Discussion #3

By Francisco Guerra

You are Mr. Guerra's attorney and legal advisor.  Select one topic from the text and either tell him why he is proceeding according to your advice, or suggest an alternative course of action.

Remember, you are giving legal advice.  If you agree or disagree, you must give support for your answer.

You can use any Internet source to support your position, but you must provide all URL

Mr .Guerra who is the author of this handbook ‘This is how we do it kid’ and an inventor of many products including the following which is directly quoted from his Guerra holdings website

· Drink Safe Technology - Drink Safe Technology produces beverage coasters which can detect the presence of any date-rape drug by placing a drop of liquid on its surface. Now widely used by universities, bars, and nightclubs everywhere, Drink Safe Coasters can literally be considered life-saving devices.

· Evaporative Snow - When trying to come up with the perfect snowfall solution for his magic act, Francisco realized there was nothing adequate on the market to suit his needs. Thus, he set out to create exactly what he needed. Years later, after much research, development, and product testing, Evaporative Snow machines were ready for the industry, and the industry has responded extremely well. Evaporative Snow is now used in major motion pictures and theme parks all across the globe.

· Faux Snow - After creating Evaporative Snow, Francisco set his sights on creating the perfect artificial snow. After more research, development, and lab testing, Faux Snow made its official debut. By mixing plain water with a specialty powdered formula, Faux Snow produces what looks and feels like real snow in a couple of minutes. It is regularly used by art directors, feature filmmakers, etc. to make their productions more realistic.

· Flogos - He later created Flogos. Flogos are created by the extrusion of flogo juice and combined with helium gas through pre-made or custom-made stencils. They can be made in the shape of any word, logo, etc. and up to 36 inches in diameter

We all agree that starting a business is a great undertaking. It spans from product development to business development. Legal issues are often ignored or assumed due to the cost implication but business people realize it when it’s too late .Business starts and end with lawyers. It’s often said that nature abhors vacuum

There are several issues related to law such as ownership of business and intellectual property.

It is evident that Mr. Guerra discovered very unique products in the market to offer solution to an existing problem. This product later sold to a million folds and here in this book Mr. Guerra shows us how to develop a product, market it to new and existing markets while being convincing and relatable. In the first page he illustrates how writing an email to a new customer would not help but rather calling pr physically presenting himself to the customer.

One day he identified a potential customer/user and being afraid to what to do just grab a phone and called the secretary who later gave him the door to his success. The manager was able to later give him an appointment where he would showcase his snow machine product he had invented that the firm really needed.

As pertains to legal procedures, I want to give my alternate advice to Mr. Guerra who is the author of this handbook ‘This is how we do it kid” to embrace a few legal consideration if he hasn’t considered any yet.

1. Licensing

Licensing your product basically gives someone else the right to produce and sell your product for a given period of time. So when you're developing your product, you should already be thinking about whether or not you want to license it. The positive is that the business generally takes on the risk associated with producing your product, and they also usually know what they're doing and can achieve results. The badside is that you're giving control of your product to another individual and thereby losing control over your intellectual property.

2. Product Liability

This one has to do with defects emanating from the product. Mr. Guerra is fully liable for his products. There can be manufacturing defects, which h isn't in control of, and design defects which he has full control over. It is important to sit down with experts and have them test any flaws or likely defects before manufacture.

3. Patents

Mr. Guerra should make sure that his inventions are legally protected. Patents are the best way to ensure that your invention is legally protected, should someone try to copy your idea or challenge your ownership of it, but they aren't always worth it. He should approach a patent attorney depending on the complexity of his products.

4. Trademark or service mark

This is word used to identify and distinguish a company’s products or services from that of another company and to indicate the source of the goods or services. A service mark serves the same purpose as a trademark, but instead of products, service marks identify services and events. Trademark law governs the use of trademarks and service marks. Trademarks are a form of intellectual property. The law entitles Mr. Guerra to exclusive use of the mark in relation his snow products which they are registered. The law in most jurisdictions also allows the owner of a registered trademark to prevent unauthorized use of the mark in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the registered products or services, know as trademark infringement. There can be cases of Trademark infringement where one party may adopts or uses a trademark that is confusingly similar to the prior adopted and used trademark for similar products or services. In the event of such an incidence Mr. Guerra must prove that the infringer’s use of the mark has created a likelihood of confusion about the origin of the defendant's goods or services. The confusion created can be that the infringer’s products are the same as that of Mr.Guerras or that the infringer is somehow associated, affiliated, connected, approved, authorized or sponsored.

References