Entrepreneurship Chapter 9
In a partnership it is often possible to:
Obtain more capital and a better range of skills
B Corporation
A legal structure that expands corporate accountability to make decisions that are good for society, not just shareholders. B corporations' performance standards enable consumers to support businesses that align with their values.
Fair Use Doctrine
A doctrine in the law of the United States that permits limited use of copyrighted material.
Specification
The text of a patent; it may include any accompanying illustrations.
Insolvent Debtor
Those who are unable to pay debts as they become due
Limited Partnership
A form of company organization that permits capital investment without responsibility for management and without liability for losses beyond the initial investment.
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
A form of partnership that allows professionals the tax benefits of a partnership while avoiding personal liability for the malpractice of other partners. If a professional group organizes as an LLP, innocent partners are not personally liable for the wrongdoing of the other partners.
Limited Liability Company
A hybrid form of business enterprise that offers the limited liability of a corporation but the tax advantages of a partnership.
Bankruptcy
A legal process for insolvent debtors who are unable to pay debts as they become due. For business, this includes Chapters 7, 11, and 13 of the federal bankruptcy code.
Copyright
A legal protection that provides exclusive rights to creative individuals for the protection of their literary or artistic artistic productions.
Trademark
A distinctive name, mark, symbol, or motto that is identified with a company's product(s).
The registration of a Trademark has a lifetime of:
10 years plus 10-year renewable periods
Works created after January 1, 1978, have a copyright for the life of the author plus
70 years
Sole Proprietorship
A business that is owned and operated by one person. The enterprise has no existence apart from its owner. This individual has a right to all of the profits and bears all of the liability for the debts and obligations of the business.
L3C
A low-profit, limited liability company that facilitates investments in socially beneficial, for-profit ventures. L3C has an explicit primary charitable mission and only a secondary profit concern. Unlike a charity, an L3C is free to distribute the profits, after taxes, to owners or investors.
Private Corporation
A privately held company, private company, or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock (shares) to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned and traded or exchanged privately or over-the-counter
Infringement Budget
A realistic budget for prosecuting violations of the patent.
Claims
A series of short paragraphs, each of which identifies a particular feature or combination of features, protected by a patent.
Cancellation Proceedings
A third party's challenge to the trademark's distinctiveness within five years of its issuance.
Limited Liability Limited Partnership (LLLP)
A variant of the limited partnership. An LLLP has elected limited liability status for all of its partners, including general partners.
Ways of invalidating a Trademark
Abandonment generic meaning cleaning-out proceedings
Advantages of a corporate form of ownership
Advantages of a corporation include limited liability for its shareholders, a perpetual existence and ease of transferring ownership interests.
Generic Meaning (trademark protection lost)
Allowance of a trademark to represent a general grouping of products or services. When a trademark becomes the name of a general group of products or services. Example: Kleenex has come to represent tissue
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Also called a wage earner's plan. It enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts. Under this chapter, debtors propose a repayment plan to make installments to creditors over three to five years.
Partnership
An association of two or more persons acting as co-owners of a business for profit.
Corporation
An entity legally separate from the individuals who own it, created by the authority of state laws, and usually formed when a transfer of money or property by prospective shareholders takes place in exchange for capital stock in the corporation.
patent
An intellectual property right granted to an inventor, giving him or her the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for a limited time period (usually 20 years).
Patent and Trademark Office
An office of the federal government through which all patent and trademark applications are filed.
When considering bankruptcy, which chapter do entrepreneurs as sole proprietors normally prefer?
Chapter 13
The debtor is relieved of obligations falls under which chapter of bankruptcy?
Chapter 7
The most common types of bankruptcy
Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and Chapter 11.
Parts to a patent application
Claims and Specification
Trade Secrets
Customer lists, plans, research and development, pricing information, marketing techniques. Generally, anything that makes an individual company unique and has value to a competitor could be a trade secret.
The owner of a copyright may:
Display the work publicly, perform the work publicly, and reproduce the work
How to effectively pursue a patent violation
Experts recommend that the entrepreneur prepare a realistic budget for infringement
Which doctrine makes it sometimes difficult to establish infringement?
Fair Use Doctrine
Bankruptcy Act
Federal law that provides for specific procedures in handling insolvent debtors.
S Corporation
Formerly termed a Subchapter S corporation, an S corporation takes its name from Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code, under which a business can seek to avoid the imposition of income taxes at the corporate level, yet retain some of the benefits of a corporate form (especially the limited liability).
Claim (patent application)
Identifies the features that are protected
Abandonment
Nonuse of a trademark for two consecutive years without justification or a statement regarding abandonment of the trademark.
Specific forms of partnership
Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships
Recognized advantages of partnerships
Possible tax advantages, ease of formation, direct rewards
Intellectual Property Right
Provides protection such as patents, trademarks, or copyrights against infringement by others.
Forms of ownership
Sole Proprietorship Partnership Private Corporation S Corporation Limited Liability Company
3 primary legal forms of organization
Sole proprietorship, the partnership, and the corporation
Examples of Trademarks
Symbols, mottos, names, etc.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
The bankruptcy trustee gathers and sells the debtor's nonexempt assets and uses the proceeds of such assets to pay holders of claims (creditors) in accordance with the provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.
Cleaning-Out Procedure
The failure of a trademark owner to file an affidavit stating that it is in use or justifying its lack of use within six years of registration.
Unlimited Liability
The individual proprietor is personally responsible for all business debts. This liability extends to all of the proprietor's assets.
Debtor-in-possession
When a debtor involved in a Chapter 11 proceeding continues to operate the business.
Infringement
the action of breaking the terms of a law, agreement, etc.; violation.