As I’ve just mentioned, Mincov Law Corporation has just celebrated its first birthday.

Not only do I have tons of great friends among founders and co-founders of Vancouver tech startups, I know the challenges surrounding running a startup firsthand.

For many startups the cost of getting a trademark through a trademark agent may be prohibitive, so they end up without a trademark or with a poorly drafted trademark application.

I want to extend a helping hand and announce that throughout September of 2012 Mincov Law Corporation will be offering its most comprehensive trademark registration package valued at $3,500 + HST to any business that has been incorporated for less than 2 years in Canada for only…

Become the next , or for half the price in September!

I have been fighting against unauthorized use of other people’s music, software and movies for more than 18 years.

However, I also am very much aware of the ease with which one may download pretty much anything today – for free and often more useable compared to the legitimate copy (greetings, DVD menus and advertising).

Once you’ve been using a cracked or a ripped file without any issues, it is very difficult to force yourself to shell out hard earned money for something that would not result in any positive change in how we use the software, listen to the music or watch the films.

I also know that most people would prefer to own legitimate copies of the stuff they have on their computers if somehow miraculously they didn’t have to pay for it, at least to the extent that their user experience wouldn’t be worse off compared to what they’ve had with the file they leeched off a torrent.

Financial incentives are often more convincing than words.

This is why it is my pleasure to announce that starting September 1, 2012 every new client of Mincov Law Corporation will be receiving Anti-Piracy Reward Certificates.

The idea is simple:

1. become a client of Mincov Law Corporation;

2. receive valuable legal advice and outstanding customer service;

3. get a reward certificate;

4. buy legitimate software, music or movies;

5. receive a cheque from your lawyer.

The certificates may be regifted.

And think of it, doesn’t it sound great: “I just got my lawyer pay for my music”?

Please comment and share if you like the idea.

Today I am extremely excited to announce the arrival of a new service, IP Strategy Review.

Most business owners with great ideas that need to be protected try to control their legal bills by not going to see a lawyer until they need to be saved. Some try to proactively limit the scope of lawyers’ involvement by googling something and coming to see the lawyer with a very specific (and often unhelpful) request.

No business can make strategic decisions about protection of its most valuable assets, unless it understands what these assets are and how they can be protected. With IP Strategy Review, I provide to you, at a fully predictable flat rate, a customized strategic solution outlining which areas of IP can help protect your ideas and intellectual property and which legal steps can be taken to achieve that protection.

IP Strategy Review provides a true benefit at a predictable cost, without forcing the client to pay for unnecessary services. It is a consultation during which we will discuss your business and determine which strategies would make sense from the legal, business, PR and economic points of view.

This service develops upon my two policies: I never sell my clients unnecessary services and I always prefer to sell value to my clients, not my time.

It comes in three packages. Please visit the IP Strategy Review Page for more details.

Just got back from Networking With Purpose event tonight.

Many great speakers. A lot of great guests. I had a brief presentation, too.

This time, I had more than just business cards with me...

‘Law’ means different things to different people.

For lawyers, law is about what is legal and what is illegal.

For academics, law is about what rules should exist to govern people.

For activists, law is a vehicle to achieve larger goals.

For most clients, however, law is seldom anything more than a matter of risk management.

If the potential benefits that a client may derive with a lawyer’s help are smaller than the lawyer’s bill, then there is no point in hiring the lawyer, even if from the purely legal standpoint, the strategy suggested by the lawyer makes perfect sense.

Likewise, there is no reason to hire a lawyer if the cost of hiring the lawyer in order to reduce or eliminate a certain risk is higher than the damage that the client may suffer multiplied by the likelihood of that risk ever materializing.

Lawyers who do not look at their work in context of their clients’ needs and businesses do their clients a big disservice.

Here is a short case study that illustrates how I do things differently.

A TV channel wanted to use a song in one of its productions that would only be broadcast once. The channel invited the song’s composer on the set to talk to the audience about the song. The arrangement was that no money would be paid to the composer for his appearance or for the use of the song.

From the purely legal standpoint, the only correct way to deal with this situation was for the parties to enter into a very detailed license agreement depicting what the TV channel did or did not have the right to do with the song. Drafting such an agreement and then negotiating it with the TV station would have taken many hours of lawyers’ time. It would have also created a document that neither of the parties really needed.

What I suggested was that the parties act on a handshake – without any agreement in writing at all.

It meant that the composer could legally sue the channel at any time for unauthorized use of his song, thus ensuring that the channel would not want to use the song outside that one specific production. On the other hand, I made it clear to the TV channel that if it only used the song as stated (that is, only as part of the production of which the composer was an integral part), then the composer would never sue it for what was technically unauthorized use – because it would ruin his reputation as a reasonable and trustworthy person, while the potential award that he could receive in the result of a potential litigation was minuscule.

The channel agreed. No written agreement has ever been concluded. The show aired as planned, once. Combined legal costs of both parties were very close to zero.

Context matters.