Labubus: The Toothy Toy That Took Over the World

In the ever-evolving world of collectibles, few phenomena have captured global attention quite like Labubus. What began as a quirky character in a storybook has transformed into a billion-dollar brand, a pop culture icon, and a symbol of modern collector culture. Labubus was born from the imagination of Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong-Belgian artist inspired by Nordic folklore. Originally featured in his illustrated series The Monsters, Labubu—the mischievous elf with sharp teeth and a scruffy charm—was brought to life as a vinyl figure in 2015. But it wasn’t until Lung partnered with Chinese toy giant Pop Mart in 2019 that Labubu truly found its audience.

Joy: The Musical: An Entrepreneurial Story

People who know me, even just a little bit, know that I’m a passionate fan and supporter of musical theatre. Truth is that my wife and I (two lawyers with a spreadsheet) have seen just under 800 unique musicals together in our adult lives. 

Even if you don’t know me but have been a regular reader of entreVIEW (are there any regular readers?), you’d also know this because I have frequently written about musical theatre for this blog, including my very first real post on this blog over 14 years ago, which was about the Spider-Man Musical. I’ve also written about other musicals, including "Finding Neverland," "Ernest Shackleton Loves Me," "Matilda," and couple of favorites, "Here Lies Love," and, of course "Hamilton." In case that isn’t enough to show my passion for musicals I’ve also written about the musical I wrote, "Pickle-Chiffon Pie: The Musical," which has now been produced three times!  

The Love for the Chiefs, the Love for the City!

Once again, the Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl bound! The Chiefs won the AFC Championship by beating the Buffalo Bills on January 26th. They will be facing the Philadelphia Eagles during Superbowl LIX. This is a historic matchup as Super Bowl LIX marks the second time in three years the Chiefs and the Eagles face each other. It is safe to say that Kansas City (and its surrounding areas) are proud of the Chiefs!

This past holiday season, the Chiefs and Kansas City reached a whole new level – being the stars of a Hallmark Christmas movie. There were multiple cameos, many locations throughout Kansas City, and the spirit of Chiefsmas all wrapped into an hour-and-a-half movie. Kansas City has been booming with pride. The city is welcoming visitors at record levels as Visit KC (the region’s primary destination sales and marketing organization) deploys its “From the Heart” campaign to engage and drive more than 28 million visitors.

The Tragic Fall of the Tupperware Brand

Most children of my generation are quite familiar with searching through a cabinet filled with plastic Tupperware containers and lids to find the right match for packing up leftovers. The ubiquity of the Tupperware container defined the experiences of generations of families from the post-World War II era through the Seventies and Eighties and up through the turn of the Century. Spurred to tremendous popularity by a revolutionary marketing strategy that introduced easy-to-use and often unusually colorful products aimed to keep foods and drinks fashionably fresh, Tupperware containers seemed to be in every household in America. Unfortunately, the Tupperware Brand, once it lost its market leader status, was unable to keep up in the modern-day, post-pandemic market. It recently filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

Farmers’ Market? More like Small Business Central

As the weather gets warmer and we emerge from our igloos here in Minnesota, one thing we are all looking forward to is being able to spend more time outside.

Whether you go for produce or local honey, to show off your newest cloth tote bag, or for just a sense of community, the local farmers’ market is the place to be. There is even a National Farmers’ Market Week (falling this year on August 4-10, 2024)! But what drives Americans to frequent farmers’ markets every summer without fail?

The Economic Impact of a Perennial Winner

On Sunday, February 11th, all of Kansas City celebrated as the Kansas City Chiefs found victory in Super Bowl 58.

As a lifelong Chiefs fan, the last few years have been beyond anything I ever could have imagined. When I was growing up, the Chiefs did not compete for championships. The team had a seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of quarterbacks, none of whom could lead the Chiefs far into the playoffs.

Holiday Receiving and Giving

The end of the year is always a hectic time for everyone, with many holidays around the world. It is also usually a big time for retail businesses.

This year, retailers have settled the long debate on when the holiday season begins—the earlier the better, as reflected in the surge in Black Friday deals. According to the traditional explanation for Thanksgiving-linked Black Friday sales, retailers—after an entire year of operating at a loss (“in the red”)—supposedly begin to earn a profit (“move into the black”) on the day after Thanksgiving, mainly because shoppers begin to spend heavily on discounted merchandise.

Beware of Grinches Selling Counterfeit Goods

With the holiday season in full swing, shoppers are looking for the best deals in record numbers this year.

According to CNBC, major trade groups estimate that sales for the 2023 holiday season will be in the range of about $950 billion. Much of these sales will be driven by online shopping. Per Gallup, 92% of all holiday shoppers will buy at least one gift online this year, and 47% of all shoppers will buy most—if not all—of their gifts online. This year’s Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in U.S. history, with revenue reaching about $12 billion in sales.

The Power of Pink

A few weeks ago, I was able to catch a movie. I actually went to the movie theater. What movie caught my eye? What brought me out to a movie theater? You guessed it. The one and only – Barbie.

I had Barbies growing up, but I was not one of those fans who counted down the days until the movie’s release. In fact, I did not plan to watch it on the big screen, but the marketing team at Barbie had my social media buzzing.

The combined release of Barbie and Oppenheimer—dubbed “Barbenheimer”—became a pop culture sensation. There were memes left and right about Barbenheimer. The event possibly revived the movie theater industry. According to CNN, Barbenheimer led to the fourth highest-grossing industry weekend of all time in North America, totaling about $302 million.

Philip Bump, The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of America (Viking, 2023)

I write this sitting in front of a window open on a fine summer’s morning. On any other day, I’d be in an equally fine mood, but today I find my internet connection has suddenly gone missing and, after seven hours on the phone with my “helpful” ISP, I am still accessing the online world through a supremely unstable iPhone hotspot. Insert “OK, Boomer” comment here.

Yes, this is a first-world problem, but it’s one problem those of us in the Boomer generation would never have anticipated—let alone imagined—30 years ago. It is a problem, as Bump argues here in this biography of my generation, that arises from the shift in society’s focus away from us old-timers. “Younger Americans,” he writes, “now dominate a cultural conversation that often depends on the sort of technologies that have emerged only relatively recently.”

It’s that time of the year again – when the Kansas City Office celebrates the Chiefs going to The Big Game!

As the Chiefs prepare to face off against the Philadelphia Eagles, it is important to note what an event like this means to the host city, the city of Glendale, Arizona. Every year, thousands of people travel to the lucky city that will hold the championship, generating millions of dollars in revenue for businesses and local governments. The game is also seen as an opportunity to showcase a city’s culture and attractions, resulting in increased tourism.

Happy Public Domain Day 2023!

January 1, 2023 marked the fifth Public Domain Day in recent memory, and the excitement has continued this year. In past posts, I have discussed the history of this day in the U.S., some common public domain questions , and notable entrants into the public domain. On January 1 of this year, copyright-protected works from 1927 entered the public domain in the United States, joining previous favorites such as the first Winnie the Pooh book by A. A. Milne, hundreds of thousands of sound recordings, and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

In 2023, the public domain expands to include works such as the last Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle, the second Winnie the Pooh book by A. A. Milne, and classics by Agatha Christie, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, Thornton Wilder, and Virginia Woolf. In 2023, the first “talkie” film The Jazz Singer enters the public domain, as do film classics such as Metropolis. Fans of early musicals and popular music will be glad to learn that compositions such as Puttin’ on the Ritz, ‘S Wonderful, Ol’ Man River, and (I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream are now in the public domain. As always, the caveat to this list is that only the original work from 1927 is in the public domain. Later adaptations or uses may still be copyright-protected – for example, a scholarly commentary on Woolf’s writings, a translation of Kafka to English, a sound recording of Ol’ Man River, or a film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, all may have their own copyright protection that has not yet ended.

It’s Whamaggedon Season Again…

If you are currently a participant in “Whamageddon,” do NOT click on this link. If you don’t know what Whamageddon is, it is a viral contest that has become popular every holiday season. The basic rules, which can be found here, involve trying to avoid hearing Wham’s “Last Christmas” (the original, not a cover) from December 1st through December 24th each year.

Under the “official” rules, you aren’t supposed to deliberately send your friends to “Whamhalla” (where participants go each year once they have heard the song). However, the Wikipedia page suggests that you could send someone a “Wham-bomb” by setting their smart device to play “Last Christmas” as an alarm on December 1st! Sometimes, people play with other songs, like Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous “All I Want For Christmas is You” or, in New Zealand, "Snoopy's Christmas."

First CCPA Enforcement Action by the California AG – Lessons Learned

The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and other new state data privacy laws are set to take effect in 2023. If you needed an incentive to review your compliance obligations, the California Attorney General recently provided one in its $1.2 million settlement of an enforcement action under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), upon which the CPRA expands. Anyone with an e-commerce website should take heed.

Summary of the Enforcement Action. According to the California AG, Sephora, a French cosmetics brand, failed to disclose to consumers it was “selling” (a broadly defined term under the CCPA) their personal information; failed to honor user requests to opt out of sales via a user-enabled Global Privacy Control; and failed to cure these violations within the 30-day period allowed by the CCPA. In addition to the settlement amount, Sephora promised to report to the AG on its changes to its privacy regimen for a period of two years.

WIPO Global Awards reward small and medium-sized enterprises making a global impact

In 2022, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a new initiative to recognize the innovative efforts of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from around the world. WIPO’s new Global Awards are designed to identify new inventions and creative commercial solutions that impact economic, social, and cultural progress, and in turn, encourage innovation and the commercialization of IP assets.

WIPO is a self-funding agency of the United Nations (comprising 193 member states) that provides a global forum for IP services, policy, information, and cooperation. WIPO’s mission is to ensure a world where innovation and creativity from anywhere in the world is supported by IP rights for the good of everyone. An aim of the Global Awards is to recognize and support enterprises and individuals striving to make a positive impact through innovation both at home and beyond borders.

Domain Names and Branding – What’s in a (Domain) Name?

In the internet age, a good domain name is a crucial part of any business’s branding strategy.

In a previous post on this blog directed at domain name owners, I covered the importance of domain names and identified some common domain scams. But what about new businesses that are just starting their branding? Ideal “.com” domain names can be in short supply these days. What is an entrepreneur to do?

Is that the Real McCoy?

Counterfeit products are fake goods designed, packaged, and branded to look like the real thing. They were historically of a lesser quality. For many years, the counterfeit market was considered a problem primarily for manufacturers of well-known luxury or high-end consumer goods such as name-brand clothing, shoes, purses, shoes, watches, jewelry, and electronics.

The fake items were sold by street vendors to persons who might not be likely customers for the genuine products, so actual “lost sales” to the brand owner were questionable. In most of these situations, purchasers would have (or should have) a fairly good idea that they were not purchasing a genuine product, so lack of quality would not be a surprise or blamed on the brand owner.

Welcoming 2022 and New Public Domain Works

 Happy New Year! There are many reasons to celebrate the start of a new year, but one reason particularly relevant for artists, writers, or other people looking to adapt and use artistic works is the occurrence of a new Public Domain Day. I wrote about the history of this day in the U.S. and some common public domain questions last year. In essence, January 1 is the day on which a new set of works previously protected by copyright pass into the public domain in the United States and become available for free use. Public Domain Day 2022 is only the fourth such day in the U.S. since the 90s and continues to be exciting, as works from 1926 enter the public domain.

TikTok: A Resource for Small Business

For many small businesses, social media can bring significant value. It can allow businesses to engage with customers in a cost-effective way, collect and track customer engagement, gain insight into competition, and develop and grow their brand.

Because of these advantages, many small businesses now utilize one or more of the many social media platforms out there – LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, to name a few of the most popular. TikTok, a relatively new social media platform, has also started to grow in popularity. 

Has Kanye Correctly Timed the Release of His New Album?

On July 18, 2020, Kanye West tweeted that July 24, 2020 would be the release date of Donda, his tenth album, named in honor of his late mother, Donda West.  Days later, on July 23, 2020, Taylor Swift made a surprise announcement that she too would be releasing a new album on July 24, 2020.  When July 24 rolled around, Swift released her album (folklore) while Kanye didn’t, with some speculating Kanye did not want Swift to outshine him.  (The two have been feuding since 2009 when Kanye went on stage and interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.)  Since summer 2020, Swift’s folklore won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, and Kanye has run for president, been divorced from Kim Kardashian, and dated supermodel Irina Shayk, but he has still not released his new album.  But rather than being a detriment to the album, the long delay has built a massive amount of hype around Donda.