Mark W. Schroeder, Business and Litigation Attorney

02/19/2025

Starting a small business is the dream of many Americans, but it is also a financial risk. To ensure success, there are some pitfalls you should avoid to prevent or mitigate a failure, including: Failing to establish the right legal structure. An improper or no business structure can expose you and you family’s assets to your business’ creditors. Each legal structure has different strengths and benefits, and selecting the right structure can have long-term financial, tax and legal consequences....

Starting a small business is the dream of many Americans, but it is also a financial risk. To ensure success, there are some pitfalls you should avoid to prevent or mitigate a failure, including: F…

02/19/2025

Intellectual property, from formulas and brand names to distinctive logos, are becoming more valuable assets for many businesses. Their value can vanish or decrease if they are not protected from misappropriation, and the type of intellectual property usually determines the best type of protection. Some of the ways to best protect intellectual property include: Non-Disclosure Agreements. NDAs prohibit the signer from misusing your intellectual property and obligates them to return or destroy it on request....

Intellectual property, from formulas and brand names to distinctive logos, are becoming more valuable assets for many businesses. Their value can vanish or decrease if they are not protected from m…

02/19/2025

What was once a rarity is now common as courts are accepting pictures, posts, and other information from Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites as evidence at trials, and it is not only defamatory or fraudulent statements posted on social media that are admissible. The content of a party’s posts and statements are admitted as prior inconsistent statements to their trial testimony and as evidence to show a witnesses’ prior knowledge....

What was once a rarity is now common as courts are accepting pictures, posts, and other information from Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites as evidence at trials, and it is not only d…

05/31/2023

Experts predict that the next wave of litigation against businesses may involve cybersecurity and the failure of businesses to implement pragmatic protections to avoid or minimize the theft or disclosure of private personal information (PPI) or confidential customer information. While insurance may be available to cover some of these losses, the risks to your business and its reputation could be substantial....

Experts predict that the next wave of litigation against businesses may involve cybersecurity and the failure of businesses to implement pragmatic protections to avoid or minimize the theft or disc…

05/24/2023

New Restrictions on Employment, Severance and Separation Agreements

While most employers are not obligated to provide severance to properly terminated at-will employees, no improper discrimination, contract obligations or retaliation involved, they often offer some form of severance conditioned on the terminated employee signing a severance or separation agreement t...

10/28/2022

https://www.napervillelaw.com/trademarks/

A trademark is a legally protected, non-generic, unique and distinctive name, symbol, letter, word, mark, slogan, phrase, smell, color, sound or hologram that can be owned to identify your business, products or services. It identifies and distinguishes your business or product from competitors or co...

02/21/2018

I built myself a new website - www.markschroederlaw.com - so I can blog a bit about current legal topics that interest me and affect my clients. They're not meant to be long or full of legal jargon, but hopefully they're informative.

Many courts require and many statutes mandate that parties retain and preserve documents and electronic data that relate to an existing or potential dispute. This is known as a “legal hold” and is…

01/21/2014

Can't help but feel bad for the lawyer.

File photo of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia courtesy of ABA Media Services. A lawyer arguing on behalf of a Wyoming family fighting the government’s effort to reclaim a strip of land got off to a rough start in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Lawyer Steven Lechner was arguing that the...

08/16/2013

Here's attorney Mark Schroeder and his daughter Sydney volunteering to help paint the Elmhurst Community Learning Center. Mark prides himself on giving back in different ways. Read more about Mark's involvement here: http://goo.gl/hfmlOH Are you going to help out your community or volunteer this weekend?