Legal services for artists and creative entrepreneurs.
Whatever the legal needs of your creative business, I am devoted to your success. I have well over twenty years of experience as an attorney, and I have made intellectual property law and small business law my areas of expertise.
MY CORE SERVICES
Protect and leverage the value of your business assets.
Copyright
For artist-entrepreneurs, copyright comes up in so many different ways. I can advise you if you think someone's infringed your copyright, whether that's sending a cease and desist letter and dealing with their lawyer, issuing a statutory take down notice, or just sending a polite, lawyerly request for that person to honor your hard work by stopping what they're doing. And of course if someone accuses you of infringement, I can work that side of the equation too.
I can assess your publishing agreement in which you license the copyright in your work for book purposes. And I can help you license the copyright in your work for commercial products in general.
I can help you register copyright in your artworks, including coming up with a plan to do it more cost effectively. And if the Copyright Office turns down your registration request, I can prepare and file an appeal on your behalf.
Trademark
A trademark is an identifier for goods or services in the marketplace—a way for consumers to reliably verify the source of those goods and services. If you're operating an art business, you've got a trademark already. There's a good chance it's your name. You may have a slogan too, or a new product with a novel name you've coined, and you want to stake your claim to some or all of them by filing an application to register with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Can you? Does it make financial sense to register? What does a registration certificate get you? I can answer these questions and, if you decide to move forward with an application, make a strong application that is more likely to get approved.
You may also find yourself on the receiving end of a cease and desist letter from someone or (more likely) some corporation that thinks your trademark is too close to theirs. As a litigator prepared to go to court for you if need be, I can help you negotiate that situation too.
Business
Are you operating as a sole proprietor and thinking of forming an LLC or corporation through which you'll run your business? What are the pros and cons of operating as a business entity, rather than an individual? How do you form an LLC? What about a corporation? Wondering if you need an operating agreement for your one-person LLC? How about your one-person corporation, do you still need to have bylaws, a board of directors, officers, stock? I can answer all these questions and help you with applicable federal, state and local filings.
Are you thinking about hiring a contractor to help you with a project? Do you want to be sure they don't become a joint author of the artwork you're creating?
Or maybe you’re setting up an online shop and need to have an effective privacy policy and terms of use?
Perhaps you’re thinking about renting space for a shop and need to understand the lease.
Whatever your small business legal needs may be, I’m here to help with friendly, actionable advise and done-for-you services.
These are just a few of the issues that come up for artists and other creative entrepreneurs. If you’re a creative professional with a legal need I haven’t mentioned above, please get in touch!
CONNECT WITH ME
What are your goals? What are your concerns? Let’s talk about it.
I offer a no-cost, no-obligation twenty-minute consultation.