The SEC, CFTC and Possible Future Of Utility Tokens

March 7, 2018

Steve Masur

A lot of people have been asking us what may happen with regards to regulation of ICOs in the United States. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory action against Munchee, Inc.’s ICO, coupled with the recent U.S. Senate Committee...

Why Independent Contractor vs. Employee Status Matters

February 7, 2018

Josh Greenberg

Among the various questions that employers face is whether to classify certain personnel as independent contractors rather than as employees. Many new entrepreneurs will rely on the advice of colleagues and friends who will encourage categorizing new hires as...

E.U. General Data Protection Regulation Looms for American Multinational Businesses

January 31, 2018

Josh Greenberg

If you do business in Europe, a new landmark European Union data protection law may have a huge impact on how you may collect and store personal information from their E.U. clients and customers. The General Data Protection Regulation...

The Chuck E. Cheese Test for Whether a Token is a Security

January 18, 2018

Steve Masur

Cryptocurrency markets are still nascent, and most people are still trying to work out how they will develop, and how blockchain can be applied to the wider variety of business cases. There is not much guidance from the government,...

Cryptocurrency, the Howey Test, and Munchee’s Guidance on How to Apply it

January 10, 2018

Steve Masur

Corporate and securities lawyers utilize the Howey test to determine whether a transaction is an “investment contract,” or more simply whether it involves offering a security, and therefore is subject to certain reporting and disclosure requirements. A transaction will...

US Regulators & Your Cryptocurrency: It’s Complicated

December 22, 2017

Rob Griffitts

This is the first in a series of posts in which I’ll examine the US regulations that impact cryptocurrency businesses. Many describe bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as being unregulated. As a blanket statement, this is not true. What is...

Year-End Maintenance for a Healthy Business

November 29, 2017

MGA

The end of another year presents an opportunity for you to take stock of how your business has developed, and to think carefully about whether you have kept pace with your legal needs. MGA encourages you to consider the...

Equity Dilution: Is the Juice Is Worth the Squeeze?

October 2, 2017

Josh Greenberg

If you’ve ever made orange juice from concentrate, you probably already have a good feel for how equity dilution works. When you put the orange juice concentrate in a pitcher, you have a small amount of, well, really strong...

DMCA Safe Harbor: Protecting Yourself from Copyright Infringement

September 28, 2017

Josh Greenberg

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512, (“DMCA”) provides Internet communications service providers, including website operators, with immunity from copyright infringement liability for, among other things, infringing material posted on its sites by its users, provided the...

The Pitfall of Trademark Genericide: When Household Names and Brands Collide

July 12, 2017

Josh Greenberg

Escalator. Heroin. Dry Ice. Teleprompter. Laundromat. Each of these words or phrases were originally coined as trademarks, though have since lost their distinctive nature and exclusivity as they slowly became part of the American lexicon in the years since their introduction....

Was Silicon Valley “Bro Culture” to Blame for Uber CEO’s Resignation?

July 6, 2017

Steve Masur

Ride-sharing giant Uber‘s Travis Kalanick has been forced to step down from his role as CEO of the company a week after taking an “indefinite leave of absence” amid growing backlash over his leadership and corporate culture at Uber....

Trademark Case Roundup

June 29, 2017

Josh Greenberg

As we recently reported in our blog post Disparaging Trademark or Reclaimed Slur? The Supreme Court Weighs In, the high court ruled 8-0 in Matal v. Tam that the Lanham Act’s ban on disparaging marks was an unconstitutional violation of the First...