INFORMATION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Data Processing Addendums for California
Earlier this month, the California Consumer Privacy Act became effective with many companies scrambling to become compliant with the law. While there are many ambiguities in the law and the California Attorney General is still finalizing his draft…
Protecting Your Hemp and CBD Brand Through Trademarks
The 2018 Farm Bill was passed on December 20, 2018, and, among other things, removed hemp from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). Prior to the passage of this Farm Bill, the U.S. Patent and Trademark…
Dealing with Copyright Trolls
The ease of sharing pictures online has made it both lucrative for legitimate artists to monetize their works and simpler for opportunists (“copyright trolls”) to victimize unprepared websites with extortion schemes disguised as legitimate…
SEC Tells Telegram to Hit Pause On Its Token Issuance
This past Friday (October 11, 2019), the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action and temporary restraining order against Telegram, a messaging app similar to WhatsApp. The emergency action is an attempt by the SEC to stop…

Equity Compensation in the Gig Economy
Last week, Uber sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) seeking an amendment to Rule 701 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933. Rule 701, which was recently modified in July 2018, allows non-reporting companies…

Regulation Enforcement of CryptoCurrency Sept-2018
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) announced on Tuesday, September 11, 2018, its first disciplinary action for securities violations against a cryptocurrency. The disciplinary action involves Rocky Mountain Ayre, Inc.…

Do ICO's Seek an Expectation of Profit Solely from the Efforts of Others?
In our most recent blog post, we discussed the second prong of the Howey test – a “common enterprise” – and the US Circuit Courts’ fragmentation on the issue and lack of uniform definition. In this third and final part of our series…

What is a Common Enterprise and is Bitcoin or Ethereum one?
In our most recent blog post, we discussed the first prong of the Howey test – an “investment of money” – through the lens of so-called ‘airdrops’. Moving on to the second prong – a “common enterprise” – requires us to take…
