Practice Management

It is common, I think, for people, including lawyers (after all, we are people too), to think about concepts like intellectual property law in the abstract, and they fail to see how these laws impact them in their daily lives.

When you think about it, your blog, your letterhead, the polo shirt you wear with your office logo, the broadcast email, the fax you send out, your business cards, the way you and your staff answer the phone, and some of the words that come out of your mouth all involve intellectual property law.

One main issue, as discussed on CNNMoney, is who exactly owns your logo and the design work that you paid for concerning these items?

Whether it is your teenager, the geek down the street, the print shop, or an actual graphic designer, the issue centers around licensing issues that were drafted concerning the fashion industry.  (You see, you did not know you had anything to do with high fashion).

Now, if an actual employee designs the layout or logo or shirt or whatever, the work-for-hire concept under the copyright laws would dictate that you, as the employer, own the right to the work product.  But, what if you are the employee of a law firm when you designs a blog, a logo, a layout of some type that now you want to leave the firm and go out on your own, taking it with you?  If you do not have a written agreement before the fact, or as a condition of leaving, that assigns the work to you, your old firm probably owns it, and that could spell trouble.

For most of us, however, we pay a third party to do this work for us.  Who owns the work product in this instance?  Well, generally speaking, minus an agreement to the contrary, the person who actually designed the work, and not the person who paid for it.  In short, the designer owns it and has a right to it, and not you.

And, these rules might very well extend to statements, slogans and phrases.  So, if you associate yourself with Yosemite Sam and market yourself as the "rootenest, tootenest, shootenest, meanest ombre this side of the Pacos" (really the best slogan for any Texas trial lawyer), then you might have trouble taking it with you when you leave another law firm.  You might also have trouble using it as you might wish, or preventing other people from using it, if you do not have an agreement making it your own.

The bottom line is really this -- in this day and age, from at least the time you graduate from law school, you will begin developing, consciously or unconsciously, a brand for yourself.  You will do that through slogans, URLs, printed material, logos, color schemes, and the like.  You need to be mindful of this if you now work for someone else, or as you might pay (or simply ask) someone to help you with these issues, that you have at least a letter agreement that says that you and you alone own any such thing that might be produced, no matter how small or insignificant you believe it might be at the time.