By: Vinanti Pandya
Jamsetji Tata was one of India’s biggest and most famous industrialists. Born in 1839 in Navsari, Gujarat, Tata received a Western education, unlike his peers. Tata joined his father’s company upon graduation and in less than two decades, he formed his own company.
During a period of political turmoil in India, Tata wanted to ensure that the material used in India was derived from local sources. To do so, he made many risky and expensive business decisions. Today those decisions led to one of the biggest multinational companies founded and headquartered in India, the Tata Group. He had four missions to accomplish: (1) start an iron and steel company, (2) generate hydroelectric power, (3) create a world-class educational institution, and (4) establish a world-class hotel. Only the hotel came to fruition during his life, but his work allowed his descendants to build the rest in his honor.
The Swadeshi Movement, which was the catalyst that led to the Freedom Movement, had not started yet. In the early 1990s, politically conscious Indians wanted to develop industries and resources in India by Indians. Tata followed this sentiment before its prominence. Near the end of Tata’s life, the movement picked up momentum. The momentum was so consequential that he named one of his mills Swadeshi.
Tata started with textiles. In 1869, he bought a bankrupt oil mill in Mumbai and converted it into a cotton mill. In two years, he sold the mill for profit. To understand the industry’s ins and outs, he went to London. He returned to India with a conviction to transfer the high standards he experienced in England to his home country.
The entire textile industry was centered in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was called then. It was, and still is today, the center of many industries. However, Tata decided to invest in a smaller town called Nagpur. Everyone ridiculed his strategic business decision. However, three years later, his mill was ready to produce handicrafts for all Indians. With cheaper land and better access to resources, Tata’s new mill was a success.
In the 1880s, Tata decided to build a steel plant. The industrial revolution had not touched India, so Tata had many obstacles to overcome. He was unsuccessful in his lifetime, but his son and cousin succeeded several years after his death.
One of the last things Tata did was inaugurate the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in 1903. At the time, it cost 11 million rupees (approximately $11 billion today). Today, it is one of the best hotels in India. He wanted to build it after being refused entry for being Indian. It was a one-of-a-kind luxury hotel with American fans, German elevators, English butlers, and Turkish baths. Tata died soon after in 1904.
Though he was a visionary, he was also a philanthropist. He donated to educational and healthcare charities. In his factories, workers’ welfare was at the forefront. He also established the JN Tata Endowment, which helped Indian students to pursue higher education in England, regardless of their socio-economic background. Knowing that his mission was to make everything in India, he knew the utmost importance of education. Thus, he started drawing up plans for, what is now known as, the India Institute of Science.
Although he did not participate in politics regularly, he was an avid supporter of his country’s economic well-being. If anything was disturbing India’s economic stability, the loudest voice against it was Jamsetji Tata’s. He opposed the tariffs against Indian cloth and the shipping rates that discriminated against Indian goods, not British goods.
Tata fought for India’s economic freedom before the Freedom Movement started. He fought for goods to be made in India before the Swadeshi Movement started. He donated immensely to charities and funds to uplift Indians in access to education and health care. Jamsetji Tata remains an inspiration to Indians around the world.
Vinanti Pandya, at the time of this post, is a second-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law. She is originally from India but is technically from Canada. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto. Vinanti is the current Vice President of the North American South Asian Law Students’ Association and a member of the Moot Court Team.
For many nascent entrepreneurs caught up in the many layers of starting their business, building an intellectual property portfolio is not at the top of their priority list. In light of fundraising capital, navigating the real estate market for the ideal property, and building initial inventory, thinking about intellectual property filings might stay on the back burner. However common this scenario may be, it is a mistake—one of the most critical elements of any business is its name (and subsequent branding!), and ensuring that your preferred name is both available and enforceable should be a main prerogative.
When you think about the marketplace giants that we interact with every day—like Apple, Amazon, and Google—you will notice that their names are concise, unique, and recognizable. Entrepreneurs brainstorming a name for their product or business should try to emulate this blueprint, and not just because it is a smart marketing strategy, but because these names are likely to be more easily trademarked.
These nuances are important to keep in mind as an entrepreneur selecting a name for their new business. If you would like to explore what options might be taken already but have not yet retained an attorney to assist with your start-up, you can go to the USPTO website and use their 
For Darrick Rizzo, everything is an opportunity. He has turned pain into purpose and no’s into yes’s. Rizzo is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and author from Pennsylvania. He owns his own video production company and is the executive producer for Master P and Snoop Dogg. However, Rizzo’s success was not a result of luck. Rizzo saw a plan, he stuck to that plan, and his plan expanded.
Rizzo was meeting people constantly as a result of his video business, and his great personality scored him another business. One day, a man asked Rizzo to teach his team defense since he shut Kobe down. Rizzo thought that this was another avenue, which he was going to focus on now. He started “D’em Up,” another LLC, in which he would go to schools all over the country and host basketball clinics focused strictly on defense. Rizzo’s training videos eventually ended up on Championship Productions, an internationally recognized industry leader in instructional videos featuring top coaches and athletes. However, Rizzo received a call one day from Kobe’s lawyer because Kobe’s father said that no one ever shut Kobe down, and Rizzo’s video was only an edited highlight. Rizzo was determined to prove Kobe’s father wrong. He found the box score and called Kobe’s lawyer apologizing. Rizzo didn’t hold Kobe to eight points; he held him to seven.
Rizzo embodies strength and persistence. Since he was a young boy, he turned negatives into positives; that’s just who he is. After experiencing the death of his sister and other loved ones, Rizzo started writing music and developed a CD. His cousin, a consultant and mediator in Los Angeles, told Rizzo to come out for an event to show his CD to celebrities. According to Rizzo, “When someone gives you an opportunity in life, you have to run with it.” Or, in basketball terms, “If someone throws you an alley oop, you dunk it.” Rizzo was not scared. He confidently approached Snoop Dogg at this event telling him about his CD, but Snoop Dogg said no. Rizzo was not offended; he did not care. Instead, he replied, “One day I am going to work with you Snoop.” Rizzo’s statement proved true 25 years later.
According to Rizzo, “You are who you surround yourself with, so if you surround yourself with entrepreneurs, then you are going to come up with ideas. If you surround yourself with someone who is not doing anything, then you are going to be stuck.”
Sarah Donley, at the time of this post, is a 3L at Penn State Dickinson Law. She has a BBA in Economics & Finance with minors in Entrepreneurship and Psychology from Shenandoah University. Sarah currently serves as an Articles Editor on the Dickinson Law Review. In May 2023, Sarah will be receiving her J.D. from Penn State Dickinson Law and her LL.M. in European Business Law from Radboud University.
Many international entrepreneurs wish to enter the United States to grow their start-up endeavors. Unfortunately, many existing visa or immigration options do not adapt well to the entrepreneurial context. The International Entrepreneur Parole (IEP) program is an attempt to fill this gap by creating a path for international entrepreneurs to enter and live in the United States if their presence would provide a “significant public benefit.” This post will introduce the International Entrepreneur Parole Program, discuss IEP program requirements, and weigh considerations for an entrepreneur who may be exploring this option.
An entrepreneur interested in the IEP program should weigh several aspects of the program. To be admitted to the United States under IEP, the entrepreneur must be entering the United States from abroad. That means that an individual who is currently in the United States in another immigration status—such as a student visa—would have to leave the United States and re-enter the country at an airport or border.
Professor Brian Frye of the University of Kentucky College of Law is a groundbreaker when it comes to creativity and entrepreneurship. He is an artist, filmmaker, and law professor. We talked about how the combination of art and the law inspires him in his writing, his involvement in NFTs, his podcast, and his entrepreneurial spirit.
Professor Frye explained that NFTs are essentially “a digital token that gives you nothing.” This is in reference to the traditional legal understanding of property ownership that confers an exclusive bundle of rights to the owner – use, convey, destroy. An owner of an NFT does not necessarily have an exclusive right to the good represented by the NFT and in this sense, ownership is separate from the good. All that one “owns” is the NFT itself.
One possible benefit is that the purchase is an example of the economic concept of conspicuous consumption. With conspicuous consumption, the benefit or utility of a good – called a Veblen or luxury good – is not necessarily exclusively derived from the good itself, but rather the acquisition of the good, which serves as a signal for one’s status, power, or wealth. In contrast to normal goods, there’s a positive correlation between price/exclusivity and demand for Veblen goods. Another possible benefit is that the purchase is an investment in the potential long-term profitability of the artist and their work. In this sense, it’s not dramatically unlike the purchase of a security, such as shares of stock in a publicly-traded corporation.
For instance, his first published law review article, “
Outside of his professional and intellectual pursuits, Professor Frye enjoys the simpler things. At home, a typical day might involve waking up late and making breakfast for his wife who is also a law professor, taking the dog for a walk, doing some work in the bathtub, and having dinner with his wife. For up-and-comers, Professor Frye encourages budding legal scholars to pay attention to the needs of the audience and “produce something people actually want to read.” Not enough thought is given to the interest of the audience in legal scholarship. It’s important to consider both the style and substance of a piece of work in order to help maximize its impact.
Fredner Prevalus, at the time of this post, is a second-year law student at Penn State Dickinson Law. He is a Haitian-Canadian from Toronto, Canada. He earned his MA in Economics at McMaster University in 2014 and worked as a broker in the financial services industry prior to law school. He is the current Treasurer of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Student Bar Association Budget Committee Member, Law Lion Ambassador, and is participating as a Leading Law Student with the Carlisle Borough Council. His general interests lay at the intersection of law, economics, business, and finance. His special interest areas are in corporate and antitrust law. 
