Mainebiz

V O L . X X V N O. X X V I N OV E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 9 14 L AW A my Rowbottom has been making artisanal cheeses for about 10 years. Taking Skowhegan-based Crooked Face Creamery from a part-time startup to an established food producer made her realize she needed legal help to pro- tect her products and brand. But she had never done any legal work or trademark- ing on her own and she operates on slim margins, scarcely able to afford the expense of hiring a lawyer. Taking part in a business boot camp in 2018, she heard about the Legal Food Hub, a program of the Conservation Law Foundation that provides pro bono legal services to food producers and farmers. After reaching out, she was put in touch with David McConnell, an attorney with Perkins|ompson in Portland who has a practice in trade- mark and copyright issues. ey met in 2018 and McConnell shortly there- after filed a trademark application for Rowbottom's logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. e procedure is simple on its face, says McConnell. "But there are a lot of traps for the unwary," he says. "You have to precisely identify each class of goods and services that the mark applies to." Saving on legal fees Central to Rowbottom's brand is a logo of a cow with a crooked face. "She was being proactive," says McConnell. "She recognized it was worth getting the federal trade mark registration." After nearly a year, which is how long the trademark process typically takes, the problem has been solved. Rowbottom only had to pay for the trademark filing fee. anks to the program, she saved between $1,000 and $5,000 on legal fees, McConnell estimates — a big chunk of change for a bootstrap operation. at kind of aid illustrates Legal Food Hub's mission. Founded in 2014, it connects eligible farmers, food entre- preneurs and organizations that support them with attorneys from a growing network who work on their legal issues for free, with an overall goal of helping to grow the farm and food sector. e program operates in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, with plans to expand to the other New England states. Since its launch, the hub has handled 375 cases, offering $2.5 million in pro bono legal services in the four states. In Maine, the hub is managed by the Conservation Law Foundation's Portland office. "We saw a trend and a growing need in the farming and food entrepreneur community for affordable legal services," says Phelps Turner, a staff attorney who manages the Maine hub. "So we lever- aged our connections in the legal com- munity throughout New England to create this program. We identified attor- neys and law firms willing to volunteer their time and provide free legal services to farmers and food entrepreneurs." Farms and food businesses in New England often run on tight margins, yet have many legal needs, Turner says. P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D F O C U S We saw a trend and a growing need in the farming and food entrepreneur community for affordable legal services. — Phelps Turner Conservation Law Foundation Amy Rowbottom, owner of Crooked Face Creamery, saved nearly $5,000 in legal fees by working with Legal Food Hub. FOR HELP businesses food B y L a u r i e S c h r e i B e r With Legal Food Hub, attorneys are available, pro bono

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