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The law has come a long way when it comes to getting things done quickly. Well, at least in most areas. When it comes to intellectual property issues, patience is definitely something that you need to have. In this article, we take a look at how long you should expect it to take to get a trademark approved by the Patent & Trademark Office.

As the name suggests, the Patent & Trademark Office is in charge of the filing process for both patents and trademarks. The “PTO” is the epitome of an agency that is underfunded and overworked. Whether we are talking about patents or trademarks, the filing process takes a very long time.

The first step is the application process. This is an area where things have been spread up significantly. In most situations, you can simple file electronically using a form on the PTO site. While the form is fairly simple, there can be instances where sending in a sample of the trademark require a paper filing. Regardless, the application starts the filing process.

Once the application is filed, you can expect to wait a year to 18 months on average for the approval to come. The vast majority of this time is spent sitting around and waiting. The first thing you will hear from the PTO is a small postcard that comes in three months or so. The card merely verifies the application has been received and will be reviewed. Three to six months after that, the examining attorney for your filing will send a letter alerting you to any problems or areas of the application needing further explanation. Alternatively, the attorney may indicate the application is accepted and will be published for comment.

If things go smoothly, the total time from filing to approval is going to be roughly a year. If the examining attorney raises issues, you can add at least six months to the process. It is as simple as that.

Trademarks are very valuable properties for a business. That being said, obtaining them takes a significant amount of patience. The old adage of “hurry up and wait” definitely applies here.

Latest forecasts predict that in 2011 an increasing number of homeowners will face up to home repossession. If your home is repossessed and you do not move out by the date set by the court you will be issued with an eviction notice.

An eviction notice is an order informing you that you will be removed from your home on a specific time and date. The eviction notice will be personally handed to you at least three days before you are expected to leave. On the date of the eviction the bailiff will explain that you are being evicted and that you must leave the property right away. You will be given a maximum of ten minutes to pack a few personal items. After this you will have fourteen days to collect the rest of your possessions such as your clothes and furniture. If you do not remove your possessions in this time then the bailiff will arrange for them to be disposed of.

You can however attempt to get the eviction process stopped. When the bailiffs hand you the eviction notice they have to give you a form to request another court hearing. You should use this form to explain your circumstances and outline the reasons why you want the bailiff’s visit to be stopped or delayed. For the eviction to be stopped you will need to present strong evidence that you are able to clear your arrears and will be able to keep up with your mortgage payments.

Even after eviction it may still be possible for you to get your home back. If the mortgage lender has not sold your house and you can raise the necessary finance to pay off the mortgage then you can apply for an injunction to stop the sale of the property. The exception to this is if contracts have already been exchanged with a buyer. In this case you will be unable to prevent your home being sold.

Do you live in Athens? Have you fallen on hard times and feel like declaring bankruptcy is the only way out? In some cases, declaring bankruptcy may be the only way to save your personal assets and yourself from legal action. However, you need to make sure that it is carried out in the proper manner. And only an experienced attorney who has handled similar cases over the years can help you out here. However, finding a reputed bankruptcy attorney in Athens can be a bit tricky if you don’t know how. There are so many attorneys around that it is alright if you feel a little overwhelmed when you begin searching. The following pointers may help you to speed up the searching:

Look for an attorney who offers affordable services

If you are filing bankruptcy, then it is quite likely that you do not have much cash on hand. Hence, finding an attorney with reasonable fees should be your first criterion. Look for attorneys who provide the preliminary consultation free of cost. Also, make sure that they offer you payment options for their fees. This is an act of courtesy that you can expect from most lawyers of this type, but make sure you confirm it anyway.

Make sure that he is genuinely interested in your case

If you go in for a face to face discussion with the lawyer, notice his reaction towards your questions. Make sure he asks you questions as well, regarding the details of your case. He should also ask for a number of documents that he will need to work on your case.

Ask whether he will help you prepare a credit report after your case is over

Preparing the credit report after a bankruptcy case will be a major dilemma for you. The report has to be set up properly so that the negative impact of the bankruptcy is lessened as much as possible. This is where the bankruptcy attorney (in Athens) should come to your aid.

Make sure you choose the bankruptcy attorney (in Athens) properly, based on the above criteria. You will have a much better chance of getting your case solved quickly and properly. For starters, check out http://www.legalatlanta.com They have been working in the field successfully for many years and have many experienced attorneys on board. Check out the website right now, and you should be able to find solution for your problem quickly.

Bankruptcy is a legal expression that is used to describe the inability of an individual to repay his debts. It is considered to be the ultimate decision that one can make at times of financial shortage. Filing for bankruptcy is a way of eliminating all the outstanding debts.

Bankruptcy is perhaps the most complicated lawsuit one can ever go through. It involves many complex procedures. A common person is not supposed to understand such issues on his own. A skilled legal representative is the right person who can deal with a bankruptcy case properly.

The two most commonly preferred codes of bankruptcy are explained as follows:

Chapter 7 – This is an option that most individuals choose. This lets a debtor to get rid of his burden of debts totally. As a person files for a Chapter 7 code of bankruptcy, the court assigns a trustee who is given the power to evaluate the value of total assets of a debtor. The assets are thereafter distributed to all the involved creditors.

Chapter 13 - This option is not applicable for everyone. It allows a debtor to pay his debts after a period of time duration. Usually a time span of 3-5 years is allowed by a debtor. A debtor requires having a proper source of income to pay his debts after the given period of time. Partnership businesses cannot apply for this bankruptcy chapter. A debtor needs to submit a repayment plan to the court and wait till its approval. If the plan is approved, the court procedures are carried forward.

Bankruptcy is a knotty issue that requires legal assistance of a specialized bankruptcy lawyer. You must be careful about a few things while searching for a lawyer for your case. The following pointers can be helpful.

Specialization – Make sure your lawyer holds specialization in the field of bankruptcy. This issue is pretty complicated and needs a person who knows everything about the lawsuit.

Experience – your lawyer must hold enough experience in the field of practicing law. An experienced lawyer would be able to understand the implications involved in a bankruptcy case better than a young lawyer. Also, a lawyer with good experience would be holding strong contacts with higher court officials.

Referrals – Word of mouth can be a helpful in finding good and reputed lawyers in your area. You can consider asking your friends and family members to find bankruptcy lawyers who are well known in their field.

Do not take any chance in dealing with your case and hire a bankruptcy lawyer. Scottsdale citizens can contact Leonard V. Sominsky for availing professional bankruptcy services.

A trademark is used to perfect ownership over an identifier for a product. The question many have is why is getting a trademark important? In this article, we take a look at 3 reasons for getting a trademark.

A trademark is actually a subset of an area of law known as commercial marks. The term “trademark” is used to cover all of them [service marks, trade names] in general discussions even though this is technically wrong. For the purposes of this article, I will do the same thing. If you are interested in registering a service mark or trade name, the following applies to them even though I use the term trademark.

The first reason for getting a trademark is clearance. By this, I mean that the process of getting a trademark can save you a ton of money and heartache down the line. This is because the process of getting a trademark requires you to do a search to determine if anyone else is using the mark already. If so, then you can avoid a situation where you develop a brand for a year or two only to have to give it up under threat of a trademark infringement lawsuit.

The second reason for filing your mark is the huge legal benefits its gives you. A successful trademark filing creates two presumptions in your favor. The first is you are the owner of the mark. The second is any other party that infringes on your mark is presumed to have done so deliberately. Effectively, this means you are switching the burden of proving the case to the other party and, should you win, you will be able to recover your attorney’s fees and collect large damages.

The third important reason for registering is it helps you build a saleable brand. Intellectual property is a party of your business. Registering your mark builds up the valuable of your business, something that brings in a higher sales price should you sell it. Conversely, you can also license your trademark for use with other parties in exchange for royalties. In short, a mark can become another source of revenue.

Should you go through the process of registering a trademark? Absolutely. The cost and time involved in doing so can be annoying, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

The tenancy deposit scheme, was introduced to stop all the wrangling over the return of deposits once a tenancy had come to an end. Should there be some sort of dispute an arbitrator would assess the property and make a decision as to whether all or part of the deposit should be given to the landlord. The idea behind this was that less scrupulous landlords were keeping deposits regardless of whether or not they should, and many of them used deposits as part of their day to day cash flow. So in terms of protecting the tenant from the landlord it is a quality scheme, but due to the nature of deposits (and not the scheme) the tenants were always going to be the ones to benefit anyway.

And that is where the problem lies. In a world were everyone behaved honourably there would be no need for a tenancy deposit scheme, because there would be no need for deposits. But because we don’t live in that world we do need something, and in no small part the tenancy deposit scheme is the reason for this.

Lets start by looking at the scheme and how it affects landlords in reality. There are 2 types of scheme, type 1 you pay the money into a government approved account. Type 2 is an insurance scheme, and slightly more expensive. Regardless of which scheme you use, you must within 14 days of taking the deposit, notify the tenant of details of the deposit scheme you are using. Failure to do this may lead to the following: the award of three times the deposit monies to the tenant, and you still have to put the money in the scheme, and whilst the money is not in the scheme you cannot get back possession of the property from the tenant. At the end of the tenancy you are supposed to view the property to perform a ‘check out inspection’ and if you believe there are any issues for which you should be awarded part or all of the deposit, you then have to go down a claimant route, and an assessor will decide. This part has the potential to work, where it falls down (as it does with any deposit based agreement) is that a tenant will often not pay the last months rent in lieu of the deposit, and if the place is a mess, well your picking up that tab as well.

In my experience, deposits do not work and there is nothing of any use about them, and not just for all the reasons above. Many good quality tenants are turned away from properties everyday because they don’t have enough money for advance rent and a deposit. All levels of ‘class’ from the aristocracy to people on benefits are crammed full of good and bad people. Having more money than someone else does not make you a better, more honourable person; yet people who can’t find two months rent can’t get a place to live.

Deposits also don’t work because nine times out of ten, if you really need the deposit at the end of the tenancy there is a very good chance one months rent wont cover the damage or the rent arrears. We all have tenants who treat our properties like their own and consistently pay their rent in full on time month after month. It is the minority we need help with; not only will they leave your property in a mess, they will leave with arrears also.

So how do I go about protecting my properties and those that I manage on behalf of other landlords? The answer is the guarantor, because when you get the right one, you never have any problems.

So, who is the right guarantor? The right guarantor is a home owner and family member. Why are they the right guarantor? Firstly if your Father/Mother/Brother/Sister/Auntie/Uncle/Grandparents are not ready to stand guarantor for your tenant, something is wrong, and you don’t need to do any more referencing or credit checks. And secondly there is nothing more embarrassing or likely to bring the response you want than a family member ringing up to ask why they have just received a letter threatening court action for non payment of rent. I can assure you from personal experience, it only happens once.

The idea of this article is not to criticise the tenancy deposit scheme, but more to highlight that there are better ways of securing your property and future rent.

Coming up with a mark for something can be a challenge. Many people fall back on familiar themes and end up making the very big mistake of being too general when coming up with names. When it comes to enforcing trademarks, being as distinct as possible is the best way to go.

Let’s assume you’ve hit upon a great idea. You want to put together a drink that will provide a bit of pep during the day when a person needs energy. You decide to call it “Energy Drink” and file a trademark application with the Patent & Trademark Office. It will probably be rejected, but let’s assume it is approved for some bizarre reason.

A year later, you are in a store and see a product next to yours. It is called “Red Bull” and has “energy drink” written on it. You call a trademark attorney to find out what it will take to enforce your rights. After laughing for a few minutes, the attorney informs you that there is no case. Why? Your mark is to generic.

Words that are constantly used in the normal lexicon of day-to-day life cannot be trademarked. I cannot go trademark “internet”. It is already used and in so many contexts, that a trademark would mean nothing. The name used on my product would not distinguish it from, well, anything really. It would be useless.

You always want to go for something as distinct as possible with marks. The more distinct the mark, the harder it is for others to infringe upon it. My mark for “search engine” is worthless because it is generic and there are tons of businesses using the phrase. My mark for “Chapo Search Engine” is better, but not hugely so since it incorporates the generic search engine phrase. My mark for “Google” [I wish], now that is very distinctive and is going to be very hard for anyone to ever challenge.

Coming up with a good, strong mark is all about distinctiveness. Pull out your thinking cap and give it a good go until you come up with something unique. Google isn’t bad. Oh, wait. That’s taken.

Conveyancing is the technical term given to the process of transferring the ownership of a property from one individual or organisation to another individual or organisation. This is a legal term and involves a number of legal issues and as such it is important to use a lawyer in order to go through the process. Thus it might occur when a business is sold and the legal ownership of all the properties needs to be transferred, or it might occur when an individual gives up ownership of their home for one reason or another. In order to ensure that the conveyance is legal and that the new owners are indeed the new owners officially, then it is important for the seller and/or the buyer to use a conveyancing lawyer.

A conveyancing lawyer is someone who is licensed and regulated and who understands the law pertaining to your conveyance. They will be specialised in conveyancing law and as such they won’t also deal with divorces, child custody and other legal matters meaning that they have more experience and expertise in this particular field.

When you sell or buy a property you will normally agree a price and any terms or conditions. Once the buyer has agreed a price, they will normally contact a conveyancer to carry out their searches and pre-contract enquiries. The conveyancer will then prepare a draft contract which will be approved by the buyer and seller.

As soon as possible it is important to inform the lawyer of your plans as this will speed up the process of the move. Find a lawyer that you can trust, and that has good reviews etc and shop around to get different quotes. Your estate agent may well recommend you a conveyancing lawyer, as might the seller, but it can be a good idea to look around yourself first to ensure you get the best possible deal and to ensure impartiality on the part of the lawyer.

When you have found your conveyancing lawyer you should explain to them your financial situation and what your precise goals are. You also need to let them know if there is any kind of chain involves, if estate agents are involved, or if there are particular requirements – such as a proposed moving date. A lawyer can help you to ensure that the process is as quick as possible and the results are as much as possible to your liking. They will also confer with your estate agents on your behalf and will make sure that all parties are happy with proceedings, and will overlook contracts and other terms and conditions to ensure that you get the best deal possible and that everything is above board.

When dealing with something as expensive and as complicated as property there are a lot of factors to consider and a lot of things that can conceivably go wrong. It is highly important to use a conveyancing lawyer in order to ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible and to protect yourself legally. This can also protect you from fraud and ensure that you are taking good title.