An Interview with Jason Miller

Jason Miller Esq. has been practicing law for years. Being a close friend of mine I thought he is the logical choice for this assignment. I approached Jason with my business idea and asked him a few questions about intellectual property (IP), company structure, and such. His professional point of view gave me some interesting pointers on intellectual property, and also about the business idea itself, and some areas of opportunity?

Jason what can you tell me about the company structure?
Each business entity has different tax implications. The best example I can give you would be an S-Corporation. This type of structure falls under different tax brackets. For instance, any income between $75,000 and $100,000 will have a tax rate structure of about 34% plus 13.750.
On a different note, for a small business owner a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) is the best option for a many reasons; the main reason, and also the simplest if that you can't get sued if you have limited liability.

What's your take on the business name?
Ideally you will have dba (doing business as) on the name. For instance, you can be "Friendly Corp. dba Home Novelties and Decor. Depending on the structure the name will have variations and you have to make sure not to use the wrong words when spelling out the acronym. For example if you say Limited Liability Company instead of Limited Liability Corporation it could change the whole meaning on a contract. This is a common mistake.

What is the best way to protect copyrighted material? And how can you make sure is not being used by someone else?
It is extremely difficult to monitor such action. For an online business the best thing to do is to come up with a unique logo that is so unusual no one will be able to impugn on it. For example, no one could trademark a domain name such as EBay1 or AmazonX.

What is your professional opinion about the business idea?
When you seek legal advise from a professional they will want to know what you want to do? Why do you think your business idea is unique and innovative? Thousands of online businesses fail and only the strongest survive by virtue of incorporating a catchy name (i.e. Amazon).  Your business name is too long and wordy. Think about another business with a long name such as Bed Bath & Beyond and you will see your business name does not have the same tone. Ask yourself why. If you do not have a catchy name you will spend thousands of dollars on marketing just to have a degree of brand awareness.

I would like to thank Jason for this opportunity. He was kind enough to provide me with a link to his Linked In profile, as he is not allowed to use his law office on any pro bono work.

Jason Miller | LinkedIn