Justin Daniels is a business attorney at Wagner Johnston & Rosenthal, P.C. here in Atlanta and had a lot of great advice on common small business legal issues. For example, how do you protect your intellectual property? Justin provided several scenarios that demonstrate how you, as a business owner, may not be buying what you think you are buying from your vendors unless it is spelled out specifically in the contract.
For example, you hire a web design firm and, in working on your web site, they come up with some text that they include in the site and that you approve. But who owns that writing? Unless your contract specifically assigns the rights for all work to you, your web firm owns that content and if you want to use it elsewhere you will likely need to purchase it from them after the fact.
Daniels also gave us some insight into choosing the right incorporation model for your business (LLC vs. S-Corp vs. C-Corp) and talked about some helpful tips to keep in mind when entering into partnerships.
You can reach justing through his law firm here if you have any questions. Justin has also generously provided his speaking materials for a seminar he gave recently on the question of LLC’s vs. S-Corps and you can download that here if you are interested. The full podcast for the show is available below.
