international business

The Gucci Group has just won a lawsuit against two members of their very own family for trademark infringement. The world famous luxury goods seller have barred Guccio and Alessandro Gucci, brothers and great grandsons of the label’s founder,  Guccio Gucci,  from using the names “Gucci” and “Guccio Gucci” as part of their marketing strategies for their company, ToBeG. A judge in Florence has ruled that the use of the family names takes unfair advantage of Gucci’s preexisting bra

Visual media has become instrumental in designing a website or posting in social media sites such as Pinterest and Facebook. But if you don’t own the photos you plan on using, how do you go about getting the photos your site needs? Grabbing pictures from Google images, off of other websites, or even assuming that you have the rights to photos of yourself or your business despite that it was taken by someone else are all common mistakes that violate copyright law, and if charged, you can be

By Tikwiza Nkowane|www.amdlawgroup.com A copyright defined as “a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations.” As with all rights of protection, it is important to know whether an existing copyright exists.   How do you search for existing copyrights through copyright.go

By Aurelia Mitchell Durant|www.amdlawgroup.com Globalization has become a reality for the planet.  The very loose and fluid definition of globalization is summed in an often-quoted quote by former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, “It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.”  Globalization is the notion that the emerging and sustainable marketplace is global as opposed to regional or national.  Ostensibly, in orde

By Kathleen Melhorn | amdlawgroup.com       10,000 dollars is an awful lot of money to get for composing a 140 character tweet. Class A Celebrity Kim Kardashian is reported to receive this amount from companies who need marketing for their products. Kim is not the only one who has been caught tweeting for cash, other stars like 50 Cent & Snoop Dogg do it as well. What are the ethics involved with tweeting for money? Is this practice considered unethical

By Eliana Rocchi | amdlawgroup.com Tariffs have been a touchy issue in global economics for hundreds of years. Simply, tariffs are taxes on imported goods. If the United States taxed coffee beans coming in from Colombia, that tax would be a tariff. They are mainly a device to protect domestic industries so as to encourage companies to purchase goods between each other, helping the national economy grow without giving any business to foreign enterprises. In the last few decades, tariffs have

The definition of a born global firm is “a business organization that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries.” Many companies go global, but that does not make them born global firms. What distinguishes born global firms from the rest of international organizations is that they originate internationally. Born global firms, from their beginnings, have a global focus and commit their resources t

[podcast src="https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6593454/height/360/width/450/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/" height="360" width="450" placement="top" theme="standard"]Download this episodeIn this episode, we discuss the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The biggest change to internet data security in 20 years. Our lead-off quote: It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing aga

By Gabrielle Sherwood|www.amdlawgroup.com Cannabis: patentable but not trademarkable Cannabis is legal for recreational or medicinal use in almost 30 states, and this number is likely to grow. However, cannabis remains illegal under federal law. As a result, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will not register trademarks for retailers of cannabis, or for products that contain cannabis. However, what is especially interesting is that the USPTO will grant patents involv

On Monday October 29, 2012, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments of a copyright infringement case dealing with whether or not copyrighted goods made outside the United States can be resold in the U.S. without first attaining permission from the copyright holder. The case has garnered the attention of such companies as eBay and Google, who have stated that a person should have the right to sell an item that they have purchased regardless of where it was made. Publisher John Wiley &a

By Sindy Wenjin Ding | amdlawgroup.com The Fashion Law Institute’s 4th Annual Symposium entitled “The spectrum of Style” was held in Fordham Law School in New York on Apr 4. I attended the symposium as a Fashion Law practitioner at AMD LAW, as well as a Fordham Law alumna. The Symposium owns high regards in fashion law industry nationwide, and as expected, it attracted many serious fashion law experts, partners in notable firms, executives from various departments and companies, fashi

By Kathleen Melhorn | amdlawgroup.com   After adding an H in “Kroma”, the Kardashians are facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit over their new line of beauty products. In fact, a judge ruled that all of the products be removed from over 5,000 retail stores because of the brand theft. The sisters are facing a serious battle considering how deliberate the stealing of the name looks. The original Kroma products, created by Lee Tillet over 12 years ago, have been patented by t

Kelsey Laugel | www.amdlawgroup.com  The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) advised the European Court that Nestlé’s attempts to trademark the Kit Kat’s distinctive four-fingered shape does not comply with EU law. This opinion is likely to effectively end Nestlé’s attempts to trademark the shape of the candy as European Court judges usually follow the opinions of advocate generals. This is merely the latest setback for Nestlé in a continuous battl

By Tasha Schmidt | amdlawgroup.com Fans and people at the South by Southwest Conference have been lined up for hours to see the recent feline internet sensation, Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat’s real name is Tardar Sauce. However, her “cat celebrity name” if you will is Grumpy Cat, and this is exactly what her owners have chosen to file for U.S. trademark protection over. They have wasted no time in protecting Grumpy Cat’s intellectual property rights. Ironically, the cat is very sweet-tem