SideBar Newsletter from Shumaker Williams, P.C.

If you are like most golfers, then chances are even your best day on the golf course will likely lead to a few hooked drives or lost balls in the woods. It doesn't take an attorney to wonder what the extent of liability would be if a stray ball struck and permanently injured one of my fellow golfers or perhaps a stranger. A recent decision from the Pennsylvania Superior Court,1 Zeidman v. Fisher, 2009 PA Super. 161 (2009), elaborates on what good and bad golfers alike should know about liability for their actions on the golf course.

In the summer of 2007, Stewart Zeidman was playing golf with friends, Troy Fisher and Larry Rashkow, at Springfield Country Club. When the threesome reached the seventeenth tee, the group asked whether Zeidman would proceed ahead to check whether the group ahead of them was safely out of driving distance so the others could tee off. The line of sight was obstructed by a hill so Zeidman took the golf cart to investigate the progress of the group ahead of them. All three golfers were aware of where Zeidman was heading with the golf cart and why. Nonetheless, when Zeidman was returning to the tee box and was only 100 yards away, Fisher drove his first tee shot, which veered directly toward Zeidman, striking his face and causing permanent injuries.

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Trademarks Can Be Valuable Business Assets

By Ryan P. Siney

Trademarks are names, symbols, logos, taglines, and other printed or graphic representations of your business's name, products, and services. Applying for a federal trademark registration for these items provides essential protection for your bank. A registered trademark can be sold or licensed, and therefore can become as valuable as your business's tangible business assets. Trademark registration can also reduce the likelihood of customer confusion and help to shield your business from the growing threat of trademark infringement lawsuits.

Trademark registration helps to reduce the risk that your business is using a trademark which is already registered by another business or company outside of your particular industry. It is not uncommon for a business to use a trademark for many years, building significant goodwill and recognition, before receiving notice that the trademark was registered to someone else all along. If your trademark is already registered by another person or company, the owner of that trademark can demand that you stop using the trademark immediately and can even seek to obtain your profits and their attorney's fees. If a business competitor discovers that your business is infringing on its trademark, then your business may be forced to quickly change its name or logo and thus surrender the goodwill and recognition that your trademark had generated. A sudden involuntary name or logo change by your bank may both confuse and alienate customers and the community, and significantly increase your business's marketing costs. By registering your trademark, you can reduce the chances that the investment your business has made in its name, product names, and logos will vanish.

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How to Evaluate a Group Long-Term Disability Policy

B y David J. Ledermann

Group long-term disability coverage can be a valuable component of the benefit package made available to an organization's employees. However, a number of important factors should be considered in evaluating both the purchase of a group policy and the means by which the coverage is offered. Appropriate attention to these issues can make all the difference in the world to an employee confronted with a potential loss of income and earning capacity resulting from a disabling injury or illness.

DEFINING "DISABILITY"

As a preliminary matter, perhaps the most important consideration in evaluating a group long-term disability policy is the policy's definition of "disability." A policy may require that as a condition of receiving benefits, the insured be unable to engage in any gainful employment. This standard is difficult, if not impossible, to meet in situations where an employee's condition prevents the performance of his or her regular occupation but would not necessarily prevent the employee from working at some other job, even in a completely different industry.

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