The advice of an experienced attorney is absolutely critical to success in litigation -- whether that success comes in the form of a win in court or a favorable settlement. An experienced litigator, like the ones at Gutwein law, will think steps ahead and anticipate what the opposing party may do throughout the litigation process enabling you to obtain the best possible outcome for your situation.

Given that anyone can be sued at any time, we think it's important that our current and prospective clients have a basic understanding of the litigation process, so they can obtain proper counsel, and ultimately, have their interests protected.

Below, we've outlined the litigation process in seven steps to give you an idea of what it's typically like to be involved in a lawsuit.

Recently, the Supreme Court provided some clarity and guidance to trademark protection for generic terms registered as a domain and used as a trademark. In Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V., No. 19-46 (U.S. Jun. 30, 2020), the Court held that the mark “Booking.com” is not generic and is capable of trademark registration, even though the term “booking” is generic for a class of goods and services related to online hotel registrations. Essentially, the Patent and Trademark Office was arguing for a bright line rule that the addition of a generic Internet-domain-name suffix to an already generic term, for a related category of goods, is also generic; i.e. one cannot trademark the term “generic.com” for a generic description of a category of goods.

In continuation of our recent commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, we're examining the latest litigation risks for employers in today's blog post. Because of COVID-19, employers of all sizes have been forced to make difficult decisions regarding employment. These decisions have led to furloughs, increased sick leave, productivity concerns, pay cuts, and termination of employees, all of which ultimately raise litigation concerns.

The boundary between termination and retention is more blurred than ever before. And this lack of distinction naturally leads to contract claims. Additionally, termination can raise non-compete issues if an employee is subject to a non-compete covenant, as well as wrongful termination issues.

Keeping track of employee documentation can be tedious, but it’s necessary and
especially helpful in the event of an employee-related issue. The big question is: what
kinds of documentation do you need to file away? In comes our personnel file checklist.
Below we’ve outlined our recommendations for what documents you should keep in
personnel files and those you should keep separately. If you have any questions, please
give us a call at 765.423.7900.

Choosing the employment policies that are right for your company is a big deal. Things like dress code requirements, remote working options, and time off allowances can have an enormous impact on your company’s culture and the happiness of your employees. There are some policies, though, you simply must have in place – the kind that can protect you and your company in the event of an employee-related issue.

So where do you start? How do you know what types of policies and documents you need to create? Well, we created this blog post to answer these very questions. At a high level, there are three items we suggest all companies have in place: