New Jersey Intellectual Property Legal Questions

There is some law suggesting that any acts -- regardless of the status of the actor -- committed after the priority date by a prior user are permitted as long as they are the same as the acts committed before the priority date. In theory, this would protect a distributor who was lawfully distributing the product before and after the priority date. However, these determinations are extremely fact-intensive, which means that you are not going to be able to obtain a definitive answer here. You'll need to review these matters with your own solicitor and disclose to him all of the material facts on which the prior use claim is based, including the facts relating to the status of the actual manufacturer. Good luck.... Read More

You are a bit confused about the applicable law. It doesn't matter what YouTube "follows" -- what matters is the rights of the owners of the copyrights in the games you will play on the video. Under the Copyright Act, which controls, your video images of the games, with voiceovers, are "derivative works" -- a right which belongs exclusively to the copyright owners. Thus, your videos will infringe the copyrights in the games unless an exemption or defense exists. There does exist the concept of "fair use" in copyright law, but whether any particular use is "fair" is intensely fact-dependent. The notion that you will earn a profit from this activity suggests that your use is not "fair."... Read More

It is impossible to advise you without detailed specifics regarding your proposed title, the potentially infringed mark, and the nature of the goods and services for which the mark was registered. Mere possession of a trademark does not give the trademark owner the right to exclude all other uses, but the nature and extent of the foundation's rights cannot be ascertained from the scant facts you have set forth. If you need to have some legal certainty regarding this matter, please telephone my office and I can advise you on a professional basis.... Read More

Whether you should be concerned depends on whether the other company has trademark rights in "Horse Information" and whether you registered your domain name "in bad faith." First, the company that is using "Horse Information" as a trademark and business name must have trademark and trade name rights. "Horse Information" for providing information about horses may be a generic term and not entitled to protection as a trademark at all. If the term is generic and there are no trademark rights, then your domain name may not be objectionable. Second, if you registered your domain before they started using "Horse Information" as a trademark (assuming that this can be protected as a trademark at all), your registration may not be "in bad faith." You should consult a trademark attorney on both of these issues.... Read More

You do not provide sufficient information with which to answer this question. Have you registered and/or used the "service/geo name combination" as a trademark? Is there any reason to any reason to believe that the party that registered the domain name had knowledge of your business at the time that the service/geo name combination was registered as a domain name? If you cannot answer "yes" to both of these questions, then it is unlikely that you could succeed in obtaining the rights for this domain name without purchasing the domain from its owner.... Read More

There is a second route to getting a domain name transferred to you, which is through a Uniform Dispute Resolution Proceeding (UDRP) that everyone agrees to when they register a domain name. You would submit your complaint to an arbitration panel, and the domain name owner would have a chance to respond. It is much less expensive and much quicker than a lawsuit. You still have to show that the owner of the domain name registered it in bad faith. If you win the UDRP, the domain name can be transferred to you. However, the loser has the option even then to take the matter to a court and stop the transfer.... Read More

There are 2 ways to get a domain name transferred to you - under the Lanham Act for "cybersquatting" or through an arbitration award under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP) which every domain name registrant agreed to when they registered their domain name. In both cases, you would have to show that the other person registered the domain name in "bad faith," which can be shown in a number of ways. One is that they registered the domain name AFTER you had trademark rights. If your trademark is federally registered, that is very helpful in showing that you have rights in the mark "X." You can review UDRP decisions at http://www.icann.org/en/help/dndr/udrp/proceedings to see what you would need to show to get the domain name transferred to you. Otherwise you can search for Lanham Act decisions under the Anti-Cyperpiracy Protection Act (ACPA), for example at http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search.... Read More

Since you are dealing with the U.S. entity only, the classic solution is to: (a) give the party with whom you are contracting the express right to show the design to third parties, provided that the third parties have executed and agreed to be bound by the agreement (which your counterpart needs to take care of); (b) give you indemnity against any breach by the third parties; and (c) consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts for breach by your counterpart or any of the third parties. An attorney can assist you with this.... Read More

A license agreement will generally have provisions governing what may happen if a royalty payment is missed.  If there are no specific provisions in the license, this type of breach would likely be considered material and the Licensor can likely take legal action.  However, without reviewing the license agreement and knowing the underlying facts, it is impossible to provide any guidance.  This information should not be considered legal advice for your specific circumstances and are offered only as general information on the topic of your question.  This should not be relied upon as legal advice and Sills Cummis and Gross does not represent you until you have signed a retainer letter from us.   Philip Braginsky, Sills Cummis and Gross http://www.sillscummis.com/practice/practice_group.asp?id=28... Read More