Thomas James is an attorney in private practice at the
Law Office of Tom James in Cokato, Minnesota. He handles
copyright, trademark, business law, nonprofit law, and appeals. Also known as Thomas B. James, Thomas James is licensed in Minnesota and admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the Eighth and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. Trademark Trials and Appeals Board (TTAB).
Attorney
Tom James is the author of several
books and law review articles, including
E-Commerce Law: The Legal Compliance Handbook for Online Businesses,
IP Law for Non-IP Attorneys,
Website Law, and
The History of Custody Law. Visit his
Amazon Author Page.
In addition, Cokato attorney
Thomas James is the founder and an instructor at
Echion CLE, a provider of continuing legal education courses to attorneys, mediators and other legal professionals. He is also a certified teacher of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), a certified teacher of English to young learners (TEYL), and a certified teacher of Business English (CTBE).
Memberships:
- American Bar Association
- Minnesota State Bar Association
- Hennepin County Bar Association
- Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association
- National Association for the Self-Employer
- Copyright Alliance
- Authors Alliance
- ABA Committee on Copyright and Emerging Technologies
- ABA Committee on Copyright Office Affairs
Representative case:
Hansen v. Todnem (appeal).
Representative
client review
Visit his
IP law blog,
Cokato Copyright Attorney.
Visit his personal blog on
Medium.com.
Legal News and Updates.
View full profile.
Read
client testimonials.
Articles:
AI Lawsuits Roundup (Pulse, February 29, 2024)
The Trademark Modernization Act (iLawConnect, January 14, 2022)
10 Key Points to Cover in an Employment Contract (Avvo, 2021)
10 Essential Legal Steps in Starting a Business (Avvo, 2021)
"Overruling Rostker v. Goldberg: Toward an Equal Obligation to Register for Selective Service," Nebraska Law Review (May, 2021)In this article, Minnesota attorney
Tom James explains why male-only Selective Service registration requirements violate the Equal Protection clause of the constitution, and why a 1980 decision holding otherwise should be overruled. This article was written and published just prior to the United States Supreme Court's decision to deny review of a case challenging the constitutionality of the Selective Service Act. Although the Court declined review, it was acknowledged that the law, as written, may not be on sound constitutional footing. The Court suggested that Congress should proceed with measures it had begun to take to bring the Act into compliance with the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution.
"Sales and Use Tax Nexus: The Way Forward for Legislation," Mitchell-Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy & Practice, vol. 41, no. 1 (2020)In this article, Cokato lawyer Thomas James again critiques the United States Supreme Court's adoption of volume thresholds for the purpose of Due Process and Commerce Clause analysis of state sales and use taxes on interstate sales.
Mr. James suggests kinds of legislation that Congress could adopt to lighten the burden of differing state sales and use tax systems on small businesses.
"Assisted Reproduction: Reforming State Statutes After Obergefell v. Hodges and Pavan v. Smith," University of Maryland Law Journalof Race, Religion, Gender & Class, vol. 19 (2020)Although he no longer practices family law,
Minnesota attorney Tom James has maintained an interest in family law reform. In this article, he discusses the impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on state family law statutes pertaining to paternity and parentage determinations. In particular, he addresses the changes that will need to be made to state statutes in order to accommodate judicial decisions requiring parents in same-sex couples to be treated the same as parents in opposite-sex couples.
"Protecting Copyrights in Professional and Academic Writing," LinkedIn.com (2020). Here, Mr. James explains the rights academic and professional authors have in their works and how to protect them after the works have been published.
"Copyright Enforcement: Time to Abolish the Pre-Litigation Registration Requirement," Illinois Law Review (Fall, 2019).A recent United States Supreme Court decision has interpreted the Copyright Act to mean that a copyright owner cannot file an infringement action until after the Copyright Office has issued a registration. Noting that the Copyright Office can sometimes take a year or more to issue a registration certificate,
Cokato attorney Thomas James argues that this produces outcomes that are unfair to authors and other copyright owners. He suggests that Congress should abolish the pre-litigation registration requirement. The law, he contends, should be amended to provide that it is enough if the copyright owner has filed an application. Also published in
Pulse. '
Find it on
ResearchGate.
"E-Commerce Sales Taxes: What Your Online Business Needs to Know," AllBusiness.com (June 17, 2019)This article was written for business owners, and in particular, small business owners. It provided a guide to help small business owners assess their sales and use tax collection and remittance obligations concerning sales to residents of other states.
"Use Tax Nexus: The Illusory Utility of Volume Thresholds," Tax Notes – State (April 29, 2019). Cokato attorney Thomas James critiques the United States Supreme Court's adoption of volume thresholds as an analytical tool in the evaluation of the validity of state sales and use taxes on interstate commerce under the Due Process and Commerce clauses of the United States Constitution.
Divorced Dad Wins Fight Over Bible Lessons - Twin Cities Pioneer Press (2007): Newspaper article about attorney Tom James's successful reversal on appeal of a court order infringing on religious freedom.
Blog posts:
Fair Use Decision in Thomson Reuters v. Ross February 15, 2025
Top Copyright Cases of 2024, December 18, 2024
The New Copyright Circumvention Rules, October 26, 2024
Can We Talk Here? Trademark Speech Rights, June 14, 2024
Copyright Infringement Damages, May 9, 2024
Nontransformative Nuge, February 9, 2024
What Is in the Public Domain? February 8, 2024
Scraping Bias, Medium, February 25, 2024
Supreme Court Ethics and the Separation of Powers, November 14, 2023
7 Big US Supreme Court Decisions Coming Soon, May 8, 2023
Balancing the First Amendment on Whiskey and Dog Toys, May 4, 2023
Is Jazz Confusingly Similar to Music? April 7, 2023
Copyright owners prevail in Internet Archive lawsuit, March 26, 2023
New AI Copyright Guidance, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, March 16, 2023
The CCB's First 2 Determinations Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, March 6, 2023
A Recent Entrance to Complexity, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, February 26, 2023
Getty Images Litigation Update, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, February 7, 2023
AI Legal Issues, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, February 3, 2023
Does AI Infringe Copyright? Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas B. James, January 25, 2023
Newly Public Domain Works 2023, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, January 2, 2023
The Top Copyright Cases of 2022, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, December 26, 2022
"Woke" Is Not a Race, Sex, or Sexual Orientation Category, Medium.com, December 16, 2022
Words to Retire in 2023, Medium.com, December 1, 2022
Court Agrees to Hear Parody Goods Case, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, November 27, 2022
MSCHF Testing the Limits of Free Speech, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, November 8, 2022
Books by Tom James, Medium.com, October 18, 2022
Job Search Scam Red Flags, Medium.com, September 29, 2022
The Philosophy of Copyright, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, August 26, 2022
Photographers' Rights: Warhol Case Tests Limits of Transformative Use, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, August 18, 2022
The Internet Archives Lawsuit, Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James, July 21, 2022
Dobbs: What Happened and What It Means, June 26, 2022
"The" a Registered Trademark Now, June 23, 2022
What to Know About the New Copyright Claims Board, June 8, 2022
Copyright Claims Board Begins Soon, June 6, 2022
AI Can Create But Is It Art? May 25, 2022
Copyright Claims Board Update, May 5, 2022
13 Sizzling Hot Logical Fallacies, May 30, 3022
ACLU Announces New Discounted Speech Policy (satire)
, May 2, 2022
50 Second-World Problems, April 30, 2022
Trauma-Informed Law Practices, April 25, 2022
Free Speech, March 27, 2022
For Whom the Za Tolls Update, March 23, 2022
Top o' the Blarney to Ya, March 17, 2022
Newly Public Domain Works, March 8, 2022
Unicolors v. H&M Hennes v. Mauritz, February 24, 2022
Digital Tokens and Trademarks, February 19, 2022
NFTs and Copyrights, February 10, 2022
No Trademark Registration .sucks, February 3, 2022
Compulsory E-Book Licensing, January 27, 2022
Dune It Wrong, January 21, 2022
The Trademark Modernization Act, January 12, 2022
Courses taught or developed:
IP Issues in Probate Cases (NALA)
Joint Custody and Equal Shared Parenting Time Laws (Echion CLE)
Trademark Searches (Echion CLE)
Protecting Trademarks and Names (BETA Twin Cities Startup Week)
IP Law for Non-IP Attorneys (Echion CLE)
Representing Relatives in Post-Permanency Proceedings (MSBA CLE)
The New Copyright Small Claims Court
Trauma-Informed Practices
Relative Foster Care and Adoption
Stress and Secondary Trauma in Family Law Professionals
Registering Music Copyrights (for Non-IP Attorneys)
Child Sex Abuse Claims: Statutes of Limitations and Revival Laws
Elimination of Bias: Helping Male Victims of Childhood Sex Crimes
The Gender Paradigm in Family Court
Courses
Social Media and other links:
LinkedIn
WordPress (gravatar)
Issuu
Academia
Udemy - Instructor Thomas James page
SlideShare
Wattpad
HubPages
Product Hunt
YouTube
Amazon
Legal Information Institute listing
Minds
Attorney News and Updates