Articles/News
Donahue Fitzgerald Congratulates Our Partner, Eric A. Handler, as ACBA’s 2017 President
Donahue Fitzgerald LLP congratulates partner Eric A. Handler on his installation as president of the Alameda County Bar Association for 2017. Eric joins a distinguished list of Donahue Fitzgerald attorneys who have served in this position, starting with the late Justice O.D. Hamlin, Jr., who served as ACBA president in 1929. “Eric’s installation as ACBA […]
Read »How will recent changes to federal wage and hour law affect your business?
More specifically, the DOL increased the minimum salary level—from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $913 per week ($47,476 per year)—that certain employees must earn in order to be considered “exempt” from the FLSA’s overtime requirements. While there are a variety of exemptions from overtime, the revised regulations only apply to those employees who […]
Read »Donahue Fitzgerald Honored to Present Award to Maximum Games
Donahue Fitzgerald LLP sponsored the San Francisco Business Times‘ 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies Awards held on Thursday, October 13, 2016 at the Four Seasons in downtown San Francisco. Partner Michael Sebree presented an award to Maximum Games, which was named 10th out of 100 companies. Sebree stated, “Congratulations to Christina Seelye and her team […]
Read »Protecting your Brand – Inception to Global Market
Owners of emerging businesses may feel there are no new marks, that all the marks have already been used. But new businesses form every year and have created some of the most memorable new trademarks, such as Facebook, YouTube, OrganicGirl, Lyft and Airbnb. Selecting a new mark and protecting it as soon as possible by […]
Read »The Effects of the Defend Trade Secrets Act
Prior to the enactment of the DTSA, injured parties could only file civil trade secret misappropriation claims in state court under state law. The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) published by the Uniform Law Commission provided a framework to help states establish standard guidelines. Most states, including California, adopted the UTSA in some form, however […]
Read »‘Happy birthday’ Case May Change Content Licensing Practices
Excerpted from the article: “[The Happy Birthday to You case has] some important takeaways. Mistakes in a copyright registration, such as misstating the author or failing to identify the material, do not generally invalidate the registration. However, such mistakes can make proving ownership of a valid copyright in the work at issue difficult. The copyright […]
Read »The Most Famous Song in the World Set Free: Impacts of the Happy Birthday to You Settlement
Of the lessons learned from Good Morning to You Productions Corp. et al. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Andrew S. Mackay and Daniel J. Schacht encourage practitioners to, “Take care that your copyright registration is correct, or you will lose important evidentiary presumptions.” “If you are a copyright owner, don’t assume that you will not bear […]
Read »Donahue Fitzgerald Attorneys Recognized in the Best Lawyers in America© 2016 Edition
OAKLAND (August 28, 2015) – Three attorneys from Donahue Fitzgerald were recognized in the 2016 edition of Best Lawyers in America©: Dawn Newton, Franchise Law Kristin A. Pace, Tax Law Merrill J. Schwartz, Corporate Law The Best Lawyers in America rankings are based solely on peer-review surveys in which tens of thousands of attorneys confidentially evaluate […]
Read »Watermark Women Like Us- May 5, 2016
Wednesday, May 5 was the inaugural Watermark Women Like Us (WLU) networking event in the East Bay. With almost 40 professional women from Berkeley, Oakland, Pleasanton, Walnut Creek and other East Bay cities attending, the event was a huge success. “Watermark already had WLU events across the Bay Area in San Francisco, South Bay and […]
Read »2015 California Employment Legislation Update
Fortunately, unlike 2013 (when the Legislature increased the state’s minimum wage) and 2014 (when it enacted the paid sick leave law), the majority of employment-related bills enacted in 2015—the most important of which are summarized below—were aimed at clarifying or amending existing laws. Except for AB 1506 and AB 304, both of which were enacted […]
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