Articles and FAQs
This section contains articles drafted by Saper Law Attorneys, links to sites of interest, and answers to frequently asked questions. Feel free to browse through the recent postings below, or use the topics list on the left to search for articles in a specific area of law. Please note that none of this material constitutes legal advice. You should confer with an attorney to discuss legal matters specific to your situation. Check back for updates or use our online form to submit a question.
Register for May Seminar at Saper Law–Food Based Business Ventures
By Saper Law | May 2, 2012
Saper Law regulary counsels food-based businesses and local restuarants. Accordingly, this month’s Seminar at Saper Law will consist of an afternoon panel discussion with six of Chicago’s dining luminaries. They will discuss what it takes to create a profitable food-based business and answer your questions. Read more below:New Panelists Confirmed for The May 16 Food Business Seminar at Saper Law!
Our panelists will discuss several aspects of the food industry, sharing their knowledge on everything from fast food to fine food and from distribution to franchising. Daliah Saper will serve as the moderator.
Our panelists, (read their bios below), will generally speak on the following topics:
- R.J. Melman will discuss the buzz building process for a new restaurant concept;
- Matt Matros and Florian Pfahler will discuss the trials and triumphs of starting up a new fast food business;
- Matt Grove and Rakesh Patel will outline the complicated world of distribution;
- David Grossman will share his wisdom about franchising and securing the right location for a new business.
Ample time for questions.
R.J. Melman is a corporate partner of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (Hub 51, M Street Kitchen, Stella Rossa Pizza Bar, Paris Club and RPM Italian) with extensive experience in the restaurant industry. In the past, he has consulted on numerous restaurant projects, and served in management roles for a number of Lettuce Entertain You properties, including R.J. Grunts in Lincoln Park.
Matt Matros is the owner and creator of Protein Bar. In 2009, Matt was inspired to create a healthy alternative to the chain fast food outlets clogging the loop. During the past three years, Matt has grown the Protein Bar brand to great effect: it is now one of the most popular downtown lunch destinations, and the business continues to expand to new locations.
Rakesh Patel is the president of Raja Foods. He has made it his mission to bring the flavor and tradition of India into American households. He and his brother, Swetal Patel, have grown what started as the procurement division of a chain of Indian groceries into a $30 million dollar business in its own right, with its brand of Swad packaged foods appearing at stores such as Meijer, K-mart, and Dominick’s, as well as several specialty retailers and wholesalers.
Florian Pfahler is the founder of Hannah’s Bretzel. In 2004, Florian stepped into Whole Foods Market for the first time and was instantly struck by the store’s emphasis on healthier eating and environmental awareness. This led Florian, then a marketing director at Leo Burnett Advertising, to open up Hannah’s Bretzel, a casual sandwich shop catering to Chicagoans who want to eat well without harming their health or the environment. Business has been booming ever since.
Matt Grove is the managing partner and president of Katama Company. Under Matt’s guidance, Katama has become the largest organic beef company in the United States, selling products throughout North America and Europe. He has played a significant role in transforming organic beef from a niche market product to a grocery store staple and has worked hard to bring all manner of organic and sustainable food products to the public: during the last decade, Matt raised over $35 million dollars in private investment for like-minded companies. His current projects include Affordable Organics, a program that has successfully brought organic products to bargain retailers such as Grocery Outlet.David Grossman is the master franchisee of Freshii restaurants in Chicago. An industry expert, David previously worked for Subway as director of real estate, opening over 100 locations in Chicago. He then went on to work with General Growth Properties, leasing spaces to a myriad of different high-profile brands, including Corner Bakery, McDonald’s, and Panera Bread. David’s latest project is Freshii, a quick service chain devoted to healthy eating and green living. He has opened six locations already and is well on his way to fulfilling his goal of opening forty locations within the next ten years.
Space is limited. Sign up today.
Details:
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Saper Law Offices, LLC
630 North State Street, Second Floor
Chicago, IL 60654
Time: 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Cost $15 with online registration, $25 at the door.
Register here: http://maysaperseminar.eventbrite.com/
Topics: Seminars at Saper Law |
RSVP for April Seminar at Saper Law: Moms in Business Roundtable
By Saper Law | April 7, 2012
On Thursday April 26, Saper Law will be hosting a Moms in Business Roundtable lunch event. The event follows the same format as Saper Law’s annual Designer Roundtable but will be led by mom entrepreneurs who will address the challenges and benefits of building and running one’s own venture while juggling parenting. (Dads are welcome too.) In addition to Daliah, the panel of speakers includes Ahila Livingston, founder and CEO of Andromedae Solutions; and Jill Salzman, author of “Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs”, and founder of The Founding Moms.
RSVP here: http://momroundtable.eventbrite.com/
Topics: Seminars at Saper Law |
Daliah Saper quoted in AdvertisingAge article regarding Trademarks
By Saper Law | March 29, 2012
Daliah Saper was recently quoted in an article by Advertising Age Magazine. Excerpts from the article, written by E. J. Schultz is posted below. Read the full article here: http://adage.com/article/news/decades-pepsi-mom-choice-a-generation/233239/
Decades After Pepsi, MOM Is ‘Choice of a New Generation’
Instant-Cereal Marketer Assumes Soda Marketer’s Iconic Tagline
News flash: Pepsi is no longer the “Choice of a New Generation.” As of today that distinction belongs to a small instant-oatmeal brand owned by MOM Brands, which said it has scooped up the iconic trademark once used by the cola giant.
...MOM Brands said it secured the “Generation” slogan after Pepsi allowed its trademark to lapse. A PepsiCo spokesman said the last time the company used the trademark was in 1991. The company declined to further comment for this story.
It’s fairly unusual for a marketer to recycle another company’s sales pitch, and such a move comes with potential legal barriers, trademark lawyers said. For instance, the original owner could try to reassert its claim in court.
But the approach suits the penny-pinching style of MOM Brands, which wanted to avoid the costly exercise of paying a branding agency to create something from scratch, said Linda Fisher, the company’s corporate communications manager. “We’re a little bit scrappy,” she said. “It makes sense. We’re not force-fitting it. Better Oats is the choice of a new generation. It just happens to apply to oatmeal, not cola.”
MOM Brands also happens to compete with PepsiCo-owned Quaker Oats Co., which dominates the oatmeal category. Quaker has a 42% market share for its top brand, compared with 1% for the top Better Oats variety, “Oat Revolution,” according to SymphonyIRI, which excludes Walmart Stores data. While MOM Brands seems to be getting a kick out of using a competitor’s old tagline, Ms. Fisher conceded that “we’re David, they’re Goliath,” and “so we probably didn’t scare them too much.”
While trademark law can get complicated, the guiding principle is that if you don’t use it, you lose it, lawyers told Ad Age. “You can’t warehouse marks indefinitely just because you are a big company,” said Daliah Saper, an intellectual-property attorney in Chicago. “Unless you can demonstrate use … the mark goes back into the pool of words other people could use.”
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MOM Brands, a 92-year-old family-owned company, revels in its frugality. It rarely advertises, doesn’t have a creative agency and even avoids basic tactics such as focus groups — all so it can keep prices low on a portfolio that includes cereals sold under the Malt-O-Meal banner, which made Ad Age’s list of America’s Hottest Brands last year.
For the Better Oats campaign, the marketer used crowdsourcing agency Poptent, which fielded some 100 video submissions before MOM Brands settled on Mr. Anderson’s entry. MOM Brands plans to place the ad on its YouTube Channel and Facebook page, as well as on choiceofanewgeneration.com. Plans also include ad buys on sites run by Comedy Central, Hulu and MTV, Ms. Fisher said.
The campaign’s total cost is only about $150,000, she said. Mr. Anderson will take home a total of $7,500. Michael Jackson, on the other hand, got a reported $5 million from the Pepsi deal he struck in the early 1980s.
Suffice it to say, the newest New Generation is a lot cheaper than the old one.
Topics: Advertising Law, Press, Trademarks |
Daliah Saper serves as Panelist at Institute of Internal Auditors National Convention in Orlando
By Saper Law | March 29, 2012
On March 21, 2012 Daliah Saper traveled to Orlando, Florida to serve as a panelist at the Institute of Internal Auditors General Audit Management Conference. Daliah’s session titled Social Media Risk’s Evolving Landscape discussed a wide variety of issues from both a legal, technical, and risk management perspective.
For 33 years, The IIA’s General Audit Management (GAM) Conference has helped to elevate the overall caliber of corporate C-suite professionals by bringing together the most respected practitioners and thought leaders for an unprecedented meeting of the minds.If you would like to invite Daliah to speak at your event, please email dsaper [at] saperlaw.com
Topics: Internet Law, Seminars at Saper Law |
Chicago Daily Law Bulletin profiles Daliah Saper
By Saper Law | March 1, 2012
The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin profiled Daliah Saper and Saper Law in its January 30, 2012 issue.
Read an excerpt from the article here:
Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
January 30, 2012 Volume: 158 Issue: 20
Lawyer’s networking helps build firm
By Bethany Krajelis
Law Bulletin staff writerDaliah Saper said her age, interest in the arts, knack for networking and a little luck shaped her law practice.
Saper, 31, founded Saper Law Offices LLC in 2005 with a laptop and no clients. Her firm, which focuses on a variety of intellectual property, business, entertainment, social media and litigation matters has since grown to include two other attorneys and a solid client list.
“I knew no one was going to hire a relatively young lawyer to handle mergers and acquisitions so I let that shape my practice,” she said. “I was lucky. A lot of things were happening at that time.”
Back in 2005, Saper said she found herself in the middle of a social media phenomenon and an explosion of technology startup companies, a combination that created a new niche in the legal profession.
While she said she “was in the right place at the right time,” those who know Saper said she deserves all of the credit.
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Saper said she is glad she took the risk of starting her own firm and enjoys going to work everyday. One of her favorite parts of her practice, she said, is trying to resolve the unique challenges that come along with the Internet.She said the court system has not caught up with social media. Saper will also soon argue what is believed to be the first social media case of its kind before the Illinois Supreme Court.
The justices agreed to hear the case, but have not yet set a date for oral arguments. The case is Paula Bonhomme v. Janna St. James, Nos. 112393 and 112398 cons.
In addition to taking cases on the subject, Saper frequently speaks on social media. She said she will travel to a conference in China this week to talk about how social media sites relate to the airline industry.
Sandy Rueve, founder of She Beads, a handmade clay jewelry company, said she met Saper at a networking event for local designers about seven years ago and immediately hired Saper to replace her longtime corporate attorney.
Rueve said Saper didn’t just take the time to get to know her company’s legal issues, but took it a step further by coming to her studio “just to get a feel for my business.”
“She understands my needs and understands them quickly and explains things clearly,” Rueve said. “She is so easy to work with and has a great personality. I love her and I can say that without hesitating.”
bkrajelis@lbpc.com
Topics: Press |
Daliah Saper interviewed on ABC News regarding Facebook and Privacy Laws
By Saper Law | August 14, 2011
On August 11, 2011 ABC Reporter Ravi Baichwal interviewed Daliah for a segment titled:
Is Facebook posting phone numbers sans permission?
August 11, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Facebook moved to debunk a rumor on the Internet Thursday that users’ phone numbers were accessible to all through individuals’ contact lists.
It is true that a Facebook user can see the phone numbers of their friends, but only those that included that number as part of their Facebook profile. The rub is that those who have imported their personal contact lists to Facebook, say from smartphones, will have those numbers displayed to a user’s other friends, upsetting many, even though Facebook says it is nothing new.
Around the Internet, messages much like this flashed:
I don’t want my number on the internet!!
All phone numbers from your phone are now on Facebook!It’s a function of privacy settings on Facebook that allow contact phone numbers to be shown to others, depending on the settings you choose. Facebook says that is not new.
“User beware, if you want to avail yourself of the features of Facebook, then you need to understand the rules that govern that usage,” said Internet lawyer Daliah Saper.
Saper has a long list of web-based business clients and counsels regularly on the need to protect one’s privacy on the Internet.
“Put out only information that you know and expect others will see and you have set a lot of privacy limitations around it,” Saper said.
Read more here: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8302211
Topics: Internet Law, Press, Tech Industry |
Daliah Saper Lectures at Illinois Institute of Technology NetSecure 2011 Conference
By Saper Law | March 23, 2011
This Thursday, March 24, Daliah will be speaking at IIT’s NetSecure2011. Here is the abstract of her presentation:
Anonymity Online: When Should Your IT Department Reveal Information Related to an IP Address? The explosion of computer technology and communications has spawned a new area of litigation and legal concerns with regard to the constitutional expectation of privacy in Internet communications. The Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2703, enacted in 1986, represents Congress’ attempt to strike a fair balance between the privacy rights of individuals who have entrusted the contents of their electronic communications to Internet service providers and the government’s legitimate interest in gaining access to such communications when investigating crimes. Daliah Saper, Principal Attorney for Saper Law Offices, LLC will discuss the interplay between the Stored Communications Act and Petitions for Discovery in a corporate setting. She will also field questions about related laws such as the Communications Decency Act.
Topics: Internet Law, Tech Industry |
Daliah Saper Interviewed on Fox News: The Department of Education Eyeing Facebook
By Saper Law | March 18, 2011
Watch the Interview here:
The Department of Education Eyeing Facebook
The government wants schools to oversee teens’ online activities to battle cyber-bullyin
Topics: Internet Law, Press |
Saper Law Counsels Mobile Application Developers
By Saper Law | February 25, 2011
Saper Law regularly assists software developers, web-based businesses, and other new and social media companies. In recent months, many of these clients have been focusing their energies on developing mobile applications to diversify their revenue streams. To this end, Saper Law has and continues to provide counseling and transactional services for entrepreneurs and corporations seeking to clear the legal hurdles of bringing these mobile applications to market.
Daliah Saper first lectured to businesses pursuing mobile applications in March of 2010 when she presented to Day of Mobile conference attendees. She has also provided variations of this lecture to the Chicago Bar Association and at Mobile Tech Cocktail.
Some highlights from the presentations are outlined below. To schedule a consultation with Dalaih Saper to talk about your mobile application idea visit www.tungle.me/saperlaw or call 312.527.4100.
Clearly define the ownership rights
No matter what business entity under which you decide to operate, make
sure you know who owns the rights to your app. If you are a sole proprietor, and you are the only one writing the code, then the answer to this question is easy –it’s you! However, if you hire freelancers, use open source code, or operate as a general partnership, multiple member limited liability corporation (LLC), or corporation (Corp), then you will need carefully drafted contracts to properly define who owns what.Starting any business can lead to problems without clearing up rights as to ownership. For example, does the business itself own the rights to the app, or do the partners own those rights as co-owners? In U.S. copyright law, co-owners or joint-authors each hold an undivided share in the copyright. Co-ownership may restrict some ownership rights, such as the right of survivorship; if a co-owner dies, then ownership interest in the copyright passes to the deceased’s heirs, rather than the other co-owners.
The key to successfully developing and quickly profiting from your app is to clearly define your ownership rights. Once that is settled, you can tackle more substantial business decisions, such as licensing, sales, and joint ventures.
Protect your work
You have put a lot of hard work into developing your mobile app, so protect it! One important way to protect your work is to trademark your app’s name, and copyright your app’s software.A trademark is a distinctive sign or symbol that is used to identify your app, and distinguish it from similar or competing products. You will have a common law trademark as soon as you start selling your app, but a federally registered trademark will allow you to protect your app’s name anywhere in the United States, even if you have not yet started transacting in other states.
A copyright protects an original, creative work fixed in a “tangible medium” (that is to say, you have to be able to read it, see it, or hear it). As soon as you meet these requirements, you enjoy exclusive rights to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, or display the work publicly. However, officially registering a copyright for your app provides additional benefits as well. If your work is infringed, registration will not only protect the rights inherent to your work, but also make you eligible for statutory damages up to $150,000 and attorney’s fees.
But remember, you can only register a copyright for the original elements of your app that you have authored. Any code that you have licensed (including open source code) cannot be copyrighted.
Follow the rules
Now that your app is ready for launch, be sure that you have access to the launch pad. Online stores like Apple’s App Store and the Android Market are key distribution centers for online applications, but you must abide by their policies in order to use them.A common policy you will likely find in every app store is that your application shall not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, meaning that you cannot incorporate or copy the trademarks, copyrights, or similar rights of any other person. If this policy is broken, your app will not only be banned from the app store, but you also open yourself up to lawsuits from the original owners.
If you have any questions about the legal issues affecting mobile application developers just schedule a call with us by calling 312.527.4100 or visiting www.tungle.me/saperlaw to set up an appointment.
Topics: Copyrights, Internet Law, Software Development, Tech Industry, Trademarks |
Watch Daliah Saper’s TV interview regarding “Managing Your Reputation Online”
By Saper Law | February 4, 2011
Daliah Saper was recently interviewed by Mark E. Goodman on CanTV21 about the steps that individuals and businesses need to take to protect their online reputation. During the show, Daliah discussed the elements of a defamation claim as well as the protections afforded to internet service providers by the Communications Decency Act. Watch the video here:
Topics: Defamation |