Intellectual Property Services and Products

If you deal with Company Formations, Name Changes or Assumed Names, you need to know about trademark, copyright and patent ownership searches. These services help you determine whether a name being used is clear (not in use by another entity). Without this knowledge, you risk investing time and money in branding, marketing and distributing a product, only later to receive a cease and desist letter.

Additionally, if you're involved in Mergers and Acquisitions these searches should be included in your due diligence process. They are part of establishing full discovery of all the assets and liabilities being acquired and help you to determine which brands the acquirer will be responsible for after acquisition.

These services include:

• U.S. Comprehensive searches;
• Trademark Ownership searches;
• Copyright Ownership searches; and
• Patent Ownership searches.

CLAS is now a preferred provider of these Corsearch products and services. If you'd like to learn more, please contact us by emailing Christy@clasinfo.com or by calling us at 1.800.952.5696.

Rewards for Referrals Program

We have a winner...

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Referral drawing. The winner of the Flip Video Camera is Stacey Kil, in Buena Park, California. Congratulations, Stacey!

...and you could be next!

Due to the excellent response, we've decided to hold another drawing. This time the prize will be an Amazon Kindle.* If you have colleagues you think would benefit from the quality of service CLAS provides, please let them know about us!

To enter, call or email Varsik Karapetyan at Varsik@clasinfo.com through the end of September to let us know which colleagues you'd like us to contact. Or if you prefer, you can have your colleagues contact or call us directly at 1.800.952.5696 and mention that you referred them.

Either way, for each referral we receive from you, we'll add your name to our drawing.

The winner of the Amazon Kindle* will be announced in our next newsletter. Thank you all again for your support.

Would you like an additional chance to win? "Like" our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/CLASINFO, and we'll enter your name again in our drawing!

*Kindle is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. Kindle devices are given away on behalf of CLAS Information Services. Amazon is not a sponsor of this event.

Experience You Can Count On

MEET OUR SENIORS; Top row, from left: Judi Leaird, Senior Service Representative (15+ years), Sandi Larsen, Service Department Manager (20+ years), Judy Culver, Compliance Manager (15+ years), Frances Williams, Operations Support (20+ years). Bottom row, from left: Dena Weaver, Senior Service Representative (15+ years), Jeanna Allen, Accounting Manager / Human Resources (15+ years), Christy McCullough, Director of Operations (20+ years), Kathy Culver, Director of Client Relations (20+ years).

A common refrain within this industry is the concern that there is significant turnover in staff and little long-term expertise at service companies. Clients call and are either greeted by voice mail systems or they talk to service people who have little industry experience.

Your engagement with CLAS will begin with a human answering your call and will continue with a referral to another who can answer or research most any industry question. We have made it a priority over our 32-year history to train our own people and then to create a work environment that makes them want to stay. Our group of senior employees who have been with us for more than 15 years maintain that standard and use their expertise to train our newer employees. The average tenure of a CLAS employee exceeds 10 years.

Do You Need A Compliance Checkup?

Did you know that failure to file your business entity's Annual Statement of Information reports with the Secretary of State can result in loss of your good standing resulting in:

• Penalties
• Loss of business name
• Voided contracts, and
• Inability to defend yourself in a lawsuit?

We can check the status and assist in recovering your good standing if needed. Contact us at Christy@clasinfo.com or call 1.800.952.5696 and ask for a "compliance checkup!"

Patriot Act Raises the Stakes On Complying with OFAC Regulations

U.S. Patriot Act Searches / OFAC Compliance

What is OFAC?

OFAC is an office within the U.S. Department of the Treasury that “administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals.”¹ While OFAC has been involved in sanctions programs since the War of 1812, Congress’s passing of the U.S. Patriot Act in the aftermath of the events of 9/11 has led to an increase in OFAC’s operations to curb terrorism. OFAC’s efforts include:

Sanctions Programs

There are three types of sanctions programs – comprehensive, limited and targeted. According to the OFAC 2012 Financial Symposium:

·         Comprehensive programs are those such as with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. With a comprehensive program, generally all activities are prohibited.

·         Limited sanctions, such as those with Burma, North Korea and involving conflict diamonds, allow certain activities. For example, exporting may be allowed, but not importing or investing. Each country or target may have different restrictions. Therefore, it is necessary to know which restrictions apply, and when.

·         Targeted sanctions mean an activity is on the sanctions list for a particular reason, such as narcotics trafficking or Somalian piracy.²

Licensing

All sanctions programs have exceptions of some sort and these exceptions may be handled through a license. An example may be General License 11, which allows for the transfer of services by non-governmental organizations. Another license may allow for the export of food to sanctioned nations (such as Iran or Sudan), although the countries themselves may be under a comprehensive program.²

The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List)

OFAC maintains a listing of restricted parties called the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List). Names are added to and removed from this list continually.² Failure to understand and properly comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC’s) requirements in this area can lead to results as mild as a cautionary letter or as severe as civil or criminal penalties.

Who needs to be OFAC compliant?

If your company deals in the transfer of funds, you must practice due diligence when dealing with clients in order to comply with OFAC requirements. This also applies if your company assists with the formation of corporate entities. This means that you or your service company needs to understand the OFAC Sanctions Programs (comprehensive, limited and targeted) and be aware of the SDN List.

What can you do to be OFAC compliant?

We have found that people/entities who neglect their responsibilities are usually penalized more harshly than those who have written internal processes but who somehow have a target slip through their process.

Once a violation is recognized, information is gathered and the violator should be prepared to answer such questions as why the target was missed and what happened. In determining an action to be taken against the violator, such items as whether it was a willful or reckless violation, the violator was aware of the conduct when approving the transaction, a compliance program was in place or not, cooperation with OFAC occurred during the investigation, etc. are taken into account. Actions can include a no action letter, a cautionary letter, a finding of a violation (civil or criminal penalties may be assessed) or a settlement.²

OFAC’S current focus is wire transfers. All wire transfers need to be screened. According to the OFAC 2012 Financial Symposium:

Particular risk occurs if the recipient of the transfer has overseas branches or subsidiaries, if the transfer came from a high-risk bank, the type of product offered for sale, how much internal quality control is in place and if the recipient has had a high number of OFAC incidents in the past. Ways to mitigate risk include keeping and using an updated SDN List, reporting incidents of missed identification, significant recordkeeping, and due diligence, including having tailored, written policies and procedures in place.²

CLAS has processes you can utilize to track your compliance attempts. Contact a CLAS Service Representative by emailing Christy@clasinfo.com, or by calling 800.952.5696. CLAS Information Services can be found online at www.clasinfo.com.

Sources:

1.  http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/offices/Pages/Office-of-Foreign-Assets-Control.aspx

2.  http://www.nprragac.org/2012/06/21/ofac-2012-financial-symposium/

How to Get Copies of Your Invoices in Seconds!

CLAS InfoPro™

Need a copy of an invoice? One of the many benefits of using CLAS InfoPro™ is that it allows you to look up your invoices online whenever you need them.

There are two ways to find your invoices in CLAS InfoPro™:

• Action Items - for recent invoices you haven't viewed yet
•  InfoBox - for older invoices you need to view again

 

Getting a Copy of Your Invoice from Your Action Items

When we first send you an invoice, we put it in your Action Items so you'll know that you need to take action on it. To go here, click the Action Items button:

If we've sent you an invoice and you haven't viewed it yet, you'll see it here:

To view your invoice, just double-click on it. A new browser window or browser tab will open with a PDF version of your invoice:

After you close this PDF and go back to your Action Items, you'll see this message:



If you want this invoice to stop appearing in your Action Items, click Yes. If you no longer want it to appear in your Action Items, click No. Either way, you'll still be able to find it in your InfoBox if you need it at a later time. Which brings us to...

 

Getting a Copy of Your Invoice from Your InfoBox

Even after you remove invoices from your Action Items, you'll still be able to find them in your InfoBox. We keep them available in the InfoBox for one year just in case you need them. To go to your InfoBox, click this button:

Find the job with the invoice you want and expand the folder for that job. Then double-click on the line.

(In this example, there is only one line to choose under the expanded folder. But if your job has multiple services, you may have more than one to choose from.)

After you double-click, a box like this will appear:

Select the service you want by clicking on it. (In this case, there is only one services to choose from.) You'll see that the Notes tab on the right shows information for that service after you click it:

To see your invoice, click on the Documents tab in the section on the right. Information about the documents for this service will appear:

Click on the document that has the Type "Invoice." Then click the View button. A new browser window or browser tab will open with a PDF version of your invoice:

And that's it!

If you'd like more assistance or if you'd like to learn more about what CLAS InfoPro™ can do for you, please give us a call at 1.800.952.5696, or contact us at Varsik@clasinfo.com or www.clasinfo.com. We'll be glad to help!

Long Wait for L.A. County FBNs

Due to a change in the way Los Angeles County processes Fictitious Business Name filings, it can now take up to eight business days to finish processing your filings.

Can't wait that long? If you need same day service for your L.A. County FBN filings, CLAS can help. Our L.A. office can often get your filing done the same day, and for no additional cost.

Please contact us for assistance at Christy@clasinfo.com or call us at 1.800.952.5696.

*This post has been updated. Update to L.A. County Fictitious Business Name Filing Times

CLAS I.T. - Experience, Knowledge and Duct Tape

They provide technology -- and so much more



Left to right: Javier Magaña, Scott Warner,
Jacob Schreibman, Teresa Altarriba

Good technology solutions don’t just happen. They’re created by experienced, dedicated teams that understand the needs of their clients.

Scott Warner, CLAS’s MIS Administrator, is the leader of our I.T. Development Team. With over 12 years of experience in the public record information industry, Scott brings more to the table than just technical knowledge. He is an expert in understanding the challenges of creating software solutions that can adapt to the continually changing requirements of all 50 states, numerous counties and various international jurisdictions. Scott’s experience has been a key factor in the creation and continued development of CLAS’s online UCC ordering system (UCC Ezfile®), our online ordering platform (CLAS InfoProTM), and more.

Scott developed a team of knowledgeable people, with an average of over five years experience each in the industry. Javier Magaña possesses detailed knowledge of our online and internal ordering systems, which he helped to develop, making him an invaluable resource when it comes to supporting our clients. Jacob Schreibman is currently focused on improving the team’s ability to research new technologies. His work will help CLAS continue to provide the best technological solutions to our clients. Teresa Altarriba, another contributor to the development of our ordering systems, is now working on improvements to CLAS’s online presence, allowing our clients quick access to industry events and easy communication with CLAS.

Of course, it’s not all work all the time. When our I.T. Development Team isn’t pondering complex programming and analyzing technological trends, they can be found entertaining themselves in creative ways, including racing motorized toy cars on improvised tracks and pummeling Scott with various weapons fashioned out of the ultimate technology, duct tape.

Welcome!

Welcome to CLAS's blog. Check here for useful industry news and other helpful tips.

CLAS provides information solutions and related resources for legal and lender industries. Facilities in Delaware, Los Angeles, Sacramento and London allow us to serve you globally. We serve:

• Law Firms
• Lending Institutions
• Corporations
• Financial Underwriters
• CPA's
• Leasing Companies
• And more.