Starting a new business, or running a previously existing one, can be one of the most rewarding experiences. When you truly care about the work that you are doing, it makes a difference and it shows to your customers, employers, or employees. But it can also be an incredibly difficult task, with new challenges cropping up all the time. Though we don’t need to tell you that, if you’re here then you already know that a helping hand can make a big difference. Here at Holmes Business Law, we help businesses take care of the legal side of things so they can focus on the parts of their business that they love. There are a number of tasks Holmes Business Law can help with.
One such area is trademark registration and trademark law in general. A trademark is a phrase, symbol, or word that your company uses to make its identity visible to the wider world. It’s a way of setting your business apart from the rest of the world. If you create a slogan that’s easy to remember, conveys what your business is about, and is memorable then you’ll want to trademark it. For example, Mcdonald's has many trademarks from phrases like “I’m loving it” to the gold arches that immediately identify a Mcdonald's from the next fast food restaurant. Trademark law can be a complicated affair but Holmes Business Law can help you to create and defend trademarks from determining whether something qualifies for trademark protection to bringing legal enforcement actions in court to defend your trademark.
Despite the fact that the terms mergers and acquisitions are used interchangeably by many people, they actually have a specific meaning. An acquisition is the process of purchasing another business to run as part of your own. If you run a pizza shop and you decide you want to buy out the competition in the area, you could purchase the business through acquisition and then convert it into your own franchise or keep it running under its own name but under your ownership.
On the other hand, a merger is a very different process. A merger is what occurs when two businesses join together to become a new entity. This tends to happen when the two businesses were roughly the same size because otherwise, the larger business would typically just acquire the smaller one.
Both mergers and acquisitions are complicated beasts. Mergers often involve entirely rearranging one of the businesses to be slotted into the other but they can also require just a complete overhaul of everything. Acquisitions, on the other hand, can be done in a hostile manner to take over a business and so they can be complicated, both to do or prevent from happening. Holmes Business Law can help you wrap your head around what steps need to be taken in order to handle the legalities of your mergers and acquisitions.
When you enter into a business with another person, you form a business partnership. These can be amazing and result in a lot of wonderful collaborations. We wouldn’t have some of the amazing technology and companies we have today if it weren’t for business partnerships. But partnership agreements aren’t always healthy or turn unhealthy down the road. Then you can find yourself trapped in a partnership agreement that is untenable and needs to be broken or altered. Holmes Business Law can help you whether you’re putting together your first partnership agreement and the future looks bright, or when your partnership agreement is a matter of contention and assistance is needed to prevent a bleak future.
Employee contracts are another area of contention. Perhaps you are an innovative business leader and you want to ensure that your employees don’t speak about what they see while working for you, this could be worked into an employee contract or through an NDA. But most employee contracts deal with the typical issues of sick time, wages, benefits, and the like. In many cases, employee contracts can actually be quite beneficial and simply allow both parties to understand their working relationship and the expectations therein. But contract employees can find themselves beholden to obligations they didn’t expect or pitfalls they would have tried to avoid if only they had properly approached the contract. Before you sign any employee contract, you should reach out to Holmes Business Law so we can ensure everything is on the up and up and you aren’t being taken advantage of in any way. It’s always much easier to ensure that a contract is acceptable up front rather than try to fight against it in court at a later date; however, that may be an option depending on the specifics of the situation.
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