Drinking more water, going to the gym, waking up at 6 AM: you’ve seen these resolutions before. While personal resolutions are great, don’t forget to take care of your business! Here are 4 business resolutions to help you meet your goals this year.Continue Reading

If you haven’t noticed already, I really enjoy exploring niche practices or niche legal issues on the ARTY LAW blog. I’ve recently been contacted by some entrepreneurs in the health/wellness industry and thought it would be interesting to address the legal issues in those fields. First topic: yoga. Whether you are a yoga teacher or a you own a yoga studio, you must have written contracts in place. Here are 4 elements you should be addressing in a yoga teacher...Continue Reading

From payment processing to keeping an accurate inventory, a lot of things go into running an e-commerce store. Unfortunately, the legal side of this type of business is often forgotten by e-commerce owners. While you may think having a clear return & exchanges policy is enough, there are plenty of other contracts you should be using for your online shop. Here are four of them.Continue Reading

Podcasts: everyone’s been listening to them and everyone’s thinking about starting one. As with many creative projects, there are legal issues that you need to be aware of as a content creator. Not sure what I’m referring to? Here are 4 legal aspects of having a podcast you need to think about.Continue Reading

As an artist, one of the first big agreements you will most likely be signing is with a manager. This individual will become one of the most important people in your team. You should therefore not take negotiation with an agent lightly. I have personally witnessed some horrible management contracts and thought it might be useful to give you some cues regarding such business agreements. If you are about to sign a management agreement, here are five things you should...Continue Reading

Consignment can seem like a wonderful risk-free way to generate revenue: little to no upfront costs, exposure to a new clientele and the opportunity to get your products back if they do not sell. However, many entrepreneurs find themselves in less than ideal situations (situations they were not expecting) when consigning their products. Fortunately, many of these issues can be prevented by having one specific document: a solid consignment agreement! Here are 5 elements you should address in your consignment...Continue Reading

I am back with another legal guide! Blogging has a lot of legal aspects very few people think about. I therefore decided to address a few in this short guide that will help you get a good idea, as a blogger, of what legal elements you need to be conscious of when running your blog.Continue Reading

For a lot of businesses, summer is a little slower than the rest of the year. This means it is the perfect time to start planning for fall, when businesses and the people running them are getting back into their routine. Here are a few steps to take in order to get the legal side of your business ready for fall.Continue Reading

Summertime is one of the busiest periods for makeup artists (wedding season)! As with other service-based businesses, you want to have a good service agreement in place to ensure you are protected when dealing with your clients (if you’re not convinced about the necessity of a good service agreement, check out this blog post). Here are four essential clauses to include in your makeup artist agreement.Continue Reading

I’ve been waiting for the Canadian Ad Standards to catch up for a while now and my wish has finally come true: Ad Standards recently released comprehensive disclosure guidelines for influencer marketing (you can check them out right here). This document addresses everything from Snapchat stories to YouTube videos. Want a quick summary? Here are 5 things to know about the latest disclosure guidelines.Continue Reading

Aside from ice cream and warm weather, the beginning of summer also means the beginning of pop-up shops. These short-term events are a great way to build brand awareness, but also to connect with consumers in real life for less than what a normal brick and mortar shop would cost. As with any other business move, you will need to put your pop-up shop lease in writing, whether you are the one renting the place or the one leasing it....Continue Reading

The GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, is all everyone has been talking about lately. Unfortunately, I have noticed quite a few myths about compliance to this law (not only in blog posts, but also in practice) and therefore thought it would be pertinent to properly address some of them. Here are 4 GDPR myths that need to be debunked for good.Continue Reading

Many entrepreneurs decide to sub-contract their work (or part of it) in order to lighten their workload or simply be more efficient. Unfortunately, very few of them decide to put these relationships into writing, and when they do, they often forget crucial aspects in their agreements. If you’d like to work with sub-contractors, here are 4 elements you should be including in your contract.Continue Reading

The Internet has been great tool to make legal information more accessible (it’s the reason why I’m able to share these posts with you after all). However, it’s hard to distinguish what is good legal information and what is questionable. Amongst all the tools and information you will be able to find online, contract templates are one of the things you should be most wary of. Of course, an okay contract is better than no contract. However, if you have...Continue Reading

Graphic designers make up a good part of my clientele. I therefore thought it would only be normal to continue my legal guide series (so far, there’s one for influencers, stylists, photographers, and videographers) with a blog post dedicated to graphic design legal essentials. Therefore, here are 4 legal elements you can’t ignore as a graphic designer.Continue Reading

One of the most popular posts on this blog is the one about copyright law and online content myths you should stop believing. The reason why I wrote that post in the first place is because I thought copyright law was one of the myth-ridden topics out there. However, I’ve recently come to notice that there are just as many myths about trademark law out there than there about copyright. Therefore, here are 4 myths about trademarks you really should...Continue Reading

The art market is booming. If you are an art consultant or advisor, you are probably thrilled about how many people are now interested in buying art. However, that excitement should not stop you from having a proper agreement in place between you and your clients. Don’t have one yet? Here are 4 elements, amongst others, you should be including in your art consulting agreement (if you already have clients and are not using a service agreement, check out this...Continue Reading

I’ve addressed this question during a live on ARTY LAW’s Facebook page and will be addressing it again tonight at The Revival – Spring Edition, but I thought it would be relevant to address it again in a blog post, as I find it might just be the question I get the most. So here are 5 reasons why creatives should do business with a lawyer at one point or another during their career, regardless of what industry they are...Continue Reading

Partnerships are just like every other business relationship you have: you need to put them in writing. Of course, one of the well-known benefits of putting business partnerships in writing is determining the financial aspects: how shares will be split amongst shareholders or how profits and losses will be divided amongst partners, for instance. But having a written agreement with your business partners can have many other upsides. Here are 4 reasons why your relationship with your partners should be...Continue Reading

GDPR: one of 2018’s buzzwords. You’ve probably heard about it at this point, but maybe you’re still asking yourself why you should care (especially if you’re not in the European Union) and how you can get ready for it. If that’s the case, this post if for you!Continue Reading

Video content is becoming more and more important for businesses. However, as with any creative industry out there, video making comes with a series of legal aspects you need to take in consideration. Whether you are a professional videographer who makes videos for others or even someone who films content regularly for their own business, here’s a little legal guide to make sure you are protected while doing so.Continue Reading

More and more people are choosing the self-employed route. I often discuss issues relating to being a freelancer on this blog, but this time, I’d like to do things a little differently. What if you want to work with a freelancer? Whether you’re in fashion, tech, arts, or any other industry, here are some clauses you definitely shouldn’t forget about when hiring your next independent contractor.Continue Reading

Fashion shows: beautiful events where a variety of people come together in order to celebrate fashion. Unfortunately, very few people realize the amount of legal work that needs to go into their organization in order for them to run smoothly. Whether you are organizing a fashion show or taking part in one, here are 5 legal aspects of a runway show you simply cannot ignore.Continue Reading

Thousands of applications are being released on different app stores every single day. Are you currently working on an innovative software you’d like to show to the world very soon? If that’s the case, have you thought about the legal aspects of releasing your new app (yes, I’m talking about those documents everyone agrees to without really reading them, but that are very necessary). Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here are 3 must-have legal documents for your new application...Continue Reading

I get a lot of questions regarding trademarks on a regular basis and definitely see many myths about them on the web. One thing I like to reiterate is if you put a lot of effort into your branding (which you should), you should consider getting your trademarks registered. This blog post will give you a little primer on trademarks as well as why you should register them and how to make sure they stay protected.Continue Reading

I told you I would start releasing different legal guides for different jobs and I am keeping my promise! I believe legal needs of stylists are not discussed enough, so here’s a little guide with 4 legal elements you should be looking into and considering getting done if you are a fashion stylist.Continue Reading

Being an entrepreneur (and the independence that comes with it) is one of the most fulfilling things you could possibly experience. However, one of the toughest parts about that independence is making sure you get paid for your hard work. Here are some tips for when you stumble upon a client that just won’t pay (and what to do to prevent these situations).Continue Reading

Online marketing and more specifically the use of social media platforms is more often than not at the very core of most businesses’ marketing strategy. If you have a company for which you do marketing or if you are a brand’s social media manager, there are a couple of legal aspects you should be conscious of when promoting yourself online.Continue Reading

Made in Canada claims are a powerful marketing tool if you are trying to attract customers who like to buy local and encourage ethical manufacturing. However, did you know they were rules surrounding Made in Canada claims (set out by the Competition Bureau)? Here are a few things you must know before stamping “Made in Canada” or any other claims onto all your products.Continue Reading

One of the most frequent questions we get is “I’m building a website. Is there anything I need to do in order to protect myself? Of course, the answer will depend on the type of website you are currently working on (professional services, entertainment, e-commerce, etc.), but as a rule of thumb, there are 2 documents you absolutely should be looking into: terms and conditions and a privacy policy.Continue Reading

We published a legal guide for influencers a few weeks ago and thought it would be interesting to try this formula with various jobs. We often get questions from photographers who wonder what they should be aware of, legally speaking, so we decided to compile some of the most important elements into a blog post!Continue Reading

Many artists, at one point or another in their career, have been asked to create commissioned work for their clients. While some might not want to see it that way, art is a business, and just like any other business, you should be protecting yourself. First step: a contract between you and your client.Continue Reading

Ahh the new year: this moment often translates into a desire to improve on a personal and a professional level. You probably already have big business plans for 2018, but do you know what you should be doing in order to make sure you reach your goals while still being protected? Here are 3 business resolutions you should consider taking for 2018!Continue Reading

The new year is coming and many of you are probably thinking about starting your business or working on a new project. Having the necessary funds to bring your project to life is essential and many have turned to crowdfunding to reach their financial goals. How does crowdfunding work? Keep reading to find out!Continue Reading

Business is booming and you now need to find a proper office or retail space that will meet your needs. Great! We all know that signing your first commercial lease can be daunting, especially once you see how long the legal document is. Don’t know where to start and how to protect yourself? Here are 4 things you should know about commercial leases. Of course, please take this as legal information and not legal advice. If you have any questions...Continue Reading

We often talk about how everyone seems to think the web is a jungle where everything is permitted. While we are seeing some improvements, there is one area that seems to be completely free of rules: influencer marketing. We therefore decided to put together this little guide for online influencers, but that can also be very useful to everyone who is thinking about using influencer marketing for their business.Continue Reading

Entrepreneurs are often told to just dive in and stop worrying about the details. While this is a great advice (no, really, just do it), there comes a time where an entrepreneur needs to take some time to make sure they’re heading in the right direction and that what they have worked so hard for will not be at risk under any circumstances. Here are 3 legal questions any entrepreneur should be asking themselves, at one point or another.Continue Reading

There’s something quite interesting about creating products at the intersection of two fascinating fields: fashion and technology. Even brands who have been in the industry for decades such as Levis are starting to dabble in fashiontech. However, as with any relatively new field, there are always legal concerns to be aware of. Here are three legal elements your new fashiontech startup needs to look into.Continue Reading

We at ARTY LAW spend a lot of time demystifying the law on our social media platforms, but the application of copyright law to online content seems to be so deeply misunderstood that we decided to write a blog post about it!Continue Reading

You started your business or startup a few months ago and business is booming. Great! Remember all the legal elements you disregarded when you first started out? Well, maybe it’s time to make sure you’re protected on all fronts. Here are 5 signs your business needs a lawyer.Continue Reading

The relationship between designers and stylists can almost be described as symbiotic: designers create garments. Designers need exposure to sell. Stylists need to pull items for shoots. Shoots can bring a lot of exposure to designers. In the middle of this beautiful relationship is a very essential legal (yes, legal) document: the pull letter. What is it? Is it necessary? What do I need to include in it? Keep reading and you’ll find your answers!Continue Reading

In business, whether you’re a consultant, a programmer, or a stylist, the first tool in your legal box should be a service agreement. We often talk about how important it is to get all of your business relationships on paper, but if you’re still on the fence about why you should invest in a properly written legal document, this post is for you!Continue Reading

Plagiarism: one of the most frequent practices in the fashion industry, so much so that you can now find Instagram accounts completely dedicated to exposing copycats such as the wonderful Diet Prada. This account. as well as the recent saga between LLY Atelier, a Montreal jeweller and Ellery, an Australian brand, have inspired us to write this post about dealing with copycats and protecting your designs.Continue Reading

Many say the web is like the Far West: a place with no rules where everything can happen. However, you would be surprised by how many laws exist to regulate our presence on the web. If you are a blogger, a social media influencer or an online retailer, keep on reading.Continue Reading

Licensing is a very common practice, especially in fashion and arts, that allows you to maximize the use of your intellectual property. Licensing can be very successful and lucrative if done properly. Whether you are an illustrator, a fashion brand or a band with a well-established brand, if you are considering licensing as your next business step, keep reading.Continue Reading

It is easy to get confused between the different types of intellectual property out there. Your IP assets are however crucial and should be demystified.  We have therefore decided to kick off our blog section with a primer on Canadian intellectual property.Continue Reading