Messages posted by: Matteus Grand (IV08720901)

Trademark protection in the US dates back to colonial times when American common law recognized some intellectual property rights. This tradition has its traces in history, because many American companies live from their marketing strategies. These companies understand the importance of registering and protecting their trademark to promote their brand.

For this reason, registering a trademark in the US is a fairly quick and inexpensive process compared to other countries, and even unregistered trademarks can benefit from some legal protection if they have already been used in commerce. In this case, you must be able to demonstrate that use of the mark is well established in your interstate business. This is not always easy to prove and it is not cost effective to take a stand against your competitor if you have skipped the registration stage of your trademark.

At the federal level, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPO) administers trademark registration in the United States. Due to the legal value of commercial use of trademarks, it is possible to register in the American market before filing. Nevertheless, it is also possible and often advisable to file the so-called "intent to use" trademark application. You can submit an ITU (Intent-to-Use) request if you make an affidavit of intent. However, please note (!) that in the event of a lawsuit, you will need to demonstrate your efforts to “commercialize” your mark shortly after filing the application date. Later, with a series of specific procedures, you should be able to convert the (ITU application) to the ordinary (Use-in-Commerce application).

Before any application, it is important to conduct a thorough research on possible trademarks that could be confused with your own. Attention! This research is the responsibility of the applicant. USPO offers a search system (Trademark Electronic Search System, TESS) with which this search can be carried out. However, it should be noted that the search engine does not consider trademarks that are not registered at the federal level but are used in commerce, which may prevail even over registered ones.

Descriptive marks can only be protected (so-called weak protection) if they have been considered distinctive due to their commercial use for more than five years. The federal agency sets strict parameters to assess the class of products or services to which your trademark relates. To avoid likelihood of confusion or many other grounds identified by the Office for refusal to register, you should consider seeking legal advice.

In today's highly digital world, the ways you can do different things - stay connected with family and friends, do business, learn, and of course - act have changed dramatically. Over the years, advances in technology have given us the convenience of online payments. Online trading is possible with credit or debit cards, with payment services such as PayPal or with crypto currencies.

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that act as a medium of exchange and use cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new currency units. Cryptocurrencies are usually classified as a subset of alternative currencies, also known as digital or virtual currencies. In contrast to standard monetary and centralized banking systems in the world, cryptocurrencies are controlled decentrally - using blockchain transaction databases.

BitCoin became the first cryptocurrency in 2009. Interestingly, the inventor of BitCoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, didn't want to invent an alternative currency, but it came about as a by-product of another invention. His original plan was to develop a fully decentralized electronic cash system with no server or central authority. But over time, BitCoin has grown in popularity despite numerous attempts to develop new cryptocurrencies (most of them are called Altcoins by Alternative and Bitcoin, showing their kinship to BitCoins).

Why are cryptocurrencies so popular?

As one of the main driving forces behind BitCoin’s rising value is its widespread use around the world, with many now choosing to make payments through BitCoin rather than using other methods. For consumers, the option of using BitCoin means, in addition to higher security compared to a credit or debit card, due to the significantly lower risk of identity theft and fraud when trading online, more user-friendliness and convenience. The popularity with consumers is also growing as the adoption of BitCoins by businesses increases. Nowadays, BitCoins can also be used to trade in real life - from restaurants and cafes to real estate companies and other establishments that accept BitCoins. It is more than likely that as the value and popularity grows, the number of companies and retailers accepting BitCoins will continue to grow. Among other things, one can point out various other advantages of BitCoin:

Quick and cheap transactions – when transferring BitCoins, transfer fees are significantly lower compared to other conventional types of money. In addition, international money transfers can take from several days to more than a week to be complete, whereas BitCoin transaction is generally comple within an hour. This is due to BitCoins being completely global and subject to very few laws or restrictions of any country's central banking institution;

Cryptocurrency is defined as the money of the future, or the unicorn of the 21st century, as some might joke. It has become a global phenomenon while being misunderstood by the majority of financial institutions, governments and corporations still operating to the old standards. However, many of the people working there have heard about virtual currencies like bitcoin, which confused society with its innovative approach to handling the flow of money in the form of digital cash.

Today's most popular cryptocurrencies
The most popular cryptocurrencies today are: Bitcoin (market cap $11,382,240,050), Ethereum (market cap $904,848,975), Ripple (market cap $290,446,84

, Litecoin (market cap $184,904,214), Monero (market cap $83,466,495) , Ethereum Classic (market cap $80,817,441), Dash (market cap $66,519,213), Augur (market cap $52,038,360), NEM (market cap $37,322,550), Waves (market cap $35,727). , 500).

Bitcoin
Is the first such currency to serve as the digital gold standard across the industry. Its price has increased from $0 to over $650 while the transaction volume has reached more than 200,000 daily transactions.

Litecoin
While bitcoin is referred to as digital gold, this cryptocurrency is referred to as digital silver. It has an updated algorithm, is even faster and has a larger amount of tokens than Bitcoin. However, it is still referred to as “Bitcoin’s little brother.”

Ether
Is a very flexible family of cryptocurrencies as it validates a range of accounts, balances and states and can handle complex programs and contracts.

Monero
This cryptocurrency attracted a lot of attention when its popularity peaked in the summer of 2016. This happened because the dark web markets decided not to accept them as currency. The consequences were a price increase and a drop in actual usage.

Ripple
Has a greater tendency to process promissory notes than being a cryptocurrency, it does not serve as a medium to store and exchange value while having an XRP as a store of value. It's more of a token to protect the network from spam. However, financial institutions such as banks can use them and continue to use them on a daily basis today.

The working mechanism of cryptocurrencies
Experts refer to cryptocurrencies as a kind of limited entries in a database that nobody can change without meeting certain conditions. In addition, it is also a definition for each currency. This is due to the structure of a cryptocurrency. For example, Bitcoin consists of a network of peers, each of which has a record of the history of all transactions and the balance of each account. A transaction can be defined as a simple file stating that someone transfers a specified amount of bitcoins to another person and seals the deal by signing the file with his or her private key. After signing the file, the transaction carried out is transmitted in the network and sent from one peer to another.

The whole mechanism looks like this: someone requests a transaction - it is then sent to a P2P network consisting of computers (nodes) - then validation comes into play as the user's status needs to be validated using known algorithms - after verification, the transaction is combined with other transactions to create a new block of data - this is then added to the existing blockchain - and the transaction is complete.

So basically, the working mechanism of cryptocurrencies, or rather a technology, can be called P2P technology, where the cryptocurrency itself becomes a medium of exchange, created and stored electronically using some encryption techniques to control the creation of monetary units and in the blockchain Checking the money transfer. In general, cryptocurrency is digital money created from code whose economy is monitored through a peer-to-peer internet protocol containing an encoded or encrypted string of data.

The increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies
Nowadays, cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular, mainly due to their revolutionary properties, which make them similar to digital gold while protecting them from political interference. They are fairly quick and convenient means of making money transactions. Cryptocurrencies can also serve as means of payment for black markets as they are anonymous. They are creating a dynamic market of investors as they daily trade volume exceeds that of major European stock exchanges. Every day more new cryptocurrencies are emerging and the old ones disappearing after a few months survival marathon at the cryptocurrency market.

Cryptocurrencies as an investment object
Can be a good investment object because of such transactional properties as: being irreversible (after a confirmation, the transaction being made can’t be reversed), pseudonymous (transactions as well as accounts are not connected to real-world identities), fast and global (transactions are confirmed in a couple of minutes), secure (as they are locked in a public key cryptography system), permissionless (all is needed for their usage is a software which can be downloaded). Some say that later they will overtake the Western Union as a more preferable remittance tool.

https://www.confiduss.com/en/services/solutions/corporate/cryptocurrency-license/

A Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives someone authority to act on behalf of the company. Typically, the power of attorney document carefully details the transactions and processes for which the individual is being granted power of attorney, rather than providing a general mandate that would allow the power of attorney to act with complete freedom.

A power of attorney gives legal authority to a person acting as an agent. For a company, this authority may include the ability to access financial accounts, sell or place new orders in securities, and write checks, although the agent may also perform a variety of other activities to keep the business running. For security reasons, a POA document should strictly restrict the agent's activities or access to specific accounts.

Powers of attorney can be used effectively in the normal course of business or only in certain circumstances - such as when the business owner is unable to make decisions or has no access to the business accounts.

Pros and cons of POA authorization
The key benefit of having a business power of attorney is that you have the security of a contingency plan in the event the business owner or other authorized representative is unable to perform their duties. Authorizing a representative to act on their behalf prepares the company for unexpected situations and allows important business decisions to be made in a timely manner. If the owner of the company has not granted anyone a legal power of attorney, there is always a risk that at some point he will not be able to make important business decisions or essential transactions, which can lead to great damage to the company and its reputation. Not having an authorized representative can result in not paying salaries on time, not servicing business loans or mortgages, not paying third-party vendors, and losing potential contracts.

The benefit of being able to authorize someone to act on behalf of the account holder comes with the peace of mind that you can trust the authorized agent with access to your business account. Therefore, you are strongly advised to think carefully before granting someone a POA and giving him or her access to a bank account and the ability to make important business decisions. The person you appoint as a representative has uncontrolled access to Company funds, which could potentially increase security risks if the appointee is acting in interests other than those of the Company.

Safety Risks & Liability
In general, an authorized representative is expected to make decisions that are in the best interests of the account holder, even if those decisions are not those that the authorized representative would make in person. It is therefore important to discuss all aspects and obligations of the POA with this person.

To mitigate the possible security risks, you need to understand who you can trust with access to the business account and ultimately the business itself. The agent will most likely be running your business at a time when you will not be able to pay close attention to his or her decisions. Finally, a power of attorney given to the wrong person can lead to misuse of the company's funds or its access to credit, for example, if that person makes bad investments, goes into debt on your behalf, or fails to pay bills on time.

To avoid this type of scenario, it is extremely important to state any powers that you wish to give your representative and to clearly state the powers that your representative will not have. In addition, you can also include a provision in the power of attorney that allows another person to review your proxy and, if suspected, to revoke the power of attorney.

When the agent exercises the POA, every decision or transaction he or she makes is treated as if it were made by the account holder personally. Therefore, it is recommended that you involve an attorney in the preparation of the Power of Attorney to ensure the document is tailored to the specific needs of the business, includes an appropriate level of authority and ensures the document clearly outlines any restrictions and approvals.

POA authorization as a tool for appointing nominees
If you are the owner of a company and wish to retain control of your company but for some reason wish to keep your interest in the company to yourself, you may appoint a nominee director. Typically, the nominee director will issue a Power of Attorney for you as the beneficiary of the company, giving you complete control over your company. In essence, the beneficiary retains the rights to the commercial bank accounts and shares, while the nominee director acts as the public administrator of the company. This can be a good way to protect your confidentiality. Click here to learn more about the nominee services we offer.

https://www.confiduss.com/en/banks/account-management/authorization/