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Your small business’ identity means a lot to your bottom line. But when another entity infringes on your trademark, it may not always make good business sense to pursue a legal enforcement action. Trademark enforcement actions can be costly, and may not be worth the potential benefits, one trademark expert writes for Inc. magazine. Suing for trademark infringement may also be damaging to your reputation in some cases. Here are some real-world examples of when trademark enforcement actions may not be worth your while:...

Your small business isn’t located in London. You don’t have clients in Northern Ireland. Heck, you don’t even know anyone in Scotland, and the closest you’ve come to Wales was seeing Shamu at Sea World. But if you’re thinking that means last week’s Brexit referendum won’t have an impact on your operations, you may want to think again. Many financial market observers are seeing an indirect impact on small business, not in sales but in small business lending....

A Florida woman plans to sue the Broward County Sheriff’s Office after she was forced to spend a night in jail for recording a deputy during a traffic stop. Brandy Berning, 33, began recording Lt. William O’Brien when she was pulled over for driving alone in a carpool lane. After a dispute over the recording, in which O’Brien told Berning she’d “just committed a felony,” Berning was arrested and spent one night in jail, the Sun-Sentinel reports....

You can sue over whiskey fungus, or Baudoinia, if you live near a distillery and have been injured from ethanol vapors. The same applies to other ethanol off-gassing alcohol distilleries, such as scotch, brandy, and rum. Only within the last decade has a connection been made between the black film growing in and around distillery towns and the alcohol fumes manufacturers make, reports Vice. Now, citizens are fighting back with lawsuits seeking compensation from the companies for air pollution....

YouTube star Michelle Phan has been slapped with a copyright-infringement lawsuit over her use of background music in her makeup tutorials. Learn from Phan’s copyright suit with these three business lessons: In case you’re not familiar with Michelle Phan, here’s one of her clips from YouTube: Like Phan, your business isn’t likely to be using music directly in order to sell your goods or services. It may just exist pleasantly in the background of your office’s waiting room or restaurant dining area....

Four police officers and two supervisors have been indicted in the post-Katrina shooting deaths of civilians on New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge. The federal cases alleging federal civil rights violations involve two civilians killed and four others who were wounded on September 4, 2005, six days after hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Three New Orleans police officers, Kenneth Bowen, Anthony Villavaso and former officer, Robert Giseviusare, are in FBI custody. State prosecutors already had charged the 4 officers as well as filed charges against several additional police officers, but in 2008 a judge quashed indictments against officers Bowen, Gisevius, Villavaso and Faulcon Jr....

Washington state’s Initiative 502, a voter-approved measure that legalizes recreational marijuana under state law, goes into effect today (Dec. 6). But with many legal issues still up in the air, what’s supposed to happen next? The biggest cloud hanging over Washington’s new marijuana law is the fact that marijuana use, both recreational and medicinal, remains illegal under federal law, reports the Seattle Post Intelligencer. So at any moment, the federal government or a federal court may step in and attempt to take away the rights that citizens voted for....

California plans to unveil a legislative package designed to help law enforcement respond quickly to find missing children. The father of slain teenager Amber Dubois is working with lawmakers to unveil a full package on May 25, National Missing Children’s Day, the San Diego Times Union reports. As previously discussed, John Albert Gardner III is scheduled to be sentenced May 14 for the rapes and murders of Amber and Poway teen, Chelsea King....

Marriage is a good thing – so say millions of married people and the government, who encourages marriage through tax breaks and other financial incentives. Even landlords might prefer married couples, thinking their relationship and financial status will be more stable. But marriage isn’t for everyone, and even those who might plan to get married may not be married yet. And incentives for marriage can turn into punishments for unmarried couples....

How many of you wish that you, too, could throw the fake ashes of Kim Jung-Il in Ryan Seacrest’s face? Sacha Baron Cohen’s red carpet stunt was perhaps the unofficial highlight of last night’s Academy Awards. Dressed as a generic dictator, the comedian approached Seacrest with an urn containing the North Korean leader’s fake ashes. He then purposely spilled them all over the E! host. People now want to know if Ryan Seacrest can sue Sacha Baron Cohen for the prank....

We know that most charitable donations are tax deductible. And we’re always looking for ways to lower our small business’ tax rate. So what if your small business wants to make a charitable donation? Or better yet, set up a tithing? A small business tithing might be tax deductible, but it will depend on what organization your small business is contributing to and how your small business is organized. Here are a few keys to whether your small business can deduct tithing:...

You may have heard about the concept of competency to stand trial. It basically means that a person charged with a crime must be able to comprehend the nature and consequences of the proceedings and adequately help an attorney with their defense. Often, courts struggle with determining whether someone is mentally competent to stand trial, and if not, what to do about it. For instance, courts may order a defendant to up to four months of hospitalization while their competency is tested....

A simple question: Do you have to give employee meal breaks? A lawyerly answer: It depends. Unfortunately, employee meal breaks is one of the most complicated areas of employment law and non-compliant employers regularly face multi-million dollar class action lawsuits. So why the confusion? Under federal law, there is no such thing as employee meal breaks. Employers don’t have to give you time off to eat regardless of how many hours you work....

Wrongful death lawsuits allow surviving spouses and family to recover financially when a spouse or family member dies due to the negligence or intentional act of another. Wrongful death laws will vary from state to state, but will typically only allow immediate family members, or next of kin, to file the claim. This often results in unmarried individuals being unable to recover for wrongful death claims. The common exception to this involves states that allow registered domestic partners, which used to be common for same-sex couples prior the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage....

Ever been tempted to lie to an insurance company? Did you want a few extra weeks of workers’ comp payments? Or how about a slightly larger TV? We get it. It’s tempting to squeeze out just a bit more than what you really deserve. But don’t do it. Don’t lie to your insurance company. Don’t lie to anyone else’s insurance company. If you’re ever found out, you may find yourself charged with insurance fraud....

A falling TV causes an injury to a child once every 30 minutes on average, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. In 2011 alone, televisions falling on children caused about 17,000 injuries that were serious enough to result in a hospital visit. A few cases even resulted in fatalities. Almost two in three (64 percent) of those injuries occurred in children under the age of 5, reports the Los Angeles Times....

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will introduce an initiative that strives to minimize the risk of radiation overdose from medical imaging technologies in medical facilities. In a press release by the FDA, there will be three specific medical imaging technologies that will be monitored in order to reduce radiation exposure: computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy. The Los Angeles Times reports that the initiative announced by the FDA is part of an effort to address the reports of injuries and the overall exposure to radiation in the lifetime of an average individual....

In some states, you can use food stamps in restaurants. Traditionally, food stamps couldn’t be used to purchase prepared foods. But now, a new pilot program has made it so that some consumers can use food stamps for fast food. Food stamps are distributed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federal government has allowed states to decide if elderly, disabled or homeless people can use food stamps for prepared restaurant food....

Small businesses have been the focus of a large number of tax code changes in the last two years, a lot of which are now applicable that we are in the 2011 tax year. Though many of the changes deal with tax credits and deductions, there has been a lot of focus on employment taxes and health care. This is particularly true of reporting and compliance for your employees’ W2 and 1099 forms....

A judge with the National Labor Relations board recently upheld Whole Foods’ ban on recording employees at work. What can employers learn from the ruling? The case centered on the issue of whether an employer’s ban on recording conversations in the workplace violates the National Labor Relations Act. If you don’t already have a workplace recording policy, you might want to consider drafting one that clarifies your position. Whole Foods Market enacted a company policy that made it a violation to record conversations in the workplace – including parking lots and the store front – with a tape recorder or other recording device....