Almost nobody is free from legal retribution in the 21st century. There will always be ways for you to get sued, whether it’s by legal loopholes, your own misdoings, or something else. There are so many businesses today and so many laws to look out for that you can easily run into some legal complications regarding copyright or not fulfilling law-abiding standards. This is why today we will talk about some of the best ways of avoiding legal issues for startup businesses.
Always Make Clear Deals With the Founders
When you are starting a business, one of the most important steps to avoiding any legal issues would be to make sure every founder is on the same page. These early misconceptions and legal blind spots can really hinder your cooperation later on as certain people will look for these loopholes to gain money out of it. The most important questions that you need to settle include:
• Is the ownership share susceptible to changes based on continuous business participation?
• What responsibilities and roles does each founder have?
• What specifically influences the salaries of the founders?
• If one founder were to leave, do the other founders have the right to buy off the stocks that the aforementioned founder possessed? And if so, at what price?
• If you were to sell the business, how would you collectively decide on the decision?
• What are everyone’s goals for the business?
• If someone isn’t doing their part of the deal, how will the others respond?
Avoid Choosing Names That can Lead to Copyright or Trademark Disputes
This is a significant factor. Choosing a name that you think might be correlated to an existing copyrighted term might not be the best choice of action for you moving forward. So, it’s important to do your research and properly assess whether the name you have chosen isn’t legally disputable. For all you know, you could be infringing on someone else’s product.
One easy way of finding out whether something is disputable or not is by checking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The same goes for legal issues with website domain names, as they are becoming more and more of a reoccurring problem for business owners.
Adequate Licenses
Acquiring a business license and tax registry are the first steps to officially (and legally) starting your business. Depending on where you are from and the line of business you are opening, you will need to get additional licenses. This can vary dramatically as if you are in the food industry you will need anything ranging from a bakery license, meat license, bakery distribution license, non-alcoholic license, or even a kitchen license. In order to stay certain of the licenses that you need, it would be best to do independent research that involves the profession plus your home country.
Zoning Regulations
Once you have opened your business you need to check whether it is located in the proper zone. Situations happen where people open up businesses next to similar businesses because they think they will be fine without extra research that way. You have to understand that some businesses that you see in certain zones could have gotten an exemption.
This would lead them to suffer no issues while you, on the other hand, will not be so lucky. When it comes to real estate issues, we would advise you to contact a professional, as these legal issues can get dirty and expensive. You can approach Kells Lawyers for any real estate issues you might have, you would certainly have a better shot at clearing the issue up this way.
Business Confidentiality
When you are making a contract, you will certainly think of the confidentiality of the agreement. Non-disclosure agreements are the perfect tool to protect your business’s information and ideas from being stolen by other people or businesses, and because of this, it is extremely important that you make a non-disclosure agreement when sharing sensitive information with other parties. Once you are in such a situation, have them sign the agreement and you are legally safe.
Applying for a Patent
Once you have a unique product of value, it is time to patent it to prevent others from copying you (and possibly suing you later if they have acquired the patent). If you think that you don’t need this and nobody would betray you, think again. It can happen relatively often for high-status employees to talk about their work and if given an opportunity, your competitors will take advantage of too much information being given (whether it’s accidental or deliberate). The primary patent will be that of your home country, if you want it to be internationally recognized, however, you will need to acquire an international patent.
Knowing the law of various important issues like the right of use, proper taxes, licenses, etc. is vital for any modern business owner. Without these, you will be quickly dismantled by a corporate team of lawyers who will hound you like wolves. So, try to brush up on your local and, potentially, international laws in order to make sure that doesn’t happen.
About the Guest Author
My name is Grace Wilson. I’m a 27-year-old biotechnologist and kind of a bookish girl. Surfing the Internet is my favourite, that’s why I’ve turned into blogging. Following a healthy mindset and lifestyle is what I consider my life principle. If interested, follow my Twitter.
