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Protection of Intellectual Property in Technology Startup
Aside from competence of management team, control of intellectual property is a major focus of investor scrutiny. The ability to identify and protect intellectual property directly reflects on investor confidence and the resulting access to capital available to technology start-up. Protection of intellectual property assets is available through the law of copyright, trade secrets, patents and trademarks.
Financing Technology Startup
Many startup companies, particularly in technology sector, require capital beyond the means of their founders in order to finance continued growth. Expenses quickly add up, and a business that cannot manage its cash flow will not survive. Because startup companies typically have a limited operating history and are considered to be risky ventures, obtaining even simple financing arrangements can be a difficult task.
Sports Contracts
Sport law is an amalgamation of many legal disciplines, ranging from antitrust law to tax law. These disciplines are applied to facts arising from a sports context and are supplemented by case law nuances and a growing body of provincial and federal statutes specifically applicable to sports. Sports law, with its wide variety of legal aspects, probably encompasses more areas of the law than any other legal discipline. Sports law is also a dynamic field of the law with new issues arising on an almost daily basis due to court decisions, new legislation and regulations.
Presently athletes are represented by unions in the four major professional sports: baseball, basketball, football and hockey. Collective bargaining agreements in the context of professional sports are contracts between management and the players' union which govern the working relationship between the two parties and the players. These contracts contain a plethora of rules, regulations and contract provisions. Standard contracts include provisions on the length of the contract, publicity and group licensing programs, compensation, physical condition, injury, skills, performance and personal conduct criteria, termination, injury grievance, integrity of the game and other conditions to the engagement of the player by the team. Union regulations governing player-agent relations in each sport dictate required terms of each player-agent contract, including mandatory provisions concerning circumstances under which the agent is paid, minimum player salaries, maximum agent fees and charges, right of termination by the player and other restrictions on the agent. The sports representative must carefully review the rules and regulations of each sport, as each sport has distinct nuances.
Contract principles in sports are very similar to contract principles outside of sports. The two mostly standardized contracts are the basic standard players' contract (SPK) and the standard representation contract (SRK). Contracts in sports define the rights and the responsibilities of the various participants in the business of professional sports. The basic unit in sports contracts is the standard player's contract (SPK), which is an employment contract that specifies both the player's obligations and that the employer has control over the player by way of various clauses, such as the morality clause and the trading clause, which gives management the right to trade or assign a player's contract to another franchise at will. The average player then has little job security and the SPK becomes a contract of adhesion, which can only be modified if you possess "JUICE."
What's JUICE? LeBron James has it, but Bobby Nobody, a free agent, defensive back (DB) from Slippery Rock, probably does not have it. It is the ability to write player's own ticket based on his exceptional skills or widespread popularity that is of a unique nature. Bobby Nobody is entirely fungible; any other generic DB would be just as suitable. The more JUICE, the more modifications player can demand to the SPK. There are somewhat standard modifications, such as no-cut contracts, no-trade contracts, attendance clauses, etc. Likewise, there are also not-so standard clauses. For example, one quarterback has written into his contract that he would receive a new Corvette every month for the life of his contract. Some of the modifications that specify positive employee benefits have been made part of the SPK through the collective bargaining agreement (c.b.a.), e.g., moving expenses after trades, meal allowances, hospital care benefits, etc.
The Firm can provide a full spectrum of contracts for professional athletes in the sport and entertainment industry. We can assist our clients on business and marketing issues and strategies (including risk management), for the better protection and exploitation of their talents.