Law Class Ghana

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Who do you think should have won? Rihanna - who was trying to protect her brand or Topshop - who was trying to push the limits of fashion?

Comment below!

Storytime! An endorsement from Rihanna could bring a business a great deal of exposure and profits. Can a business profit off of her image without her permission? This and other issues were up for debate in the case of Rihanna v. Topshop.

Where an image is 'royalty-free', it means that a person or entity has the right to use these images in multiple ways, including for commercial purposes, after paying either a one-time fee or for nothing at all.

They are typically also high-quality images, meaning they'll look great.

Looking for some? Try these websites for royalty-free images, *at no cost*:
-https://www.freeimages.com/
-https://burst.shopify.com/

Remember to read the terms of these websites to see whether these images come with any restrictions of use.

Watermarked images for your business? ... It's a no-no.

There are easy and cheap (sometimes free) alternatives to using watermarked images cut and pasted from the internet. We shall discuss these in our upcoming posts.

Signing an agreement serves as evidence of what was likely to be agreed - that your graphic designer would design a logo on your behalf, but ultimately you would own it.

Your logo is an important part of your business' identity. Protect it using a contract.

If you read Canva's terms (you know, those terms that you fibbed that you had " read and agree to"? 😀), it states that users cannot use Canva content, which includes clipart and photos in logos.

This is standard practice for websites and programs that allow users to use clipart and photos.

It makes sense why this is so. Canva content is offered for free for use by large numbers of people and businesses. If each person/business started to trademark this content and restrict those who could use it, it would defeat the purpose of why they were offered to the public in the first place.

Your agro-processing company could still benefit from reduced corporate income tax rates, after its first 5 years of business, depending on its location.

Find the reduced corporate rates that are available and the locations where they are applicable below:
Accra and Tema - 20%
Regional capitals - 15%
Outside regional capitals - 10%
Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions - 5%

Yup! Did you know this? The typical corporate income tax rate is 25%, so a rate of 1% is a *big* reduction.

For more information, speak with your accountant or officers at GRA on how you can claim this relief for your company.

Business owners - please do not push accountants to be everything to your business. Accountants cannot advise on matters such as litigation, contract drafting, corporate and commercial law.

A lot of businesses only focus on ensuring that they have their taxes filed on time. And you know what, we bet that some of the 50,000 companies being deleted may have up-to-date tax filings. But we must all realise that *taxes are not the only thing that one must keep up with as a business*. Your company may be put at risk by failing to file at RGD as well.

Sole proprietorship owners, have you renewed your business name yearly? Company owners - are you filing your annual returns? Filing special resolutions?