The Law Offices of H.W. Pfabé

To begin with, I am about to provide a warning about Online Legal Services, which provide a direct source of competition to my Law Firm.

So, obviously, you have every right to read this with a healthy amount of skepticism. Of course I’m going to make the competition sound bad, right? Of course I’m going to try to make them sound scary, right? Come to me. Only I can Protect your Ideas and your Business!

As I said, I write this knowing that you’re likely to be skeptical, and you have every right to be. In fact, I think that’s a good thing! However, I always try to educate my Clients on the Legal Matters we’re discussing, so that they can make the right choice for themselves. The same applies here.

I have recently had MULTIPLE poten...

Attorney Pfabé is proud to announce that he will be presenting at this year's Dex Media Digital Marketing Success Seminar, taking place on November 10, 2016, at the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Springfield, MA.

The seminar, presented by Dex Media, in conjunction with Western Massachusetts SCORE, will not only present information and advice on Digital Marketing, but will also be teaching general business-building strategies and tips.

Attorney Pfabé will also be leading a roundtable discussion on Trademarks, Copyright, Trade Dress, Trade Secrets, Patents, Terms-of-Use, Non-Disclosure and Non-Compete agreements, and other Intellectual Property-related topics which are relevant to many businesses, both new and established.

All are invited to at...

“Work for Hire” is a phrase that businesses use a lot, and is extremely important in determining who owns Intellectual Property. Unfortunately, it is also VERY misunderstood.

As an example, you may have paid someone to create something for you. However, do you own the Copyright to it, or does it end up belonging to the person you paid to create it for you?

You might own the physical object that was created and delivered to you (a statue, a painting, a photograph, a video, a sound recording, a file with artwork, a file with computer code). However, the person that you paid to create it for you might STILL own the COPYRIGHT, and that means that they might still be free to do whatever they want with it, including licensing it to others o...

Another short post today, about an issue that made headlines earlier this week. While crowdfunding inventions is a fantastic way to get investments that allow inventors to bring their ideas to market, some Chinese companies now appear to be scouring Kickstarter, looking for products to copy and beat the original inventor to market.

What Happened:

Yesterday, in a rare bit of journalism not focused on taste testing Japanese Burger King® squid ink Whoppers®, or comparing who has the best drive-thru chicken nuggets, Business Insider published an article about an entrepreneur, Yekutiel Sherman, who came up with an iPhone® case, called StikBox (http://www.businessinsider.com/china-copycat-culture-selfie-stick-yekutiel-sherman-2016-10 ). Th...