Student athletes in New Jersey may be further protected from the long term effects of a brain injury.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) has proposed a new regulation that will require athletes who sustain a concussion to get a certified physician’s approval before returning to the sport.

The NJSIAA has stated that schools that do not comply with the new regulation would face serious sanctions, including possible dismissal from the state athletic association. Although it may remove athletes from play for a short period, the new regulation is designed to protect the health of the student athletes.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI), including concussions, are serious injuries that currently do not have a cure. Although concussions are one of many types of TBIs, frequent head injuries can make individuals more concussion prone, which may impact his or her health as they grow older.

Student athlete brains are still in the development stage, thus a sports-related injury can ultimately affect his or her cognitive and emotional development.

Brain injuries occur in close to 20 percent of high school students nationwide each year.

Furthermore, the regulation will require coaches, trainers and the athletes themselves to participate in annual training seminars to educate about head injuries, including symptom recognition. Parents will also receive educational material prior to the start of each sports season.

Under the new guidelines, students will not be allowed to return to the sport for at least a week without exhibiting symptoms from a prior head injury. This regulation is similar to a recently updated National Football Association guideline that prevents athletes from returning to a game after sustaining a head injury.

The NFL’s change of policy in addition with several high profile brain injuries sustained by Olympic athletes has shed light on the risk of permanent damage from a head injury.

Picture this. You’re a woman who has been suffering from a serious case of acne for the past several years. You’ve tried every medication imaginable, but nothing seems to help and your acne is just getting worse and worse. Although your friends tell you that people love you for who you are, you can see the look in people’s eyes when they see the ugly blotches on your skin and it makes you hurt inside.

So one night you’re watching TV and you see some commercials from a well known brand you’ve grown up with – ¬ Bayer.

Their 60-second spots called “Balloons” and “Not Gonna Take It” are for a new birth control pill they call Yaz. They imply that if you take this medication your acne will “float away” or simply disappear. They suggest that this oral contraceptive offers the promise of completely clear skin. It sounds like exactly what you need.

Even though you really aren’t interested in taking a pill for birth control you desperately want to get rid of your acne. So you go to your doctor and he or she prescribes Yaz.

Some time goes by. Your skin isn’t clearing up. But you start reading the articles that are cropping up in the newspapers about people who are complaining to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they’ve been taking Yaz and now are experiencing some pretty serious health issues. You read that a number of women who took Yaz (or their survivors) have said that this oral contraceptive significantly increased their risk of suffering from serious and potentially fatal blood circulation problems such as DVT (deep vein thrombosis), stokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolisms.

First, it is critical to understand that there is no one trademark system which you can use to protect your mark in every country around the world.  Although certain treaties have been enacted in recent years which ease the ability of trademark owners to extend protection of their marks into other countries, the world trademark systems have simply yet to evolve to the point where there is a one-stop-shop for global trademark protection.

In regard to the current cooperative treaties, the most significant for U.S. Trademark owners is the Madrid Protocol, which allows the extension of protection of U.S. applications and registrations  into roughly 75 other countries and economic unions including the Australia, China, Cuba, Korea, the European Union and its member nations , Japan, the Russian Federation, Singapore, as well as a host of other nations.

Second, do you have a pending U.S. Trademark Application or an existing Trademark Registration?  If the answer is yes you can use the same to Apply for an International Registration through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office into any or all of the countries who have signed the Madrid Protocol treaty.

Of note, given the non-refundable nature of the filing fees it is often advisable to have a Trademark Attorney assist you in the process.  Additionally, if you mark is refused registration in the foreign country for any reason local counsel may need to be retained in that country to respond to the refusal.

Third, if you do not have a pending U.S. Trademark Application or an existing Trademark Registration you can still register your mark in the Madrid Protocol countries and beyond, you will merely need to have original applications filed for in each of the countries you seek protection.  Of note, due to the complexities involved many applicants choose to retain one coordinating general counsel to oversee the international filings especially where multiple filings in various countries are involved.

If someone is injured by a product that is defective in some way, or by an unintentional or careless act of another person, a personal injury claim or lawsuit can come be initiated. Then if the courts determine that someone is legally responsible for another person’s being injured, the responsible person is deemed to be liable for that injury.

What are Compensatory Damages?

Once it’s found that a person is liable for injuring another they could be forced to pay compensatory damages to the injured person. The purpose of the compensatory damages rewarded by the court for personal injury claims and lawsuits is to try to help the injured party return to the position they were in prior to the injury.

What are Punitive Damages?

The purpose of punitive damages is to punish wrongdoers. Punitive damages are an attempt to prevent the company or individual that has caused the problem from harming other people.

What are Examples of Personal Injury?

Depending on the cause, personal injuries can be life altering and rather severe. Personal injury claims may be initiated because of the following causes, and more:

- The use of dangerous or defective products

- Injuries that happened at work

- Motor vehicle accidents

- Wrongful death

- Construction accidents

- Slip and fall accidents

What Should You Do If You are Suffering from a Personal Injury?

Unfortunately a number of insurance companies attempt to avoid their responsibilities and attempt to save money by not fully paying for the necessary treatments that personal injury victims need. If you or someone close to you has suffered a personal injury you should immediately contact a law firm that specializes in personal injury claims to do what you can to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.