Welcome!

It’s certainly been a busy few months! Since our last Note, we have formed many new corporations and LLCs, filed a plethora of trademarks, and drafted a number of new template contracts for clients, both old and new. We’ve been pleased that the handouts for our SWATlaw® series of workshops have answered many questions on intellectual property, branding, negotiation tactics and contract law basics — helping the public become more astute legal service consumers. Our Contracts 101 handout has elicited many comments — mainly from readers who suddenly realize that it’s high time that they do business on “their own paper”! We have also received some great emails about how our IP 101 and Trademarks 101 handouts have de-mystified the “legalese” surrounding intellectual property law (copyright, trademark, patents, trade secrets, rights of publicity, etc.).

And while on the IP/trademark front, we’d like to note that we have had the incredible good fortune of adding Jamie Shelden as Of Counsel to Good Solutions. Jamie is a trademark, IP and licensing specialist. As you can see from Jamie’s bio, she is not only an IP expert but also, like our other Of Counsel, Rob Schmidt, she has a great “backstory”! Maybe good solutions‘ mission is to show the world that lawyers can be interesting people, too. 🙂

In that vein, as you can see from the photograph at right and in keeping with our previous Notes, I haven’t been at my desk 24/7. Recent hikes in preparation for The Hike have included Yosemite, and this wildflower-rich trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. And if any of you were wondering — yes, the Nextel Blackberry® gets reception in the darnedest of places…

What is The Hike? We will be hiking the length of the French Alps from Mt. Blanc (the highest mountain in Europe) to Menton, France (on the French Riviera) from the 18^th of August through the 15^th of September. We look forward to helping you upon our return. Of course, if you need good solutions in the interim, our Team will remain available to you; here is how to contact them.

I hope that your business is experiencing a fantastic second half of 2004!