Business Lawyer for Colorado's Businesses and Entrepreneurs

Oct. 1, 2020

Maintaining Control in Closely Held Businesses: The Importance of Buy-Sell and Related Agreements

 Preparation and planning is an essential part of sustaining any good business. As Benjamin Franklin famously advised, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But in many instances owners may not think about what might happen when a co-owner wants to sell their interests or shares in the business to another person or company. Or maybe an owner unexpectedly passes away, files for bankruptcy, or goes through a divorce. Do you know what would happen to your business and its ownership in one of these situations? The good news is that these…

Jul. 21, 2020

Registering Internet Domain Names as Trademarks After Booking.com

 Last July, I wrote about Iancu v. Brunetti, a trademark case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court which held that "the Lanham Act's prohibition on registration of 'immoral or scandalous' trademarks violates the First Amendment." This year the Supreme Court decided another trademark case - Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com - that’s likely to be even more important than Brunetti. Booking.com<, as the name might suggest, involves the applicability of federal trademark protection to internet domain names when used as trademarks. The Justices, in a first, held oral argument by teleconference and broadcast those arguments through a…

May 2, 2020

LLC Talk: Avoiding Dissolution After the Death of a Member

 The death of an owner is almost always a challenging event for a business. And what happens to that business depends on its structure, the statute it was organized under, and any controlling or governing documents (such as an LLC’s operating agreement or an owner’s will). Do you know what would happen to your business? Under the Colorado LLC Act, voting and control rights are separated by default from economic rights. Generally, this separation is beneficial for LLC owners (“members”). But it can create a unique trap for the unwary that jeopardizes the survival of a business after the death of its last member. Unless otherwise provided in an operating…