Law Blog

There is a lot to consider when hiring a Texas car crash attorney.

In a crowded city environment with all the traffic, you will find a greater potential for being involved in a serious motor vehicle accidents.
So When it happens be prepared.

This is a good practice to have researched this in advance, but the majority of us do not take the time to do this. Unintentional but preventable accidents claim the lives of thousands in the Texas each year. Knowing how to look for qualified Texas car crash attorneys may just come in convenient – if not for you, perhaps for someone near you.

There are thousands of attorneys in Texas. A lot of them claim to be the best San Antonio town car accident attorneys around and have advertisings throughout town. You cannot watch a tv show without one or more personal injury attorneys commercials gracing your TV screen. Do not be influenced by the hype; the only method to know that an lawyer can be as good as they claim is through an interview process.

Do not be afraid to ask hard questions. Permit them know up front side that you will be there for service and you demand respect and consideration. It is good to have a good relationship with any legal professional that is handling a case for you but you should not be sure to let them make the decisions for you. Below you will find five points to consider when looking for an attorney.

1. What are lawyer’s plans for your case? In a free consultation it is about you interviewing the attorney; but you also get to speak about what delivered you there. Any lawyer that has handled a lot of accident cases will be able to give you some sort of outline showing how he or she plans to proceed.

2. Just how many accident cases similar to this one has the legal professional actually litigated, and what have already been the results? This speaks to experience; you will want an legal professional that has been first seat in many prominent cases and won.

3. What will the attorney expect you to do as a part of the litigation team? How can you help them help you? Most attorneys work closely with the customer; you should be cautious of those that keep out of the loop.

4. Guarantee the lawyer you are speaking with will be the lawyer of document on the case.

5. Very best lawyer’s payment arrangement? In accident cases the first consultation should be free. Experienced Texas car accident attorneys usually will work on a a contingency basis. They take the case, pay for everything and get reimbursed only if they win. End up being careful of the fine print and how much their percent is. Most attorneys take 1/3 of any moneys paid by the insurance plus their expenses.

KSC has extensive experience in helping its clients in choosing the best legal entity for conducting their business affairs, including limited liability companies, corporations, partnerships or joint ventures. Depending on the client’s needs, our attorneys have the expertise to create bylaws, operating agreements, partnership agreements or article of incorporation. One of the most important aspects of business ownership is providing for a change in circumstances, such as the death, disability or proposed sale of an owner’s interest in the business. These concerns are typically addressed in a “buy-sell” agreement, which allows the parties a chance to decide in advance how to handle these issues. We have worked extensively in crafting agreements among business owners to anticipate these situations and to plan for the best solution to future changes.

Are you a business that is just getting around to setting up your website, only to learn that the name of your company is already being used as a domain name by someone else? Are you surprised? Annoyed? Is there anything you can do about this?

Or perhaps after setting up your website, you receive a cease & desist letter from another company threatening to sue you for violation of the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. How should you respond? Do you have to release your website to them?

Many of these questions can be answered by the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The term “cybersquatting” refers to the registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark. It generally refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses.

The ACPA is a federal law that took effect in 1999, in order to prevent bad faith registration of domain names. For example, if Mercedes Benz did not have a website and you registered www.Mercedesbenz.com with the intent of selling the site to Mercedes Benz for a lucrative ransom, you could be liable under the ACPA for bad faith registration of a domain name. Many people are surprised that this practice is illegal and believe that since the registrars, such as Network Solutions, and others allowed them to register the domain name, it must be legal. In reality, the only thing that registrars require registrants to do is to affirm that, by registering the domain name, they are not interfering with someone else’s legitimate trademark rights.

The ACPA does not deal with registration of generic domain names, such as www.luxurycars.com, which is perfectly legal. The ACPA comes into play when someone registers a domain name which includes a trademark, for example www.bmwluxurycars.com, and if the registration is done in bad faith. Although holding a domain name for ransom is one of the ways “bad faith” can be shown under the ACPA, it is not the only one. Bad faith can also be shown by using a domain name to divert customers from a trademark owner’s website to another for commercial gain. This is often seen by a competitor registering a variation of trademark, for example a photography equipment retail store may register www.nicon.com, hoping to steal camera buyers from customers looking for Nikon cameras, but who may be hurried or unsure of the spelling for Nikon.

Bad faith can also be shown by an attempt to damage the trademark by harming the goodwill associated with the trademark. Damaging or tarnishing a trademark can arise if a domain name is similar to another’s trademark and leads to a site, such as a pornographic website, that tends to damage the goodwill of the trademark by creating an unpleasant association with the trademark.

The primary purpose of the ACPA is to reduce consumers’ confusion about the source and sponsorship of Internet web pages. This helps provide consumers with a degree of certainty as to the quality of the goods associated with the trademark. Thus, when consumers visit a website of a trusted product, they will actually find the product they are looking for and not something entirely different.

Trademarks are a source of pride for many businesses and can represent years, if not decades, of dedication to their customers. Continuing a tradition and association with quality is the cornerstone of developing a successful business and ensuring customer loyalty. For this reason, business owners are vulnerable to predators who understand the link between a trademark and a successful business. Knowledge of the law is the key to protecting your business and your trademark.

Laura Hagan is an attorney practicing with the firm of Kerrick Stivers Coyle, PLC with offices in Bowling Green and Elizabethtown. She is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and her practice consists of assisting individuals with their intellectual property needs, such as patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights.