You may have heard of commercial litigation and think that your business is too small to face a serious lawsuit. However, it’s important to know about the legal issues that could involve your business.
Copyright infringement
This is one of the reasons that the entertainment industry faces so many cases of commercial litigation. A copyright infringement occurs when a person or a business uses copyrighted materials without permission from the copyright holder. Businesses that use music, videos, and other works in their commercial productions can get sued for copyright infringement by the owners of these important rights.
Breach of contract
A commercial contract is a legally binding document that defines the financial terms of an agreement between two or more businesses. If the contract is not fulfilled by one of the parties, the other party has the right to file commercial litigation against them.
Breach of contract lawsuits is usually brought by businesses that have invested money in an agreement based on good faith and trust. For example, if you hire someone for commercial work and that person does not deliver their end of the agreement or delivers it late, then that is a breach of contract.
Trade secret misappropriation
A trade secret is any commercial information that has value and gives an advantage to the business that knows it. If someone uses this information without getting permission from the business owner, then they are infringing on their rights. This can lead to litigation called trade secret misappropriation. For example, if you hire a commercial researcher to conduct research on your business competitors, and they use this information without getting permission from you, then that is trade secret misappropriation.
Employee discrimination
All businesses have to keep the work environment free of discrimination. Discriminating against an employee based on their race, color, religion, sex or age is illegal and can lead to an employee discrimination lawsuit. Even if you don’t fire your employees because they belong to one of these categories but you make them feel uncomfortable because of their background, you can still get sued.
These are some legal issues you should know about if you are running a business. Understanding them is the first step to avoiding them.