brands

Hodgson Legal congratulates Oat Solutions LLC founders Mika Manninen  and Helena Lumme on recent awards for their SIMPLI line of oatshakes.  The SIMPLI Oatshake has been awarded the prestigious BEVNET Award for Best Smoothie/Meal Replacement.

Adding to the accolades, Gourmet Retailer Magazine named the SIMPLI Oatshake as Best New Product in its August 2012 Editors’ Pick.

Founded in early 2011, Oat Solutions rapidly emerged as a leader in the gluten free, natural foods movement with its line of shakes and gluten free oatmeal products. SIMPLI products, which are also non-GMO, are manufactured using gluten free oats from family farms in Finland.  The oats are processed in one of only two certified gluten free facilities in the world.  Recent additions to the product line include a coffee flavored oat shake, as well as individual “on the go” servings of apricot and raspberry gluten free instant oatmeal.

Knowing the answers to questions like these will put you on the path to protecting your brands, copyrights, and other valuable intellectual property.

1. Does your business model require disclosing confidential information to third parties, such as investors, suppliers, vendors or potential strategic partners?
2. Are you introducing potential buyers and sellers of a business or other assets to each other in anticipation of a transaction?
3. Are you involved in the purchase or sale of a business and preparing for due diligence to review the legal standing of intangible assets involved in the transaction?
4. Do you have a novel invention or business method that may quality for patent protection?
5. Do you have proprietary software to operate a site or systems in your company, or software which you license to others?
6. Do you know your competitors and what they are up to in their advertising?
7. Have you hired third parties to create content such as logos, copy, graphic design, or other artistic material? If so, do you have written agreements as to ownership ?

Michael Potter, founder of Eden Foods considers the Certified-Organic Label a fraud and refuses to put it on Eden Products.  Potter was interviewed in a recent New York Times article that brings into question whether consumers can trust or rely upon the “Certified-Organics” brand.  Eden Foods is one of the last remaining independent organic companies of any size, with most sizeable organic companies  having already been bought by “Big Food.”

Bear Naked, Wholesome & Hearty, Kashi: all three and more actually belong to the cereals giant Kellogg. Naked Juice? That would be PepsiCo of Pepsi and Fritos fame. And behind the pastoral-sounding Walnut Acres, Health Valley and Spectrum Organics is none other than Hain Celestial, once affiliated with Heinz, the grand old name in ketchup.

Over the last decade, since federal organic standards have come to the fore, giant agri-food corporations like these and others — Coca-Cola, Cargill, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft and M&M Mars among them — have gobbled up most of the nation’s organic food industry. Pure, locally produced ingredients from small family farms? Not so much anymore.

Santa Monica-based yogitoes hosted the grand opening party at its new world headquarters on Main Street, including rExperience Lab. Yogitoes, under the direction of founder Susan Nichols, is leading the industry with the launch of its rYoga collection.

The rYoga collection uses recycled materials in its manufacturing, including nearly 1 million plastic bottles. Susan founded yogitoes in 2003 after inventing the patented SKIDLESS yoga towel, now in yoga studios around the world.

Take a look at the event photos on yogitoes’ Facebook page.