Law & Business

Our special mini-series at the "Law & Business" Podcast with the Nessa Group continues. We have heard that you have an idea - you probably have multiple ideas. Here is how a business consulting group handles ideas from the beginning. Anthony Verna: (00:03) All right, everyone. Thank you for listening to episode number two of our special podcast mini-series with the NESSA group. My name is Anthony Verna. I'm an IP lawyer and I handle branding issues along with Justin Tripodi, when we are a part of the NESSA group. We'll start over here. Jim Huerta say hello. Jim Huerta: (00:23) Hi. Hi, I'm Jim Huerta and I'm one of the managing partners of the NESSA group. Anthony Verna: (00:27) Thank you very much. Barry Kolevzon please say howdy to our audience. Barry Kolevzon: Howdy. Anthony Verna: I like his literalism. Our patent agent is Wil Jacques. Wil Jacques: Hi everybody. Anthony Verna: And, of course, the aforementioned Justin Tripodi. Justin Tripodi: Present and accounted for. Anthony Verna: All right, lovely. So, let's talk about having an idea. I have an idea, which means I really have a solution to my problem. Justin, can I make this a business? Justin Tripodi: Maybe. Jim Huerta: Good answer. There's, there's a lot of things that need to be taken to account on. If your idea to a problem that you have is, is it a problem that a lot of people have? Is the market, as I mentioned in episode one, is it large enough for you to invest your time and potentially your money into taking the solution to market? You could do your research, you could talk to people within the industry to begin your process of learning and then you have to understand your process of well, what is going to be the cost and timeframe for me to make this idea reality. Anthony Verna: One of the things that I would say about talking to people in the industry is make sure that you don't blab about what you're looking to do because now you're going to set off some, some statutes, which we'll get to in a minute or two. But Jim and Barry, what advice would you have for the person who has an idea, has a solution to a problem in terms of talking to industry people and getting that experience that's needed without blabbing about it and turning this into a business? Jim Huerta: (02:09) You know what? Years ago, one of the things that I thought was important was to, if someone had an idea, was to test the marketplace. What I mean by this is not tell the people what it was, but talk about a disruptive kind of technology that could affect people in general just to see what their reaction would be and to see that maybe there was something there. I mean, and I'll mention Wil and I experienced that many years ago when we worked together that there was a way we were doing that we were getting the demand coming from the people who might be interested in being customers as opposed to from the top down saying, I have this patent isn't it great? No, you had to start getting a demand where people were saying, you know, I heard this conversation and I liked that and how can I help make that happen? Or what is it going to mean to me? So, I think the idea for me would be start feeling out if you have something that has demand and I'm not sure when I say the word disruptive I say that cause it's in vogue to say that now. Anthony Verna: Buzzword alert. Jim Huerta: I don't know what that really means. You guys will probably correct me on that but… Anthony Verna: (03:19) Yeah, go ahead, Justin. Justin Tripodi: Yes, I think, I think when you talk about a solution, there could be a lot of different reasons why it's a solution. It's an absolute need that you or a large group of people have or it could be more as a luxury or an entertainment property. And a lot of times you don't know exactly how your solution becomes a product until you begin to test it as Jim mentioned in market and a lot of very successful companies now do ...

Welcome to the Law & Business Podcast. Episode 43 begins a special mini-series with the Nessa Group, discussing what it means to work with a business consulting group and how that consulting group can help a business improve in all its areas. We at Verna Law and the "Law & Business" Podcast hope you enjoy this special mini-series and that it tackles your business' needs. Anthony Verna: (00:02) All right, and welcome to our special podcast mini series. My name's Anthony Verna. We're here with the NESSA group. Jim Huerta, you're one of the principals in the NESSA group. Please introduce yourself. Jim Huerta: My name is Jim Huerta. I’ve been with the NESSA group for about 10 years when we started the company. Not much to say other than that. We've hopefully have provided a new avenue for people who are looking for help and starting new businesses. Anthony Verna: Wonderful. And Barry, you're one of the other principals of the NESSA groups. So go ahead and say hello. Barry Kolevzon: (00:32) Hello. It's a delight to be here and we have some information that we'd like to mention to you to see if it would help you. And we're very excited about this. Anthony Verna: (00:45) Great. And also with us is the patent agent of the NESSA group. Wil Jacques, how's it going, Wil? Wil Jacques: Everything's going fine. It's a pleasure to be here and hopefully we'll be able to share some information that'll be helpful to people. Anthony Verna: I know that we will, Justin as a part of the brand consulting side of the NESSA group. How you doing, Justin? Justin Tripodi: I'm doing very well, Anthony. Thank you. I think it's going to be quite fun to share with you how we kind of tackle the jungle of small businesses and startups leading them to success today. Anthony Verna: Oh, I like that analogy. It's a jungle out there for small businesses and startups and a group like the NESSA group is meant to help those businesses find success, find goals. Jim, one of the things you've told me in the past is that starting and running a business is the ultimate team sport. Unlike your Giants. I'm very sorry, sorry about that. But talk to me a little bit about that ultimate team sport about starting and running a business. Jim Huerta: (01:45) Well, I mean I've been certainly a jock all my life and I look at it, of success in my career, whether it be in sports or in business, has been because they were teams who understood their plan, who knew how to execute those plans and stay on top of what they were doing. And I think a lot of failures that have caused, and the Giants are a good example. There's a team has a playbook, they’re just not executing and then not having the leadership that they need to really become a powerhouse in what they're trying to accomplish. Though I do believe that business is a sport and if played well, it could be very successful. Anthony Verna: (02:25) Barry, what are you looking to do as a consultant for the small business? What's your goal for that business? Barry Kolevzon: (02:34) My goal is to save them for their own folly and starting up a business by not really knowing what they want to do. Most of the time says, let's start a business. And by the way, what is the business that we're going to start? They don't make definitive questions that have to be answered. They go, they get their best pal, bring them on because they know him and he's a dud and he hurts the whole company that they're starting up. They don't plan ahead philosophically, they don't have money, which is hard to run a business when you don't have any money. Anthony Verna: Oh, don't we all know that? Barry Kolevzon: Yes. And, but they do it worse. You know, most of them fail. This statistic is that 2 to 3% of startup companies succeed. The rest of them go down the drain. Anthony Verna: (03:34) Justin, how can a group like this help a small business be realistic about expectations? Justin Tripodi:

In this episode of the "Law & Business" podcast, Jim Cushing and Anthony Verna talk about judges. In a recent video blog post, Anthony Verna talked about one judge helping to settle one trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit. Sometimes, judges are able (under the rules of procedure of their court) to aid the parties in litigation to settle their lawsuits. Jim Cushing and Anthony Verna talk about some of the cases both have had in which judges have helped and have hurt in trying to settle cases. It is a little comparing and contrasting between family law (custody issues) and intellectual property issues and the different kinds of procedure and judges the two lawyers have experienced. Here is a lightly-edited transcript of the podcast episode: Anthony Verna: All right, welcome back to the Law and Business podcast and welcome back, Jim Cushing. How are you doing, sir? Jim Cushing: How ya doing, Anthony? Thanks for having me back, it’s been a while. Anthony Verna: Hey, I know it's been a while, but the podcast is a little intermittent than I would like. So, thank you so much for being back. Recently I had an appearance in federal court in the beautiful city of Binghamton, New York, where they're so used to intellectual property lawsuits. To the point that the magistrate judge was asking me about, about a provision in the Lanham Act that is little used and the look of shock and horror on his face was something I don't think I've ever seen before. Jim Cushing: It’s never  good when you're teaching the judge the law. Anthony Verna: That's true. But I think that happens a little more for me than for you, which led to this magistrate saying, okay, this is a trademark and copyright infringement case. It's something that he was fully admitting that he was not used to, but that there two magistrates in the Northern District of New York that have intellectual property expertise and experience and wondering if the parties would want to have one of those magistrates hold a settlement conference. Andin this particular case, my client was all for it because we're dealing with a pro se litigants. So, a litigant who's representing himself. Right. And as I'm sure you're aware a pro se litigant can be a little on the extreme side. Jim Cushing: Well, you know, they go into it thinking this is going to be my day in court and I'm going to go all the way and they don't really understand the process or where they've got a weakness. Anthony Verna: Exactly. So, I think this was a smart time that, um, that a judge is forcing us into settlement. And, of course, since then, I think the litigant has realized that yes, he's not going to be going all the way and he's not going to be really getting his day in court. And so, he's actually sent me a couple different settlement options since then. So have there been times when a judge has forced you, someone who's in family law into settlements that you think are good and help the case rather than dealing with litigation? Jim Cushing:  I think that as I said, I'm a family attorney or you said I'm a family attorney and I think family is kind of unique in the legal field because it really, a lot of the times the object of a family case is someone who's not even in court, you know, your son or your daughter or whomever and obviously not in divorce, but in the custody or support context, sure. Is you're dealing with somebody who's not present, who's the object to the case. It's not just money or like, no offense to your practice, but like a copyright. It's like a real human being whose life is going to be affected. And when it comes down to it, we're trying to do what's best for that person and sometimes what's best for that person, it's not necessarily some legal one-upsmanship. It's just a practical consideration. And you know, when you have a decent judge, they look at this and they see the legal arguments from both sides, but they're also, if they're worth their salt,

Shad B. Ewart has been a professor and administrator at Anne Arundel Community College since 2001. Prior to that, he was a professor of business at Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC. At Anne Arundel Community College, he has served as Department Chair and Director of Business Programs. As chair he designed the curriculum for the Business Support Specialist program and the Transportation Logistics and Cargo Security program. Many of his curricular innovations have been replicated in other parts of the college. Mr. Ewart has also served the college on a variety of committees including being chair of the Academic Forum and other college committees. Professor Ewart has also been responsible for the design and developments of the first course to explore the entrepreneurial opportunities created by the legalization of cannabis for medical use in the state of Maryland. A number of students who have successfully completed the course have already found employment in the industry, have started their own businesses and in one case, own a dispensary. Professor Ewart is currently developing the first college credit program for those interested in entry level jobs in the cannabis industry. Our full conversation transcript is below: Anthony Verna: Okay. I am here with Professor Shad. You are, how are you doing professor? Shad Ewart: I'm doing fine. Yeah, I it's nice to see you. Anthony Verna: It's a pleasure to see you and talk to you as well. We're not big on introductions here, but just to be quick you're a professor and administrator at Anne Arundel community college in Maryland, correct? Shad Ewart: That is correct. And Arundel was the, a wife of Lord Baltimore. So there is our connection. Anthony Verna: And you are, a business professor, entrepreneurship professor, correct. Shad Ewart: A business professor and department chair. I run the business management department here at Anne Arundel. Anthony Verna: Wonderful. And as a part of this, you've created courses for entrepreneurship in cannabis. Shad Ewart: Yeah. Started about, if you don't mind, I'll tell you a little bit of history here. Anthony Verna: Please, please. Cause, to me, getting, getting into cannabis is just as interesting as the cannabis industry itself. Shad Ewart: So I had a class here at Anne Arundel. It was called small business management. Uh, I taught that quite often and um, we focused on rain barrels, uh, here in there, Anne Arundel county. We are near the Chesapeake Bay and these people love their water. So saving debate, 55 gallons at a time. It was a, an interesting class that, um, uh, it was real. You can't just talk about widgets these days in college and, and, and the rain barrel class made it real. And I was getting these questions while I was teaching this class. And this goes back about five years ago. The students were simply interested in, in what was going on in the cannabis world. I think, uh, probably what they were looking at more was a, a Colorado, Colorado coming online, uh, with their medical program 2012 and 2014 with their adult use or recreational program. Anthony Verna: That's what I was going to say. I think Colorado tends to be a unicorn for a lot of people. Shad Ewart: It is. It is. And it's a unique, it's unique, uh, islands of legality in a sea of illegality. And we'll get that, uh, that statement there. But, uh, um, uh, the students were just interested in it. And I had a former student that had come back to the college to just visit and I asked him what he was doing and he, he mentioned that his father, uh, was a farmer out in California, uh, grew artismal lettuce. I have no idea how his dad got sick, though. His Dad got cancer and Tyler had to go out to California and take over the farm and he converted it to a medical cannabis farm, a licensed medical cannabis farm, uh, growing a,

In Episode 40, Anthony speaks with Vik Rajan, the co-founder of Phoneblogger.net. Vik is also the creator of Inner Circles, the free LinkedIn networking add-on: Focus your time on engagement & reciprocity. Vik started Practice Marketing Advisors and its blog as he realized attorneys, CPAs, and related professionals required specialized marketing help that accounts for clients’ professional code of conduct, ethics, and model rules. Vik is a columnist for AICPA’s largest publication for accountants and frequently helps to present CLE classes through various Bar Associations. Vikram’s book, “365 Personal Brand Marketing Thumb-Rules” published in 2008, is available through any bookstore. Vik lives in Harlem, NYC. Here is a full transcript of our conversation: Anthony Verna:                Welcome to the lawn business podcast. I'm here with Vikram Rajan. Vik, how are you doing today? Vik Rajan:                            I'm well Anthony, how are you doing? Anthony Verna:                I'm doing all right. Thanks for coming on. Vik Rajan:                            Yeah, thanks for having me. Anthony Verna:                So, Vik, you're the co founder of phoneblogger.net ,which is an internet referral service for finance professionals, accountants, and attorneys. How is it having professionals as your main consumer? Vik Rajan:                            It's a lot of fun. You know, sometimes people it and like and you work with lawyers. "Why would you want to do that?" I think maybe you said that to me. Anthony Verna:                No, but Vik Rajan:                            That's funny. I wanted to be a lawyer. I'm not an attorney, you know, full disclosure, but I was a political science major and did great in my con law class and had hopes and dreams of potentially going to law school, but ended up working with my dad right out of school. So I never achieved the ultimate American dream of being an attorney. But I love working with predominantly lawyers and, um, and really helping them succeed in their practices, growing their firm. It's a lot of fun. I mean, it's, I like what you guys do for a living. I liked that area of, uh, you know, I guess maybe I romanticize it. Maybe it's not awesome all the time. Anthony Verna:                I'll let you romanticize it all. All you want. I'll take that smoke. Vik Rajan:                            I mean, it's, a lot of us grew up being, geeks and nerds and I tend to say that affectionately and I, and I very much, I can relate to that. So from that aspect, I like working with smart people. Anthony Verna:                Wonderful. And yeah, some of us are, some of us layers are geeks and nerds and, and, and you know, it was funny, my friend Doug, when I first was accepted to law school, he looked at me and he said, "This means you're not going to be a nerd anymore." And I looked at him and I said, "I didn't know that that would go away." Vik Rajan:                            Yeah, yeah. Anthony Verna:                Phoneblogger quickly, what's, what's your business model and, and we'll go from there. Vik Rajan:                            Yeah, sure. So in our clients, as you mentioned, they are, they're practicing professionals. They need to stay top of mind with your referral relationships, you know, out of sight, out of mind, out of referrals. So we help our clients do that. They're usually busy working with their clients. So a lot of the marketing stuff fall by the wayside. So phone blogging is kind of a term we made up. It's by which we brainstorm article ideas with our clients over the phone of course, and then set up a series of telephone interviews where if you can say it in five minutes, they can read it in five minutes. So they're are short five to seven minute telephone interviews on a variety of blog topics that we brainstorm. We audio record it, transcribe, edit and optimize those articles and then review

In Episode 39 of the "Law & Business" podcast, Anthony speaks to Connie Steele of Flywheel Associates. We talk to Connie about her "Agile Marketing" philosophy. Marketing, Advertising, and Intellectual Property go hand-in-hand. Many clients of Verna Law have had frustrations taking their patents and trademarks and moving their ideas into the marketplace. Managing and adapting to change can be a daunting challenge. With business operations being more interconnected internally and externally, marketing and advertising require not just a macro view of your environment, but also micro-understanding of the unique way an organization runs. This is the crux of Connie Steele's philosophy of Flywheel Associates and her Agile Marketing philosophy. With over 20 years of experience working in start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, B2C and B2B businesses, Connie understands how to propel business forward by not only developing their business and marketing strategies but also ensuring the successful execution of those efforts. Connie started her business strategy and marketing consultancy Flywheel Associates as well as her internationally downloaded podcast, the Strategic Momentum Podcast to help business leaders identify how to work through challenges commonly impacting organizations today. Her cross-industry, cross-functional experience has provided a unique perspective on what it takes to realize change in organizations. Having worked as a corporate executive and outside consultant, strategist, and project implementation lead, she’s seen the challenges from all sides that have inhibited people and the companies they work for from achieving their goals. Connie fundamentally believes that no one solution fits all, which is what makes this discussion all the more pertinent. Marketing and advertising is a process of continuously learning, iterating, and adapting those solutions based on data-driven insights. It also involves combining that knowledge with what works best in an organization’s culture. She thrives off of working intimately with her clients to provide the insights that will create the catalyst for forward movement. Because it’s about understanding the ‘how’ that will create the strategic momentum you are striving for. And with the right resources, businesses don’t just move forward, businesses will accelerate.

Law & Business - Episode 38 - Anthony sits down with the Rev. Mark Schaefer, the Chaplain of American University. Yes, that means that this episode takes a little different path than the usual episode of the "Law & Business" podcast. Mark talks about his history from practicing law to being a member of the Methodist clergy. Mark also discusses some of his philosophy and how law and religion relate to each other. Mark's book is The Certainty of Uncertainty: The Way of Inescapable Doubt and Its Virtue, published by Wipf & Stock. The book takes a look at our desire for certainty, explores the unavoidable nature of uncertainty, and reveals how embracing uncertainty and doubt is transformative for our selves and for our world. Of course, the book can be found in bookstores and on Amazon. Rev. Mark Schaefer is the tenth University Chaplain in American University's history, appointed to the position in September 2016 after having served for 14 years as AU's United Methodist Chaplain. He is a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary and is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mark has also been teaching as an adjunct professor in the Philosophy and Religion Department since fall 2006. He has also been a summer instructor in Biblical Greek and New Testament at neighboring Wesley Theological Seminary. Prior to his ecclesiastical career, Mark was a practicing attorney in the District of Columbia and is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School. Mark holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Russian Language and Literature from the State University of New York at Albany. A native of New York State, he was born in Buffalo and grew up in Center Brunswick, near Albany. Here is the full transcript of the conversation: Anthony Verna: Thanks for listening everybody. Welcome to the law and business podcast. We are recording in DC this week at chatter, the only podcast studio restaurant hybrid I've ever known. I'm here. Marc, you're recording. Thanks for recording for us. Yes, we are recording. We're rolling live right now. Our guest today is the American University chaplain, Mark Schaefer. Mark, thanks for, for being with us. Thanks for having me here. One of the, the most interesting facts about you and the reason why, why I have you here with me is because you used to practice law. Technically, I still do. I still, I still pay my bar dues so I still can hang a shingle outside my office I suppose. But yes, I don't practice nearly as much as I used to. I mean, this seems like a waste of money if that's correct. Well, it's, it's honestly it's so that because I know people are going to ask me for legal advice from time to time. Mark Schaefer:It's to avoid committing malpractice by offering legal advice without the license to practice law. And you know, because if ever my family or friends gets into trouble, I want to be able to help them in some meaningful way. So that's why I keep the license up to date and that way I've got that in my back pocket. Anthony Verna:So let's go here. How do you go from practicing law to, to a vocation? I mean, what changed? What, what clicked in your mind? What flipped there? I was going to ask how did I switch sides, which is a little unfair. Mark Schaefer:I'm still a lawyer. I take that a little personally, but, honestly it was the intersection of questions of justice that did it. I was working in a law firm here in DC, a smaller practice, with an attorney who is very active in the DC voting rights movement. Um, and so we would have conversations about DC voting rights, about, um, possible solutions to the issue. And one of the things that occurred to me in our conversations was that there had not yet been laid a sufficient moral argument for district voting rights. And that is before you get to the legal and political solutions for how you enfranchise the citizens of the district of Columbia,

In Episode 37 of the "Law & Business" podcast, Anthony sits down with John Eastwood, partner of Eiger Law in Taipei, Taiwan. Anthony and John discuss "worldwide patents," a common misunderstanding that does lead to the scamming of those who have patents in a jurisdiction or wish to have patents in more than one jurisdiction. For example, Anthony discusses several companies that have recently asked him about obtaining worldwide patents. Then the topic turns to Matthew Whitaker, the former United States interim attorney general appointed to take the place of Jeff Sessions. For about 3 years, Whitaker had been on the advisory board of a company called "World Patent Marketing", a company that was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission in 2017 and forced to pay out about $26 million for bilking customers of WPM out of millions that they thought were going for registering patents and getting licensing deals. How did WPM bilk them? The invention-promotion racket is actually an old con, going back to the 1960s or so -- you put out ads promising to help inventors develop their ideas, get them into the market and to turn the inventions into money through license deals. The FTC has been shutting these down pretty actively since the 1970s, and Congress even passed a law in 1999 called the "American Inventors Protection Act" that put out a lot of disclosure requirements for invention-promotion firms, including their success rates, which in truth were pretty abysmal. They promise non-existent things like "global patents," take in money from inventors, barely review the inventions, do nothing about getting them registered while demanding more and more money -- until the inventors are sucked dry. Some of these poor guys took out loans and refinanced their houses. The FTC registered over 600 complaints from consumers. From the FTC complaint: "A few days after consumers submit their ideas in writing, salespeople typically call consumers and inform them that Defendants have accepted their inventions. and reiterate that they are great ideas. Salespeople ingratiate themselves with consumers and build up consumers' confidence through praise for their ideas. Salespeople represent that if consumers buy Defendants' invention-promotion services, consumers are likely to realize financial gain by licensing their future patents, or through the manufacture, distribution, and sale of their inventions in well- known stores, including Walmart. Salespeople often make projections about how much money consumers will make. Sales people may also talk about t he good consumers' inventions could bring to society." Also from the FTC complaint:  "Defendants also generally fail to procure patents for consumers. Though Defendants use offshore drafting services and contracted patent agents and attorneys to file patent applications, those applications arc of poor quality, and are often not approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"') on its first review. Requests for more in formation or corrections from the PTO on Defendants' customers patent applications often go unanswered by Defendants and their contractors, and eventually the PTO rejects the patent applications or considers the patent applications to have been abandoned. 33. In the end, after months or even years of stringing them along, Defendants leave most of their customers with nothing. A very few receive a patent, some receive an assortment of useless marketing materials; but none successfully enter into third-party licensing or manufacturing agreements brokered by Defendants, and none actually make money. Indeed, many of Defendants' customers end up in debt. or losing their life savings or inheritances, after investing in Defendants' broken promises." More from the complaint:  "Defendants fail, in almost every case, to provide many of the other promised invention-promotion services, such as promoting consumers' inventions at trade shows and other events,

In Episode 36 of the "Law & Business" Podcast, Anthony and producer Marc Sterne talk about the MillerCoors lawsuit against AB InBev over its "corn syrup" campaign, which started during the Super Bowl. This episode (minisode? miniwebisode?) was recorded at Chatter in Washington, D.C. Thank you, Marc for recording and helping with all the episodes at Chatter. MillerCoors is suing Anheuser Busch InBev, seeking injunctive and other relief for what it calls "a false and misleading advertising campaign targeting Miller Lite and Coors Light." It's the latest step in a brewing marketing feud that began during the Super Bowl. Bud Light, in three spots that aired during the game, attacked MillerCoors' Coors Light and Miller Lite brands by name, noting that those brews use corn syrup. MillerCoors, in its complaint filed in federal court in Wisconsin, said the ads are meant to deceive beer drinkers into thinking its beers contain corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup in order to boost sales of Bud Light. Plus, it says the ads dilute its trademarks, which would be in violation of the Lanham Act. MillerCoors seeks a halt to the "false and misleading" ad claims and "willful trademark dilution," saying that the ads have diluted the goodwill associated with its brands and have damaged the reputation of the brands. Anthony and Marc discuss the complaint, the false advertising claims, the possible harms to the MillerCoors trademark, and defenses for AB. "AB's purported rationale for this campaign, 'transparency,' is a classic example of corporate double-speak," says AB's complaint. A predicted defense for AB is going be the plain meaning of the words in the advertisement. AB is saying that its Bud Light is not brewed with corn syrup and that MillerCoors' Coors Light is. Predictably, AB will just stick with the plain meaning of those words and that consumers should only hear the words in their denotations, and not their connotations, which is what MillerCoors' lawsuit focuses on. Smaller businesses need to understand that advertising and the use of a competitor's trademark do come with risk. Managing the risk is necessary and understanding the limits of what is not a deceptive and not a misleading ad are necessary also. Here is a lightly-edited transcript of the podcast episode: Anthony Verna: Welcome to this mini episode of the Law and Business podcast. We're still recording from Chatter in DC. How you doing, Marc? Marc Sterne: I'm doing great. Technically, is this not a mini webisode? Anthony Verna: Oh, I see. Okay. Marc Sterne: I'm just trying to stay hip man. Anthony Verna: I know, I know. Marc, thank you for recording with us. And I know we've got a question from the audience. Marc Sterne: Yes, we do have a question regarding the lawsuit involving Budweiser, Miller Coors and corn syrup. Anthony Verna: Let's talk about this particular suit for a second because it's Miller Coors versus Anheuser Busch filed in federal court in Wisconsin and yes, it's about the no corn syrup ads. So, went from dilly dilly and do you have an impression of that one? Marc Sterne: I don't have it. I do like the ads. I don't have an impression for the dilly dilly. I hated them to start. And then they grew on me and I was like… Anthony Verna: No, I could easily see that because it's a very, it's a well-crafted campaign that, of course, has now mutated into a second campaign. And Anheuser Busch even did some really fun things with that ad campaign. Like when there was a trademark infringer on a dilly dilly, Anheuser Busch actually sent a guy in a knight's outfit and he even opened a scroll and he read aloud the cease and desist letter. Marc Sterne: And that's how you deal with issues. Anthony Verna: It was absolutely fantastic. And that turned into a viral video, so you could even find that online, but it's now mutated from this dilly dilly, but keeping the same characters and it started during th...

In Episode 35 of the "Law & Business" Podcast, Anthony talks (all by himself) about why a person or business must register a copyright in a work that qualifies under copyright law. Yes, the Supreme Court recently ruled that a copyright infringement lawsuit can only be instituted after registering a copyright. That blog post was already written. However, Anthony is all by himself in Episode 35 of the "Law & Business" Podcast in order to discuss all the reasons why one needs to file a copyright and have that registration. The requirement to have the registration before any lawsuit is started.Cataloging.Statutory damages. Ease of cataloging, licensing and assigning. This is a thought that not many people have. If a work is registered, then there is a registration number. That number is a simple reference in licensing, use, sale, and transfer agreements. Damages. Statutory damages require the registration. Only a person or business who has registered a work with the U.S. Copyright Office before the infringement (or within three months of publication) may receive statutory damages. Statutory damages are damages that can be awarded by a judge or jury to a copyright owner in a copyright infringement suit. They are called “statutory damages” because the range of damages is established by the statute, specifically section 504 of the Copyright Act. Statutory damages are usually between $750 and $30,000 per work, as determined by the court. However, the damage amount can be increased up to $150,000 per work if the infringement is found to be willful (intentional). If the infringement is “innocent,” meaning the infringer did not know they were violating copyright law, the damages can be reduced to a minimum of $200 per work (if the work did not contain a proper copyright notice). Statutory damages are awarded “per work” infringed (i.e., each individual copyrightable work, like a single song, book, or photograph). This means that if five songs, or five photographs, are infringed, the copyright owner would be able to recover a statutory damage for each one, for a total of five awards. So statutory damages of at least $750 per work, for five works would yield a minimum (non-innocent) total award of $3,750 ($750 x 5 songs = $3,750) or a maximum (non-willful) award of $150,000 ($30,000 x 5 songs = $150,000). Awards of Actual Damages in a Copyright Infringement Case. Sometimes known as compensatory damages, "actual damages" consists of the dollar amount of any demonstrable loss the copyright owner suffered as a result of the infringing activity. This loss may be from lost sales, lost licensing revenue, or any other provable financial loss directly attributable to the infringement. 17 U.S.C. § 504(b) provides: "The copyright owner is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered by him or her as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken into account in computing the actual damages. In establishing the infringer’s profits, the copyright owner is required to present proof only of the infringer’s gross revenue, and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work." Usually, plaintiffs in infringement actions would offer expert testimony to establish their actual financial damages to the court. Awards of Infringer's Profits. This second form of damages consists of any money made by the infringer as a result of the infringement. These damages are awarded only if they exceed the amount of profits lost by the copyright owner (actual damages) as a result of the infringement. Here is a lightly-edited transcript of the podcast episode: Welcome to another episode of the Law and Business podcast. I'm Anthony Verna. I'm here by myself today because we're going to be talking a