Same Dress, Two Designers? Click on this link to see the flyer announcing the program we’ve put together. A three-credit Continuing Legal Education (CLE) class about protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry. (Non-lawyers are also welcome, for a nominal charge)
New York County Lawyers Association reports that more than 50 people have already signed up to attend, which is huge.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– September 7, 2011
Coming up on September 8, 2011, at 6:00 PM, coinciding with the September 2011 New York City Fashion Week, the Cyberspace Law Committee of New York County Lawyers Association is putting on a Continuing Legal Education course on Intellectual Property protections in the fashion industry.
This course is for both lawyers and non-lawyers (no CLE credit for non-lawyers).
Full Disclosure: I am announcing this event because, in late 2010, I was appointed co-chair of New York County Lawyers’ Associations Cyberspace Law Committee and this is one of our projects.
Course Description:
Celebrate New York Fashion Week by joining us at a special program focusing on protecting intellectual property rights in the fashion industry. While imitation can be considered the highest form of flattery, it can also be costly, harmful to businesses – and even illegal.
Learn the ins and outs of legal protection in the fashion industry, including how Trademark, Copyright and Design-Patent laws can be, and are used, in the United States and in Europe against copying and counterfeiting in the fashion industry.
Special focus will also be given to new legislation, the “Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act” (IDPPA), now pending in Congress.
Faculty:
Program Co-sponsor: NYCLE Cyberspace Committee, Allan Pearlman and Natalie Sulimani, Co-Chairs
Program Chair:Viviana Mura, Herzfeld & Rubin P.C.
Faculty: Prof. Guillermo C. Jimenez, Fashion Institute of Technology and co-author, “Fashion Law, A Guide for Designers, Fashion Executives, and Attorneys”; Viviana Mura, Herzfeld & Rubin P.C.; Joseph Francis Murphy, Law Office of Joseph Francis Murphy, Esq.
For more information go to www.nycla.org or to the specific page for the Same Dress, Two Designers? by clicking here.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– August 29, 2011
There’s still time to keep more of your money yours, and have Uncle Sam and the IRS say “what’s yours is mine” to less of your hard-earned income.
As you probably know by now, Tax Day, which is usually April 15th every year, this year is three days later, on Monday April 18th. So the annual day of tax reckoning for most of us is this coming Monday.
This fast approaching deadline made me think of something that all too many taxpayers do. And by doing it, they unnecessarily harm themselves and cause themselves to have a bigger tax bill than they’d otherwise have.
And I’m going to share with you an easy, inexpensive, and legal way to keep a whole lot of money in your own pocket and out of Uncle Sam’s pocket.
Posted in Tax Penalties.
– April 15, 2011
It’s been sounding like a love-fest, Howard Stern and satellite radio. First, Sirius crushed its competitor, XM — which it could not have done without the weight of Howard and his loyal listeners. Then the two satellite radio companies merged to become Sirius XM. This has sounded like a love-fest: Howard can do his morning radio show uncensored by regular radio stations, unthreatened by the FCC, and without endless commercials jamming up his show.
Plus, since his first day on satellite radio, in January 2006, Howard has been saying how great it is to be appreciated by his new employer. Again and again, his listeners have heard him say that he’s happy at Sirius, and that the whole set-up on satellite has allowed him and his crew to do the best radio they’ve ever done.
In December 2010, after months of a cliff-hanger for listeners, wondering whether Howard would renew his contract, he re-signed to continue his show for another five years.
But the love-fest — let’s say the honeymoon at least — seems to be over. Today, Howard Stern, through his production company, One Twelve, Inc. (named for his birthday, January 12th), and his agent, Don Buchwald, sued Sirius XM in New York State Supreme Court for breach of contract.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– March 22, 2011
“The company accountant is shy and retiring. He’s shy a quarter of a million dollars. That’s why he’s retiring.”
• Milton Berle
and
Question: What does an accountant use for birth control?
Answer: His personality.
While much of my attention, when it comes to jokes about professions, is focused on lawyer jokes (e.g., What do you call a 52 seat bus with 50 lawyers on it which drives off a cliff? ….), I always ask other professionals what jokes there are about them (e.g., Two optometrists walk into a bar….)
So, it feels like a gift to be told a few accountant jokes.
And with many of us having an accountant as our new best friend in February or March, it could not have come at a better time. I think Bob was not unaware of this.
– March 15, 2011
A lawyer friend emailed me the following bit of history:
“And God said:
‘Let there be Satan, so people don’t blame everything on me.
‘And let there be lawyers, so people don’t blame everything on Satan.’”
– as told to George Burns
Posted in Humor, Jokes, Lawyers.
– March 8, 2011
This is in the non-tax-related area of law:
I’m writing to tell you about – and invite you to come to – a free panel discussion (aka “Public Forum”) on a topic important to anyone who runs or wants to run a website or blog, and to lawyers who advise website owners or bloggers, or both.
A little more information: The forum is entitled:
“Click on the Dotted Line:
Internet Website Privacy Policies,
Terms of Use and Service, and Disclaimers –
Can all that stuff you never read actually hurt you?”
It’s taking place on Tuesday April 27, 2010 at 6 PM at New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA), which is downtown, near City Hall, at 14 Vesey Street, New York, NY. NYCLA’s Cyberspace Law Committee is putting on this forum and I will be moderating it.
What’s it about? This forum will discuss the enforceability of website terms, good practices in developing those terms, as well as pitfalls for website owners, businesses, and their attorneys in identifying issues, developing policies, and drafting the “fine print” terms for websites.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– April 22, 2010
Criminals who dress up as cops sometimes get a whole lot of crimes done. Similarly, internet email scamsters have been pretending to be the Internal Revenue Service for a while as well.
In this scam, a criminal sends an email which is supposed to look like it’s from the IRS. This fraudulent email asks you to click on a link to review your account, get a refund, or something, but the goal is actually to extract from your personal information, by which your identity can be stolen, or to commit some other nefarious crime which will only hurt you (like perhaps to take control of your computer and use it as a zombie bot which becomes an unwitting conduit for spam).
Posted in Internet tax scam, phishing.
– March 28, 2010
A religious leader in Vancouver, Washington has a lot of atoning to do for his less-than-spiritual relationship to material things and the lure of filthy lucre.
Until last September, Maximo Garza, 47, was the pastor for Victory Outreach Church of Portland, a non-denominational church which has operated in Portland, Oregon, for more than 15 years. Garza was sentenced to five months in prison for aiding the preparation of a false tax return.
During his plea hearing, Garza admitted he provided false expense invoices which purported to reflect public relations and other services provided by Victory Outreach Church to William Thompson, who was then operating a mail-order divorce service using the name Hallwood Inc.
Thompson used the false invoices to take expense deductions on tax returns filed by Hallwood in order to fraudulently reduce his tax liability. Thompson pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to a prison term in 2007.
Between 2001 and 2003, Garza provided invoices reflecting a total of $735,441 in false business expenses. Thompson agreed to let Garza keep approximately 10% of the expense amounts.
Posted in Tax Crimes.
– March 21, 2010
Where are those scarce government resources going?
The Internal Revenue Service employs approximately 88,000 full time staff. This is two and a half times as many as the FBI.
Then, what about Spies v. Bean counters? Incomparable! The number of the CIA’s staff cannot “at present, be publicly disclosed.” So says cia.gov.
Posted in IRS News, IRS Power.
– March 3, 2010
