California Intellectual Property Legal Questions

Copyright of work made by an employee normally belongs completely to the employer.  Copyright of work made by an independent contractor normally belongs to the independent contractor unless there is a written "work made for hire" agreement transferring the rights to the employer. ... Read More

This question cannot be answered in the abstract. First, talk to your designer about what rights he/she may have in the font.  Next, a lawyer would want to see the contract between you and the designer. Then you need to contact a lawyer to review the agreement between you and the designer. If the designer had not rights you may wish to contact the font owner and obtain your own license.  Then you need to protect the IP you have purchased, either with copyright, trademark or a combination. This all needs a coordinated strategy based on the specific facts. ... Read More

You need to meet with a lawyer and explain many more facts. Did you copyright your script? Did you register with Writer's Guild? What kind of company was it? What do you think the agreement was? Are there any written contracts or other documents? That would be the beginning, not the end of the analysis. ... Read More

You have picked the correct category. You have copyright rights in photos taken by you whether you filed for copyright registration or not. Without registration, however, you cannot recover money damages and will be limited to an injunction preventing use. Additional facts may provide grounds for monetary recovery based on other legal theories. ... Read More

I suggest you settle this matter as efficiently as possible and move on to another business. The logo (or a trademark consisting of words)  is one of the most over-rated parts of a startup. People buy design, quality, price and business model of distribution, not cute names or logos. If you fight you should have a budget. I know you put a lot of effort and time and talent into the logo, and should get "something" but the value is in the eye of the person willing to pay for it. You could spend 10s of thousands of dollars in legal fees and end up with a logo that you cannot sell to any third party for various reasons including lack of interest.  There is a big difference between being a clothing designer and designing a logo. The best advice I ever gave my biggest clothing client was not to sue his old company for claiming he wasn't the clothing designer but instead to that that time and money, start his own company, and prove it in the marketplace. He did. ... Read More

It should be possible to achieve most if not all of your objectives as contract law permits tremendous freedom to the parties. Obviously the advise about how to do it will be fact intensive as to the subject matter of the seminars.  Enforcement of breach of contract or intellectual proprety rights  is often as difficult as establishing those rights. ... Read More

It doesn't matter how the product comes into the U.S., once it arrives here, if it is within the scope of a U.S. patent, the patent is infringed by the product and the patent owner can take legal action against both you and the purchaser. In fact, simply offering to sell the product in the U.S. will be an infringment of the patent. However, until the patent issues, no action can be taken against you. Merely having a patent application on file gives no actionable rights to the applicant until a patent is granted.... Read More

There is a small chance you could but a morely outcome is that you cannot. Further, even if you made it by a technicality or by an error, you would never develop the same goodwill in your product as if you used a torally original name. Further, even with trademark registration, there might still exist claims under state law for unfair competition and other legal theories. ... Read More

You can fie your trademark online today at the US Patent and Trademark Site: www.uspto.gov/trademarks/tess. On the main trademark page there is a video of how to file with frequently asked questions.  As for copyright oppostion, almost every community in California has a number of IP attorneys to consult. ... Read More

You are talking about a major "player" who was able to have itself acquited by Disney last March for $600 million. Before making contact an attorney would want to interview you in depth, understand the total context, before proceeding what should otherwise be doable. Since your son was a minor he stands in a n advantageous position regarding his entertainment and other contracts. ... Read More

No, you very might have a legal course of action here.  There are claims for copyright infringment, false attribution, breach of contract, etc. We sell a package called the Five Pillars of Protection that we can use to provide answers to your situation and provide you legal counseling on what is and is not fair use or copyright infringment.  I'll be able to guide you through what's OK and what's not OK. Looking forward to your reply. -Paul Contact info... Read More

Trademark questions are almost always fact intensive. The following is my "impression" NOT legal advice: I think Finding Supremo is a "cute name" and even though I saw Finding Nemo with my then-young children, I never would think of a connection between the two (unless Supremo sold tropical fish!) ... Read More

There are two issues at play. One issue is copyrights. In making any copyrightable work, the owner is the author unless/until the author assigns ownership to another entity with a signed writing unless the work qualifies as a work-for-hire (see Wikipedia). In most instances, the author of a video is the person manipulating the camera (e.g., the cameraman recording a wedding). In more organized productions, the author could be the director if the director is instructing the person manipulating the camera where and when and how to record. Being in the shot does not impact authorship or ownership. If you release footage you do not own, you could be in violation of copyrights. When the footage was being shot, each of you knew you were in the shot for the purpose of releasing a documentary. Even if releases were not executed, I don't think anyone can argue that they did not know they were being filmed or for what purpose. The second issue is contractual. Without looking at any divorce agreements or any business agreements related to filming the documentary, it is hard to identify what contractual issues might be at play. Again, though, if he has an ownership stake in the release, you could have an issue by releasing the movie despite the restriction he communicated. Good luck, Todd... Read More

Trademark infringement is about consumer confusion. If consumers who purchase the shirt believe it is a reference to the university (few people ever suggest they graduate from a city) and believe the t-shirt is produced with approval/license from the college, then you may be profiting from consumer confusion. Trademark law is about protection of the consumer as much as it is about protection of the trademark owner. The college may have a complaint to file against you if consumers who want to buy their goods are being deceived by you to purchase your goods. There might be a way to print that type of shirt without confusion. For instance, in reference to New York, the back of the t-shirt included class names such as "Street Vender Economics", "Taxi Driver Multilingualism" and "Skyscraper Architecture", a purchaser is unlikely to be confused that the shirt is referencing the city and not a school. Whereas, if you use SUNY colors and sell it ten feet off of the SUNY campus, without any effort at a city reference, you are probably creating risk for a law suit. Good luck, Todd... Read More