
Motty Stone is a Skokie business attorney serving the greater Chicagoland area with legal experience tailored to the needs of software companies. Please contact our law firm to set up a consultation.
