Nevada Intellectual Property Legal Questions

Rob, the short answer is that common law rights may be used to defeat a federal trademark registration, but there are caveats.  Your common law rights give you rights in the trademark only in the geographic areas in which you are doing business; if you are online and selling goods throughout the U.S., then you potentially have rights throughout the U.S.  Often, a coexistence agreement is carved out so that the junior trademark user only uses his/her mark in the areas you are not using yours.  There are lots of facts to delve into here, especially whether "likelihood of confusion" does in fact exist. Hope this helps Lisa Dunner... Read More

I recommend that you go back to the lawyer that drafted the cease and desist letters for you and discuss the situation with her/him.  You need to have a frank discussion on the issues of priority in the marketplace, whether or not your trademark is registered with the USPTO, the cost of filing a lawsuit for trademark litigation and the chances of success in court.  If the lawyer you hired is not an experienced trademark lawyer then you might want to find a trademark lawyer who has actually litigated a trademark infringement case in court.  Best of luck.... Read More

The license agreement is still valid, but it could be terminated. It would depend upon the law of the State of Nevada and the language of the license. If failure to renew a business license results in dissolution of the company, the license should indicate that the license is terminated if the company dissolves. If the license is silent as to this possibility, then if the license is interpretted under the laws of the State of Nevada, you need to look to state laws to determine when the company's status results in termination of a license.... Read More

In the tech world, California, more than any other US state (to the best of my knowledge) fosters mobility of tech workers. State laws in California tend to favor employee movement and freedom to operate over non-competes and NDAs, as compared to other states. You want to make sure any agreement that requires Nevada laws also requires Nevada as the forum for any dispute. I have not studied the laws of Nevada or California, these thoughts are based strictly on reputation of laws in California within a legal community. Good luck, Todd... Read More

A transcript of legal proceedings prepared by the court reporter is generally going to be public domain material, not unlike statutes or judicial opinions. There are situations where a private entity (e.g., Westlaw or Lexis-Nexis) publishes the material in their own format and the format carries some copyright protection. If the notice is prepared by a private entity, and the entity cares about the trademark, they will put some for of copyright notice at the beginning or ending of the work. If it is not there, you are most likely free to copy it and sell it as part of your book, keeping in mind that you do not gain any copyright control/ownership over the transcript that you copied.... Read More

If your use is truthful and you are selling authentic products, then yes you can use the brand name on your site to describe the goods. The Lanham Act (the US trademark law) specifically allows uses of trademarks when the marks are used for the purpose of identifying or describing the owner. There are limits, however, so you should contact a trademark lawyer to make sure your use is a fair use under the Lanham Act.... Read More