Dear Rich: You show a lot of odd pictures of the Dear Rich Staff. It seems a little frivolous to dispense legal advice and yet attribute it to fictitious sources. We agree that people who dispense legal advice should not hide behind a veneer of frivolity. However, the Dear Rich Staff does not dispense legal advice (and we are not entering into an attorney-client relationship ... blah blah blah). Instead, we provide information that we hope can guide you in your decision making. Unlike lawyers who bill by the hour, our staff is free to go off on long-winded side discussions about subjects that would have you smashing the meter at the lawyer's office. By way of example, we're not sure why we keep thinking about that Coco Chanel movie. We think it's because the filmmakers did a good job of humanizing the creation of intellectual property -- showing how Coco picked up cues from her environment (cues that others failed to appreciate) and how she confidently persevered to merge them all into her unique style. (Great artists are usually great opportunists.) She earned a living from her artistic vision and her company still thrives even though nothing but her name (and logo) is protected under law. The Dear Rich Staff is impressed.
Right, you had a "question." We've been getting a lot of "questions" that don't have any question marks and we're formulating a policy about that.
