The Department of Labor is in the process of making significant changes to two exemptions that could significantly impact your company: the white collar overtime exemption and the exemption for highly compensated employees.  The final rule has not been published, but employers should consider making preparations now based on the proposed rule. 

This blog was originally written as a guest post for Indiana on Tap in November 2015. 

In my last blog post, I touched briefly on how breweries should go about enforcing their trademarks and protecting their brand. This blog post is going to jump in and discuss some different anecdotal tales on how breweries have enforced their trademarks and avenues that are available to do so.

Earlier this month, I was given the opportunity to speak with an entrepreneurship class at Purdue University, regularly taught by Tim Peoples – who is also the Director of Entrepreneur Services and Programming for the Purdue Foundry. My goal going into this class was to give the students a basic understanding of the options and processes that go into forming a company.

Filing your trademark registration application is a simple concept. But the process you must follow and the rules governing that process are complex. Many wonder whether they would be able to successfully register a mark on their own, or if they should go with a legal technology website or law firm. Here are the three options you have along with their respective pros and cons:

If you own real estate, it’s likely you recently received a new assessment from your County Assessor.  Whether the property is your primary residence, a multi-unit apartment building, or commercial space, the assessed value can have a significant impact on the property taxes that you will owe the next year and beyond.  The assessed value is determined on March 1 of each year, and is based on several factors depending on the type of property.  The County Assessor considers everything from neighborhood and build quality for residential real estate, to estimated net operating income and capitalization rates for commercial properties.   Because a majority of the factors considered are often subjective and estimated, the assessed values can be significantly higher than the actual value of the property or neighboring properties.  

So if you think your assessment is wrong, what is the next step?