Business Legal

Business Legal

There are different formalities for setting up a business. There are choices like sole proprietorship, partnerships, LLCs and incorporation, with every business model having its own requirements. There are many legal burdens on a business. Make sure that you are familiar with all the laws before getting started with your business.

Labor Laws

Every workplace is governed by a set of labor laws that include worker's compensation, maternity leave, minimum wage, and OSHA.

A part of the United States Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ensures that employees have safe and healthy working conditions. They take steps to protect employees from getting injured in the workplace. The OSHA regulates aspects such as the quality of air and safety of equipment. The Fair Labor Practices Act says that every employee must be paid a minimum wage for the work he does. The minimum wage laws may slightly vary because every state often has its own minimum wage set for employees, while the federal government has a different minimum wage. Maternity leave is controlled by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. A pregnant woman qualifies for twelve weeks of leave. A father can also take leave to be with his child during its first year. Employees who fall sick or get injured on the job are entitled to worker's compensation. The compensation comprises of a portion of the wages that the injured or sick employee would have earned had he been working.

Incorporation

A business can be incorporated as an LLC, S-Corp or a C-Corp.

LLC stands for Limited Liability Company. It is actually neither a partnership nor a corporation. The owners are called the members of a limited liability corporation. An LLC offers the benefit of limited liability, but eliminates the need for you to incur the expenses of incorporation. The owner of an LLC can avail tax benefits by filing business profits and losses under his or her personal income tax. However, there are some states that do not permit an LLC to adopt this mode of payment of tax.

What makes an S-Corp different from the other two forms of incorporation is its liability for corporation debts. The owners and shareholders in an S-Corp are not liable for the corporation debts. In a C- Corp, the owners and the corporation are considered as separate entities and are taxed separately.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property refers to a collection of human ideas, creations, and concepts. Intellectual property is a valuable intangible asset for any individual or organization. Such assets must be protected from being marketed commercially by a third party.

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are the only three ways to protect intellectual property. A copyright protection gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to copy, modify, display or distribute his or her work publicly. You can protect the expression of an idea with a copyright. A trademark refers to any word or symbol on a product that help to distinguish it from the other products in the marketplace. A patent can be obtained for the invention of a unique product or process. The patentee gets the monopoly over his invention for a particular time period.