Blog


Karen Kalzer

New Washington Law Extends Rights for Religious Practices

Business, Employment, Religion

Governor Jay Inslee has signed in to law a bill that assures state employees (and public school students) two days off per calendar years for religious holiday. Our business clients, particularly those with heavy weekend and holiday need, may wish to anticipate similar requests being made to them as well for unpaid holidays as a “reasonable accommodation” for religious practices.


Karen Kalzer

Seattle Minimum Wage Update

Business, Employment

Lauren Parris Watts reviewed the implementation of the newly passed Seattle $15 Minimum Wage Ordinance at the latest Helsell Fetterman Employment Law Breakfast on June 3. We promised to keep out attendees informed about ongoing developments on this issue. The following is a quick rundown of the known challenges to the Ordinance.


Should I Register My Trademark?

Business, Intellectual Property

Business owners often ask me if they should “trademark” the name of their business. The good news for many of them is that they already have a trademark. There is no such thing as “trademarking” your company’s name. When you choose a name under which you will provide a particular good or service, you are adopting a trademark. In the U.S., you obtain rights in that trademark by using the mark in commerce in connection with the sale of goods or services. You do not have to register your trademark to have rights in it.


What the New Generic Top-Level Domains Mean for Your Brand

Intellectual Property

At the beginning of this year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the entity that manages the Internet’s global domain name system, began releasing new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .restaurant, .news, .computer, and .coffee. As many as 700 new publicly available gTLDs will roll out through 2015.


Karen Kalzer

Volunteers for Profit?

Employment

U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed Chen v. Major League Baseball, a class action asserting wage rights for volunteers at the MLB All Star Fan Fest.