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Kelley Way has been creating blog posts across many topics of Estate Planning, Copyright and Trademark law. If you have a topic or question you’d like covered, reach out to Kelley Way here.
Why Register Your Copyright?
I’ve had several people reach out to me over the last month regarding a recent Supreme Court case, Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com. The ruling made them worry about their ability to protect their copyrights. For those who aren’t aware of...
Estate Planning for Pets
Estate planning for pets might not be the first thing you think of when creating a will or trust, but it's an important way to provide security for your furbaby. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know that I live with (as of 2025) four dogs (all of whom are quite...
Estate Planning with a Ticking Clock
Sally sat in the chair, her mind reeling. It couldn’t be true. Sure, she’d been having some problems, which was why she had gone to the doctor’s office. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that she’d been putting it off for awhile. Even so, the news still came...
Estates and Copyright – What Happens When They Collide?
When you have an income-producing asset like a copyright, it’s easy to focus on how to keep that income flowing over the next few months. It’s more difficult, but ultimately very rewarding, to plan out how that income will keep coming in over the next few years – just...
What Does It Mean to Fund a Trust?
I get this question from a lot of clients. I admit, “funding the trust” is not something you hear in the normal course of your day (unless you’re an estate planning lawyer, of course). So here’s the explanation of what it means, and why it’s important. A trust is a...
Why Have a Contract?
My father has always loved the old Chinese proverb “The faintest ink is more retentive than the best memory.” (No, that’s not the standard translation, but that is what I grew up hearing.) He also has his own saying, which I have adopted – “If it’s not in writing, it...
How to Deal with a Cluttered Estate
When my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, we were all devastated. Beyond the initial grief, however, there was also dismay – my father had been pushing her for years to declutter and downsize, and we knew that she had only ever made the most token of...
Copyright Expirations Resume in 2019!
January 1, 2019 was a big day in the world of copyright law. In order to understand why, I’ll need to give you some backstory. Back in 1998, there were a number of corporations – Disney being the most notable – petitioning Congress to extend the duration of copyright...
Understanding Publishing Contracts – the Grant of Rights Clause
Congratulations, you found a publisher that wants to publish your work! All that’s left now is to sign the contract and…oh my, that’s a lot of paper. And you’re not sure what even half of those words mean. But it’s okay to just sign it, right? The important thing is...