Business and Tax Lawyer Blog

Since Blockbuster Video filed bankruptcy back in September, its stock price has fluctuated from 4 cents to 23 cents, yet some investors are undeterred and still purchasing those shares.
This is not a new investment strategy; for years investors have bought stock in bankrupt companies with the hope there will be money remaining once all the company's creditors are repaid.
Some investment analysts view this as very risky, given that when a company files Chapter 11 restructuring, shareholders are the last to be paid. Therefore, unless the creditors are fully satisfied, shareholders will receive nothing.
In 2009 and 2010, only 4 out of 41 public companies delivered returns to shareholders after emerging from bankruptcy.

To learn more about this article, visit Why People Buy Stock in Bankrupt Companies.

Continue reading "Is Buying Stock in a Bankrupt Company Worth the Risk? " »

On March 3, thousands of credit union members warned that a cap on fees banks collected from merchants will force the card-issuing credit unions and banks to abandon free checking, eliminate rewards programs, and impose annual fees. However, a week later, many small business owners refuted those claims. In fact, retailers say that the Federal Reserve proposal will help lower retail prices while preventing card issuers from profiting at the their expense.

This most recent brawl over money is not new to Washington D.C., and the combatants in this instance are principally the big banks and big businesses. That said, there is Sixteen billion dollars in annual revenues at stake. This figure is based on what merchants are currently turning over to banks (at an average of 44 cents per card swipe).

To read more on this article, visit The Brawl Over Debit-Card Fees.

Continue reading "Debit-card fees? " »

If you have ever been in an airport or mall, then you've most likely seen a Sbarro pizza kiosk. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the pizza chain is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The New York based pizzeria cites a decline in mall traffic, less consumer spending, and rising costs of ingredients for its current financial woes.
According to Sbarro's Chapter 11 Petition, it has an asset-to-debt ratio of $471B to $486.6B, respectively.
Sbarro currently operates more than 1,000 restaurants in over 40 countries.

You Can Read More by Visiting Sbarro files for Chapter 11.

Continue reading "Pizza Chain, Sbarro, Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy" »

The decision to declare bankruptcy should be a difficult decision to make, and never considered lightly. It is always a smart decision to consult an attorney before filing. You may even wish to work with lenders, creditors to devise a payment plan.

However, despite your efforts, you may still find yourself getting further behind on your mortgage payments and foreclosure may become inevitable. In the event a bank has initiated foreclosure proceedings against you, you may file a petition with the bankruptcy court which will place a hold on the foreclosure. With a Chapter 7, the school of thought for permitting such a stay is that you will be better able to make your mortgage payments if all of your unsecured debt is discharged. As a Chapter 13 plan typically runs from 3 to 5 years, you will be afforded the protection of the stay so long as you remain in the plan. Bankruptcy is not a sure-fire way to save your home. However, for some, it is a very valid and logical solution.

To learn more about this article, visit Filing for bankruptcy could save your home.

Continue reading "Can Filing Bankruptcy Help Save My Home?" »

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is the corporate equivalent of Chapter 13 financial reorganization. Pursuant to Chapter 11 procedure, the debtor must prepare and present a plan within 120 days of filing, and it must be approved by the bankruptcy court, trustee, and a committee of the business' top 20 creditors. The plan is prepared with the intention to pay the lenders and creditors a reduced amount over a 5 to 10 year period. If, at any point, the creditors or trustee feel that the business is not being run appropriately, they can petition the court to have a new fiduciary appointed to direct the day-to-day operations. On average, because Chapter 11 is a long and costly process, only about 10% of businesses survive and emerge from Chapter 11 successfully.

To learn more about this article, visit Bankruptcy court will decide today whether Blockbuster has a future.

Continue reading "What is Chapter 11 Bankruptcy?" »

September 2010 saw over a 1.5% increase in foreclosure filings from September 2009 in the Jacksonville area. However, the percentage of real estate owned (REO) status increased as well. All this means is when a lender forecloses on a home and doesn't sell the property at an auction, the lender maintains possession of the property and it becomes REO status. There are many options available to avoid foreclosure that your lender may or may not offer.

1) Loan Modification- Your lender will ask you certain information and determine whether or not you qualify for a modification of your terms. This could involve lowering your interest rate or rolling late fees and payments back into your principal mortgage balance.

2) Deed in lieu of foreclosure - Basically, you give your lender the deed to your home and they release you from liability - i.e., agree to not hold you personally liable moving forward.

3) Reaffirmation in Bankruptcy - This is where the lender will require you to sign an agreement which will hold you personally responsible if you default on the loan. While
Bankruptcy stops the foreclosure process for a period of time, the lender can ask the bankruptcy court for relief from the automatic stay and require you to keep making payments although you are in bankruptcy.

To learn more about this article, please visit Jax foreclosures up 1.6% in September.

Continue reading "Jacksonville Foreclosure Filings Increase From a Year Ago" »

Statistics show that consumer bankruptcy filings are up 14% from 2009. As of September 30, approximately 1.5 million consumer bankruptcies have been filed this year.

It's the most prolific year of filing since 2005 when 1.7 million individuals filed. The increase in filings are expected to continue to increase at least for the next few months according to unemployment and foreclosure statistics. Business filings are down from a year ago and that decrease is expected to continue.

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Act (BAPCA) of 2005 has made it tougher for individuals to file under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. Filing fees are higher and there are tests an individual must pass in order to qualify for filing. If an individual is unable to file under chapter 7, he or she will most likely qualify under Chapter 13.

Chapter 13 requires the debtor to make payments according to a plan set by the Court and the Chapter 13 Trustee. The plan usually lasts between 3-5 years and will be based on the debtor's income and ability to make pyments towards the plan. If you are thinking about filing for bankruptcy, contact an experienced bankruptcy attorney.
To learn more about this article, visit Bankruptcy filings jump 14% in 2010.

Continue reading "Bankruptcy Filings Up in 2010" »

Former Lehman Bros. trader Lawrence McDonald told a University of North Florida audience last month that "the party is just getting started" in the legal fallout from the failure and Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of the major Wall Street investment banking and securities brokerage firm.

McDonald, co-author of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, said that regulators and prosecutors have already contacted many of the whistle-blowers who helped him write the book.

Lehman executives are potential targets for alleged accounting fraud prosecution in what the company called "Repo 105" transactions, an accounting loophole that allows a company to temporarily sell securities in order to move them off its balance sheets prior to the release of quarterly earnings, and then repurchase them after quarterly results are announced.

McDonald said that "Lehman Brothers told the world that they were in the moving business, not the storage business. They were wrong."

He places the blame for the collapse of Lehman squarely on the shoulders of top executives: "The collapse of Lehman Brothers comes down to one sentence: There were 24,992 people making money and eight guys losing it."

Making wise business decisions sometimes requires the help of savvy legal and tax counsel. If your company could use some assistance, contact our Jacksonville, Florida business and tax law firm.

As one of the largest markets in the U.S. for commercial real estate loans, Florida is at risk of significant financial losses if commercial foreclosure forecasts prove correct, says one Jacksonville business and tax attorney.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has put the Florida state legislature on notice that they need to act quickly to avert the potentially devastating consequences of predicted commercial foreclosures.

In a letter to Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul, McCollum noted that while the Florida residential foreclosure crisis has been top-of-mind throughout the state, commercial foreclosures may have an "even greater potential to negatively impact the state and national economies...In anticipation of this crisis, the Legislature may wish to review current Florida law and the finding of the Congressional Oversight Panel."

In February, the Congressional Oversight Panel released its Commercial Real Estate Losses and the Risk to Financial Stability report, which cited numerous troubling trends: rising vacancy rates, falling property prices and rising commercial real estate loan delinquency rates.

McCollum said that other states have already enacted laws that could ease the pain of commercial foreclosures, and that legislators should consider similar measures for Florida.

Continue reading "Potential for Florida Commercial Foreclosure Crisis Looms Large" »

The Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa was purchased in 2006 for $220 million with financing from Goldman Sachs Commercial Mortgage Co. Revenue for the luxury property fell from nearly $60 million in 2008 to just over $40 million in 2009. Even though the resort continued to operate profitably in 2009, the drop in revenues caused the owners to lose liquidity and seek debt restructuring.

In October 2009, Goldman Sachs said that it would stop negotiating debt restructuring and foreclose on the property. That has forced the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida resort to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While resort management has said that they plan to continue normal operations, the two Irish investment partnerships that own the hotel filed bankruptcy petitions with the US Bankruptcy Court in Jacksonville, Florida. According to court records, the resort hopes to continue operating profitably even while in bankruptcy proceedings.

The large resort facility features over 400 guest rooms, six restaurants and offers hotel guests access to the courses at the PGA TOUR’s nearby Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass. The resort employs 435 people, and according to a Marriott spokesperson, the proceedings will not affect any employment issues. A PGA TOUR official added that the bankruptcy will have no bearing on the PGA TOUR’s Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, which is owned and managed by a subsidiary of the PGA TOUR.

Find out more about this story at Lender’s foreclosure proceedings forced Sawgrass Marriott into Chapter 11.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

Nimnicht Chevrolet of Jacksonville, Florida was one made of the country’s first GM Hummer franchises in 2002. The dealership built a multi-million dollar dealership for the brand, which included an off-road test drive course. But times have changed. Consumers are less interested in paying between thirty and forty five thousand dollars for an SUV that gets from thirteen to eighteen miles per gallon.

GM has recently had to shut down Hummer 2 production, and has been looking for a buyer to continue making the super-sized SUVs. GM recently announced that their efforts to sell the Hummer line to Chinese Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines company has fallen through.

Nimnicht GMC-Hummer General Manager Jackie Lynch is still optimistic that another buyer will come along and save the Hummer brand. He reports that sales of Hummer have remained steady despite the uncertainty of the SUV’s future. The dealership reportedly sells seven to ten Hummers each month. In February, their stock was down to nine 2009 models and ten 2010 models.

Lynch said that Nimnicht will continue to sell and service new and pre-owned Hummers as long as the brand is in existence, and will continue to perform authorized warranty work on Saturns – another GM car line that was shut down at the end of last year.

Read more about Hummer and other GM brands that have been sold or ended at Jacksonville dealer says it’s business as usual despite Hummer’s demise.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

Government researchers say that the red snapper, which is concentrated near the Jacksonville coastline, is dangerously overfished and that the species is nearing collapse. Because of their report, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has imposed a no-catch zone that makes fishing for any fish species illegal in order to prevent red snapper from being caught accidentally.

While a government official has said that controlling fishing near Jacksonville is essential, the ban is sure to hurt business for local fishermen. Commercial fishing interests in North Florida and South Georgia are expected to lose millions of dollars due to the closure.

A temporary, stopgap ban has been in effect for two months while the Council develops its final restrictions. That measure has already had a profound effect on local businesses. Charter boat operator Becky Hogan testified before the Council, saying that her first quarter earnings have fallen from $62,000 to just over $1000. Other fishermen also testified that the ban is putting them out of business.

Council members are continuing to attempt to appease fishermen; a recent change has shrunk the proposed area of the ban, but only off the coast of South Carolina. Read more about the red snapper fishing ban off the coast of Florida at No-fish zone change won’t help Florida, Georgia anglers.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

In 2005, when the real estate market was booming, Yellow Bluff Development LLC asked the Jacksonville City Council to create the Tison’s Landing Community Development District. In turn, the district issued nearly $40 million in bonds to pay for roads, drainage, water lines, streetlights and a neighborhood recreation center for the nearly 700 home community that Yellow Bluff planned to build at Tison’s Landing.

Under Florida state law, the developer is responsible for repaying the bonds at first, but may shift responsibility to property owners via assessment over a thirty year period. Since home sales have not materialized, Yellow Bluff has now failed to pay its annual assessment to the district. Therefore the Tison’s Landing Community Development District has declared Yellow Bluff in default and filed a foreclosure suit in Duval County Circuit Court. The move by a development district to foreclose on a developer is very rare in Florida. The development district plans to foreclose on the land and find a buyer for the property.

While Yellow Bluff did not file an objection to the foreclosure, Mercantile Bank, which holds a mortgage on the Tison’s Landing Property, filed a challenge, saying that Tison’s Landing Community Development District must wait a full year after a missed payment to foreclose. Read more at Community development district files suit after Florida developer doesn’t pay.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

William Berta has lived in his Sarasota, Florida home for several decades. He runs a local business, he collects benefits from Veteran’s Affairs, and he pays his water and power bills every month. Despite all these facts, Wells Fargo Bank was able to convince a judge that Berta had abandoned his home, allowing the bank to foreclose on the home, take possession of it and sell it at auction. No one blinked an eye when the process server who notified Berta in person of the eviction found him living at the very home he had supposedly abandoned.

Berta of course knew that he was behind on his mortgage payments, but had contacted HOPE NOW, a federal mortgage-counseling agency; the agency had told Berta that they were in negotiations with Wells Fargo to lower his mortgage payments.

Berta feels that the sloppy legal work done on his case is tantamount to the bank stealing his home and there is much concern in Florida that the overwhelming number of foreclosure cases in the system could cause more of these mistakes to happen.

According to Florida law, a mortgage lender used to be allowed foreclose without notifying the homeowner, as long as it advertised the foreclosure in the newspaper and provided a sworn affidavit to the courts stating that it could not find the homeowner. But new rules are requiring lenders to explain the methods they have used to find the homeowner so that a judge can determine if they are adequate.

For its part, Wells Fargo has claimed that they visited Berta’s home with papers on several occasions, and sent him numerous notices through the mail. Wells Fargo has indicated that Berta will be allowed to stay in his home as long as he qualifies for one of the bank’s loan mitigation programs. A judge has approved a motion to set aside the sale of Berta’s home; he will now have a chance to defend himself against the foreclosure.

You can read more about William Berta’s foreclosure case at Sarasota Homeowner Narrowly Averts Abrupt Eviction After Bank’s Sloppy Foreclosure.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

Chrysler Group, LLC celebrates its one year anniversary of surviving bankruptcy. Chrysler's CEO, Sergio Marchionne, told employees that, although he is pleased with Chrysler's achievements, the company still has a long way to go. Chrysler received aid from U.S. and Canadian governments and Chrysler plans to begin payment of the debt to U.S., Canadian and Ontario governments starting in 2011 with full repayment in 2014. It took roughly $15 billion to save the company from going bankrupt and prevent the company from being sold off into pieces.

Chrysler's 2010 plans include building on a $143 million first-quarter operating profit, two consecutive months of sales gains, and the launch of 16 new or updated vehicles by the end of the year. However, Chrysler does face some challenges. The company has struggled with quality problems as well as consistently receiving low rankings from J.D. Power and Associates and Consumer Reports Magazine. Presently, Chrysler is planning to place a new model of its Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV in showrooms in the near future, however, no one outside the company has seen the model. This step might be risky for Chrysler because the Jeep Grand Cherokee is not a vehicle on the top of anyone's list right now and Chrysler's competition has made monumental developments in their product lines that may be difficult to counter.

Chrysler's progress is an example of how a company can use the Bankruptcy process to save and improve an ongoing business. Bankruptcy is a big step to consider, but it can give you a chance to save your life's work and preserve jobs fo your employees.

To read more about Chrysler and its future plans see Chrysler gets its business back on track after bail out.

Contact Wood, Atter, and Wolf, P.A. to discuss the viability of your business and the options that are available to you.

Beach wedding planners along the gulf coast are seeing a decrease in business, just another effect of the devastating oil spill, as couples are in a wait-and-see mode since April to see how the spill would affect pre-scheduled weddings. However, within the past few days couples have begun cancelling their beach wedding plans. One wedding planner, Charli Linn, owner of All the Details located in Fairhope, Alabama, estimated a 30-50% decrease in clients. Linn's goal was to book 50 weddings this year. She will not book half of that. The owner of Barefoot Weddings, Maggie Halsey, located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida has seen a 60% drop in bookings and has had 13 cancellations in the past two weeks.

The businesses have provided rerunds and made claims with BP in order to reimburse the businesses for lost profits. Other businesses, which were unable to immediately refund their clients, are relying on the reimbursements from BP to make good. Some small businesses are also advising the couples who wish to be reimbursed their non-refundable deposits to make claims with BP as well.

The oil spill is an environmental disaster and it is having affects all over the gulf coast - not only on the natural environment, but on the business environment as well. This will impact business owners and, as the crisis continues, the employees of those businesses. If you feel your business has suffered from the oil spill or another environmental disaster contact Wood, Atter, and Wolf, P.A. to seek legal guidance on your options.

To read more about how the oil spill has affected beach weddings see Beach Wedding cancellations skyrocket as a result of oil spill.

Florida's Task Force on Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Cases was established to help the state of Florida respond to the foreclosure crisis that has hit the state in the latest recession. The fifteen member task force made its final report and recommendations to the Florida state supreme court in August of 2009. In light of the task force's findings, the court has issued an administrative order to enact the recommendations.

One of the key elements of the order is a provision for creating a statewide foreclosure mediation program. Under the order, any foreclosure on a residential homestead property with a loan that originated under federal truth in lending regulations will be required to go into mediation unless both parties agree otherwise.

The goal of the order is to encourage parties to mediate outside of the courts, which should ease the burden on the already strained court system. At issue is whether there are enough professionally trained mediators to hear all of the suits and whether the new requirements would cause the already slow foreclosure process to a come to a virtual standstill.

You can read more about the Florida foreclosure crisis and the supreme court's response to it at Florida Supreme Court Orders Mediation in Foreclosure Cases!

If you need an attorney to assist you in defending your rights, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

Virginia may be for lovers, but Florida is for Foreclosures. Lender Processing Services, Inc. reported yesterday that Florida leads the nation in the percentage of mortgages that were either in foreclosure or were delinquent. Northeast Florida and the greater Jacksonville area is going along for the ride. Florida's 23.8% rate is nearly double the national rate of 13.5%, according to LPS.

So many people are finding themselves in this situation, often through no fault of their own: the economy has cost them a job; medical bills are bankrupting them; a predatory lender induced people to take out mortgages they should not have qualified for, knowing the borrower will not be able to repay, then the lender sells the mortgage or securitizes it and passes the risk to another, all for the up-front fees they could earn. Perhaps you have questions about your mortgage, your ability to pay, or the threat of foreclosure; perhaps you are already in foreclosure. An experienced and knowledgeable Florida foreclosure attorney may be able to help you. Frequently, there are defenses that may help you stay in your house. These defenses range from fraud to the failure of the lender to scrupulously follow the "Truth in Lending" laws.

If you live in the Jacksonville area and your home may possibly go into foreclosure, please contact a foreclosure defense attorney to discuss your situation.

Ben Franklin may have been overly optimistic for the Internal Revenue Service when he said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. For many people, avoiding their tax responsibility is an art form. From offshore accounts, to hiding income, to simply not paying the bill, the following six people have made the tax evasion hall of fame.

Walter Anderson

This telecom entrepreneur was at the center of the largest tax evasion case in United States history. A 2005 probe revealed that Anderson had used an elaborate network of offshore companies to hide money from the IRS. In the end he was found to owe $200 million to the government, and was ordered to pay $400 million after pleading guilty to the charges against him.

Sinbad

Celebrity and comedian Sinbad reportedly filed federal income tax returns every year between 1998 and 2006, but never actually sent in the money he owed on the returns. His total delinquent tax bill is $8.5 million, which may be hard for the IRS to collect, since Sinbad's 2009 bankruptcy filing reveals that he has a negative net worth.

Dionne Warwick

The California Franchise Tax Board has named Ms. Warwick one of the worst tax debtors in California. She reportedly owes $2.67 million to the state of California. She has apparently not been prosecuted, and sources report that she is in the process of paying what she owes.

OJ Simpson

Simpson is perhaps better known for more serious charges than tax evasion, but he has been accused by the state of California of owing the state $1.44 million in unpaid taxes, which he tried to avoid by moving to Florida.

Marc Anthony

Latino singer Anthony failed to pay his taxes from 2000 to 2004, saying that he had hired a firm to handle his finances and was unaware that he owed $2.5 million in taxes to the federal government. The firm pleaded guilty to tax felonies and was punished; Anthony paid his tax bill and was not prosecuted.

Leona Helmsley

In 1989 this billionaire hotelier was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of tax evasion, three counts of filing false personal tax returns, sixteen counts of assisting in the filing of false corporate and partnership tax returns, and ten counts of mail fraud, according to Wikipedia. She was sentenced to sixteen years in prison but only served 19 months behind bars and two years on house arrest.

Read about some other top tax dodgers at The 12 Most Notorious Tax Evaders of All-Time.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and require assistance with tax planning, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf for tax planning legal counsel.

The respective sales of Hummer and Saturn appear to have derailed, leaving General Motors reeling as it tries to pick up the pieces following bankruptcy. GM may now have to eliminate the brands and shut down approximately 350 additional dealerships at a cost of over $100 million!

This is yet another setback for a giant business that was once a preeminent leader in its field. How did things turn so sour? GM focused too much on cheap solutions and short-term windfalls as opposed to building quality vehicles and listening to consumers' needs. The glut of SUVs produced during the short-lived truck craze is but one example of their greedy knee-jerk management strategy.

Consumers drive the economy (pun intended). As such, it's hard to have sympathy for GM, who did not give the consumers what they asked for. However, it's hard not to feel for the newly slashed dealers that survived the first round of cuts and were lulled into a false sense of confidence.

People who have been laid off from a variety of industries how to get back on their feet. Some have severance packages to invest; others do not. Some want to start their own business; others want to play a smaller role in a more stable company. Whatever your situation, goals, and resources, contact me to discuss your options.

A Tallahassee, Florida, Saturn dealer filed suit against General Motors Corporation earlier this year for violating Florida's franchise laws, but Saturn of Tallahassee's chances of prevailing are not likely. The dealership is co-owned by former NBA player Bob Sura. General Motors announced earlier this year that it plans to sell or eliminate the Saturn brand sometime in 2009, and cut nearly 2,400 dealerships from its network of dealers. After seeing sales drop over 70 percent this year at his Saturn of Tallahassee dealership, Sura feels that General Motors has made his Saturn franchise worthless. In effect, the Saturn of Tallahassee dealership feels it has been wrongfully terminated.

The problems for Saturn of Tallahassee in prevailing in its lawsuit against General Motors lie in the fact that General Motors is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and may simply terminate the franchises as part of its restructuring process. If so, Sura and his dealership may be left to accept whatever decisions the Bankruptcy Court makes. Sura and other Saturn dealers' best hope may rest upon finding a new buyer for the Saturn brand and maintaining the goodwill it has developed with its customers over the years; several groups have expressed an interest, including some Saturn dealers.

Auto dealership franchises have to make some of the largest investments of all franchise opportunities available on the market. Like all franchisees the money they spend in advertising and building goodwill benefits the franchisor as well as their own franchise. When a franchisee is in compliance with the franchise agreement and is wrongfully terminated or denied the opportunity to renew their franchise, the franchisee has lost the value of their investment.

If you have experienced franchise renewal problems with your franchisor, or you just have questions about franchise agreements in general, ask an attorney for help.

KB Toys, longtime vendor of children's toys, regrettably has filed for bankruptcy and is currently liquidating its assets in order to satisfy its creditors. Among the items up for bid were KB Toys trademark, logos, and domain name as the retailer is shutting down all of its approximately 460 stores.

For a business that began in the 1920s, they have only been using the name, "KB Toys" since 1996, according to their trademark registration, and "Kay-Bee Toys" since 1997, according to another trademark registration.

Those registrations cite a handful of other prior registrations. A trademark is any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination thereof used to identify and distinguish goods. One may last forever, but can expire due to either non-use or loss of distinctiveness. Ownership can arise due to either public use or registration, but registration affords many more advantages when it comes to deterring infringement.

Trademarks are assets. As such, these assets may be transferred or sold by executing an assignment. A retail operator called CE Stores secured the rights to KB Toys' intellectual property for $2.1 million dollars and may capitalize on the good will that KB Toys built up since its inception in 1922.

It's a shame that KB Toys has been forced into a situation where it has to part with the good will of its own intellectual property, isn't it?

A Jacksonville, Florida Circuit Judge was ordered to recuse himself from a foreclosure case brought by Bank of America's Countrywide division against Joseph W. Mines Jr. According to court records, Mines, who is representing himself in the matter, was close to losing his home when he filed a complaint against the Judge, stating that he believed an affiliate of Bank of America had given the judge a favorable loan interest rate that was not available to the general public.

The appeals court in Tallahassee, Florida required the Judge to remove himself from the case, saying that if the allegations were true they would be cause for Mines to fear that he would not receive a fair and impartial hearing. For the sake of all concerned, including the Judge, it is preferable that such matters be heard in an atmosphere free of even a suggestion of partiality. It should be noted that the Appeals Court did not say that the allegations against the Judge were true.

With the high rate of foreclosures in Florida, more cases like this one are bound to show up in the newspapers. Judges and attorneys alike need to be sure that their personal and business dealing are completely above board in order to maintain the public's trust. Read more details about the allegations at Judge in Countrywide Case Removed Over Claim of Discount Loan.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact our firm for business legal counsel.

51 of your local Florida Winn-Dixie grocery stores have been remodeled not only on the inside, but the signs outside will be changing as well. The Jacksonville, Florida-based supermarket chain has announced that it is creating a new brand called Fresh Checked Every Day to accompany the renovations. Many of the revamped stores are located in Duval County.

Winn-Dixie currently has about a 13.3% share of the Florida grocery market, behind both Publix and Walmart. The new remodeling plan is a substantial investment, especially considering the fact that Winn-Dixie filed for bankruptcy in 2005. Some of the major changes include larger produce departments, custom sub shops, and greater selections of natural and organic foods.

While it is important to reach different demographics and appeal to a wide consumer base, a business should be careful not to cause brand dilution. For instance, Food Lion, a Mid-Atlantic grocery chain, recently spun off two new brands: Bottom Dollar and Bloom. As a result, customers now suffer some confusion as to Food Lion's identity.

Building a brand image is a long process that takes years and it shouldn't be tarnished by adding sub brands haphazardly! The key to bigger and better business is a strategic growth scheme. Consult a franchise attorney to find out where, when, and how you should expand!

In the wake of the worst American recession since the Great Depression, plummeting vehicle sales, and impending Chapter 11 bankruptcy, embattled automaker General Motors announced in 2009 that it would end franchise agreements with 1,270 dealerships across the country in 2010. Of its eight current nameplates, Pontiac will be eliminated, and Saturn, Saab, and Hummer all have been sold off.

GM stretched itself too thin and saddled itself with an inflated number of uncompetitive brands. The irony of the situation is that GM is finally showing flashes of potential and is producing desirable cars (e.g. the ZR1, CTS, and upcoming LaCrosse) after years of bad engineering, bean counting, and allowing that cut-corner mindset to adversely affect the quality of its cars.

The damage is likely to get much worse: GM is seeking to slash the number of dealerships by a total of approximately 2,400 by the end of 2010. GM failed to strategically align itself globally, made poor agreements with the United Auto Workers, and neglected to value engineering and the quality of its products above all else. GM made its own bed and has to sleep in it. Regrettably, now thousands of dealers may have to pay the price for GM's ineptitude.

Although GM launched an pathos-packed campaign (including a television commercial!) to re-new its tarnished image and gain America's support, how would you feel if you were abruptly dropped after a franchise agreement you had worked hard to negotiate and uphold? I would be livid if I lost my business due to the mismanagement and incompetence of my franchisor!

How do GM's actions strike you? Is it fair to the franchisees? Contact me to discuss!