I am pleased and honored to announce that I will be sworn in as Vice President for the Southern District of New York Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, tomorrow October 1, 2013 at 5:00 pm. The ceremony for all incoming officers will be held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse at 500...Read More

Michael J. Zussman, Esq. has been selected to the 2013 Super Lawyers Rising Stars list for Metro New York. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor. Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service...Read More

I often receive calls from potential clients who express interest in protecting their music or other artistic works.  Some callers are musicians who are beginning to record, perform and license their songs.  Others call because their music has been stolen or used by someone else without their permission. I ask, “Have you registered your copyrights?”...Read More

Trademarks and Branding Applying for a trademark registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is often overlooked by entrepreneurs and startups.  Protecting your business’s name and logo through federal trademark registration provides numerous benefits to you, such as the following: Public notice of your claim of ownership of the mark; A legal presumption of...Read More

Copyright for Start-Ups Start-up business owners and entrepreneurs must be aware of copyright law.  Of course, entertainment related businesses such as film production companies, authors, publishers, record labels, and artists themselves deal with copyrights regularly.  But all businesses must have a basic understanding of copyright law. Entrepreneurs and their attorneys must recognize copyright issues in...Read More

While many neighborhoods of New York City were undamaged by Hurricane Sandy, or lost power for a few hours or even several days, many neighborhoods were truly devastated by the storm. Red Hook and Coney Island in Brooklyn, Breezy Point and the Rockaways in Queens, Long Beach in Nassau County, and the borough of Staten...Read More

While Tim Lincecum may be one of the best pitchers baseball has seen since the turn of the millennium, he can’t seem pitch his way out of court. First, The Freak faced charges for pot possession in 2009.  Now, Timmy’s ex-landlord is suing him for entering his former apartment after his lease expired and stealing and destroying property. Good...Read More

An article by the BBC reports that spelling mistakes can cost businesses “millions” in lost online sales.  In this day and age of short attention spans and over-stimulation on the internet, companies have only a few seconds to catch a potential customer’s eye and close a sale.  The article reports that companies have “about six seconds” to catch someone’s...Read More

After somewhat of a hiatus, I return to the blog with two of my favorite subjects in one story:  Trademark infringement and the San Francisco Giants (defending World Series Champions, of course). It appears that federal agents seized over 2,400 t-shirts and baseball caps destined for Port au Prince, Haiti, bearing the registered trademarks of...Read More

Last Friday the “mainstream media”, blogs and intellectual property attorneys were all a-twitter over Sarah Palin’s latest move: applying for trademark registrations for the names “Sarah Palin” and “Bristol Palin.”  No, really. The CNN article may be found HERE: Upon review of the information on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office website, it appears that our...Read More