Intellectual Property Legal Questions

A car title is not intellectual property. Intellectual property is patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. I would try asking the question again in 'litigation' or 'contracts' (even though the contract may be no more than a gift). The law often looks dubiously upon a 'gift', particularly when one party disputes the item was gifted, but I'm not sure how a court would typically view this transaction.... 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

Yes, if you have guests from more that only your state, you could obtain a federal trademark registration assuming that the name is registerable (for example, it is not descriptive and is not similar to the name of another B&B). However, obtaining the trademark registration will not prevent someone using the name of your bed & breakfast in a site that is simply complaining about it.... Read More

You need to register the copyright for the digital design (see www.copyright.gov), and then file a copyright complaint in court. If you created/published the work within the past 3 months, you may be able to register and qualify for statutory damages. Otherwise, you will want to speak with a local intellectual property litigator and determine the costs of preparing and filing the complaint.... Read More

If you design a copyrightable logo and the agreement is silent as to transfer of copyright ownership, you have the right to register the copyright and control its reproduction. Absent a written agreement to the contrary, the author (source of the creativity) is the owner of the copyright. Without looking at the logo, it is hard to answer whether the logo has the modicum of creativity necessary to obtain copyright protection. If the copyright office does not believe it is creative enough to be protectable, then you will not have any rights to prevent their reproduction of a logo. In practice, it is always better to put the terms of use in a written agreement before the logo is prepared. Without a written agreement, you are creating a situation that could result in litigation, hurt feelings, unrest, and frustration. ... Read More

Copyright infringement is about copying an artistic work of someone else. The phrase "patterns involve sports teams" is too ambiguous to give you any opinion about what you are doing. The Giants, the Dolphins, and the Bills may have copyrights in their logos and if you are copying their logos, you may have a copyright concern. The bigger issue is trademark infringement. Trademarks are source identifiers for goods and services. If your patterns that involve sports teams cause others to believe that the dog collars originate with, are licensed by, or are associated with these professional sports teams, then you may have a trademark infringement concern. If all you are doing is making a random pattern using team colors (e.g., red and blue for the Bills) the common colors are probably not enough to cause the consumers to believe the collars are associated with a specific football team. If the collars are red and blue and feature the word 'Buffalo', maybe there is more of a question. At the end of the day, the question is, "Do the consumers believe there is a source relationship between the collars and the professional sports teams?" Information on becoming a licensee can be found here: https://www.nfl.info/NFLConsProd/Welcome/CpPrequalify.htm... Read More

Not really intellectual property. I don't know the court structure in Illinois at all, but I'd suggest trying the local small claims court. I have used that venue successfully before to settle personal disputes that don't feel like hiring counsel is worthwhile. Another idea would be, if you have a common friend, have that person mediate the possession pick up.  If that person makes plans to be at the apartment, the former roommate may be less likely to blow the activity off and may also be able to assist in any altercations that ensue.... Read More

I haven't dealt with this situation at this level before. I am familiar with examples in sports law, where you can be restricted from bringing video equipment to a sporting event, regardless of how much you pay to attend and regardless of who you know participating in the event. The business rationale is that the event organizers have the opportunity to generate revenue with this practice and allowing others to make recording subverts their efforts. At smaller events, where family dominates attendees, people with video cameras tend to believe they have license to obstruct the view of others and occupy restricted areas to make their recording, disrupting the enjoyment of the event. The legal right comes from the event coordinator controlling access to the event. If they can control your ability to be there (e.g., ticket, asking people to leave, etc), they can place reasonable restrictions on those to whom they grant access, including prohibiting event recordings.... Read More

When you disclose your invention to anyone without some form of protection or reasonable expectation of confidentiality in place, you put yourself at risk. Many angels are not willing to execute NDAs because they look at so many deals and they don't want to be sued by someone they turned down because they invested in someone with a similar idea. You have to look at your situation, the likelihood of the angels being supportive, and evaluate whether the risk is worth it. If you want additional protection and if you think your IP is novel, file a provisional patent application that at least discloses everything you intend to share with the angel investors. For the provisional to have value down the road, you will need to file the utility application, but as the US is now following first-to-file rules in the Patent Office, having something on file will give you a little extra protection moving forward. Good luck, Todd... Read More

The US now has a 'first-to-file' patent system. Whoever files a patent application first on that idea, maintains the patent application (or continuity), and obtains a patent has the right to keep others from making the technology. There are exceptions for businesses that were making the patented product before the first patent application was filed, but you are not suggesting that fact exists in your case. Until the patent issues, the patent owner does not have any right/ability to file a patent infringement complaint against someone else making their invention. However, once the patent issues, they can stop you from making their product and, if the claims are the same as the patent application that published, they could sue an infringer for making the patented product before the patent was issued.... Read More

You need to look at 35 USC 102. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/102 I am assuming the patent filing date on 28th March 2012 is for a foreign patent. If that patent application qualifies as prior art, any attempt to obtain a US patent on the same invention will be futile. If that patent application does not qualify as prior art, then it should not be a barrier to patent, keeping in mind that the first to invent rules are gone and any intervening event that disclosed the invention will be prior art against you. Good luck... Read More

A trademark is a word, image, sound, appearance, etc. that conveys to a consumer that certain goods/services come from the same source. If you go into a McDonald's, you know what you are getting. If you buy a Chevy, you know what you are getting. To register a trademark, you must use the trademark in conjunction with the sale of goods/services. A domain is an electronic location on the World Wide Web. Owning a trademark does not give you rights to a domain. Owning a domain does not give you rights to a trademark. It is highly unlikely that you could: 1) register the trademark by December (US trademark practice normally requires a minimum of 10 months to complete registration and will not complete any earlier than 3 months after you first use the trademark with the sale of goods); and 2) stop the sale of a domain based on a very recently registered trademark. When domains were emerging 15 years ago, cybersquatters would buy up domains and try to ransom them to trademark owners. The law adapted and allowed trademark owners to force the transfer of the domains if the purchaser acquired the domain in bad faith (i.e., for the purpose of cybersquatting). Bad faith required some showing that they acquired the domain for the primary purpose of gaining economic advantage over the trademark owner. In your example, it seems highly unlikely the auction winner would be found to have made the purchase to try to gain an unfair economic advantage over you. Those laws that were prominent ten years ago are rarely used today because trademark owners, by and large, have caught on to the need to maintain their domain names. You can file for trademark protection now, but you'd probably be better off making sure you prevail in the auction first.   Good luck... Read More

Aaron, As I understand it, you work for Local Organization that is a member of National Organization. National Organization requires that it be a third party for any contracts that involve commercial filming of Local Organization events. Further, National Organization must be compensated as part of the filiming contract. I have been a director of a local Boys & Girls Club chapter for 8 years. We also have guidelines to follow for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. I would imagine that if we were to have commercial filming of our Club, our national would want to have representation there to make sure we did not harm the national brand in any way. They would also, likely, want to be compensated for the expense of monitoring and the value of the contract that might be tied to the fame/goodwill of the national brand as oppose to the fame of the local chapter. There is a general question reading between the lines about why your national organization should be allowed to siphon off revenue from your local organization's commercial filming contract. That is a healthy question to raise within management of your local chapter. If you are giving more value to your national organization than you are receiving, maybe you need to question whether there is more value for your local organization in being unaffiliated. When I think of 'owning the IP' for the commerical filming, I think of owning the copyrights in the work and nothing you've identified suggests you would not own the copyrights. Based on the subject line, you seem more concerned with the artistic integrity of the filming and whether the national organization has a right to influence authorship of the work. I would need to see the language to offer an informed opinion, but it is distinctly possible that a board policy requiring this authorship influence is not in conflict with the constitution/by-laws of the organization giving the local organization ownership of the filmed product.... Read More

It is not clear to me what trademark you registered. Specifically, it is possible for you to register just your company name (a word mark without the logo) and get the registration approved by submitting a specimen as you have described it. When you received your registration certificate, it contained an image of your trademark and that image defines your registration. For purposes of my answer, I am assuming your registration matches your specimen. You should only use the circle R symbol on representation of your trademark that include everything contained in the registration as it appears in the registration. The Trademark Office treats little alterations as different trademarks. When renewing trademarks, I have had the Trademark Office reject specimens that have words in quotes, an added hyphen, an added space, and different shading within letters as well as relocated objects (e.g., logo relative to the words). If it doesn't match, just use a superscript TM. The superscript TM gives notice that you consider the mark to be your property, but does not identify the mark as registered. The circle R gives notice that you consider the mark to be your property and it is registered. If someone else were to use the variation on your registration as you described it, they would likely be found infringing, but that doesn't mean that you can declare it is registered if it doesn't match the registration. Good luck, Todd... Read More

A good trademark attorney could not give you a direct answer to this question here for a few reasons. First, this forum does not provide the opportunity for you to feed us sufficient facts to make a determination. Second, a bad answer can create liability for us, even if you never pay us. And third, a proper determination probably requires more time than most attorneys want to donate. I mention this only because if you need surgery, you don't expect Web MD to resolve your medical issue, and similarly, if you are facing a litigation issue, you should not expect a legal website Q&A page to resolve your legal issues. Trademark infringement is a legal question that is really based on one issue - is the consumer confused into believing there is possibly a relationship between two distinct businesses? If your use of the other company's registered trademark is likely to cause or does cause consumers to think your button comes from the trademark owner, you may be infringing their trademark. That question is not the sole question - defenses may exists and there are alternative ways to arrive at infringement - but it lies at the nexus of infringement analysis. Good luck... Read More

You could be sued for trademark infringement. GE (in your hypothetical example) could allege that the title of the book is going to lead consumers to believe that the book comes from GE and you are generating sales from that confusion. Even if it is a case that GE loses at trial (and I'm not saying they would lose based on the limited facts offered), the cost to have that fight likely exceeds the profit you would generate from the book. If even a legal victory is a financial loss, I would discourage the activity. You have not identified the manufacturer in question, which is fine. I would suggest looking around and seeing if others have been able to publish comparable books unlicensed. If you see they have, perhaps the company is not as aggressive as some, in which case you could give the book a shot, with the plan to quit if you receive a cease and desist letter.... Read More

You should repost this question in an employment law section, it doesn't really involve any intellectual property issues.  My best recollection from law school is that most people are employees-at-will (if you have an employee handbook, it probably mentions this) and can be terminated without cause (and without good cause). If you are part of a union, then it becomes something to discuss with them. You will get better answers from an employment attorney. I hope you are ok.... Read More

The USPTO suggests that recipes are best protected as trade secrets. http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/independent/eye/201306/ADVICE.jsp. Trade secrets normally require confidentiality agreements between the secret-holder and the recipient. Your question does not suggest such an agreement existed, so I cannot think of a legal mechanism by which the chef can limit his partner from using the receipes. A different direction to consider, and this is outside my normal practice area, is business law. Specifically, partners are normally regarded as agents of each other with a fiduciary duty to each other. Business law in your area may see the chef from opening a new restaurant in the same market has his partner while leaving his partner behind and offering the same menu as his partner as a breach of fiduciary duty. For this aspect of your quesiton, I would speak to someone with more experience in business law. The chef might be better served by taking the opposite approach and buying out his partner. This approach would be more expensive than moving down the street, but the added cost may be appropriate for the added value of not having a competitor offering the same menu and not having to worry about legal complications while starting a new venture.... Read More

The "is this legal" question always sets me back a step.  When I think of something being 'not legal' or illegal, I think of activity that is criminal.  I don't know criminal law well enough to give an opinion, but if that is your question, it should be sent to the criminal law topic. I think I would term your question, "is this actionable?" The difference seems semantic, but the real difference is that if it were criminal, the state would pay to protect your rights, whereas if it is actionable, you will need to pay out of your own pocket to try to make yourself whole. I see two prospective actions when I read your question.  The first is in copyrights. Any work you create is copyright protected at the moment of its creation. If they posted your presentation without your permission, they digitally copied your work and that may be actionable. If you file for copyright protection within 3 months of creation/publication of the work, you can collect statutory damages and attorney fees for a copyright violation. If you file for registration outside that 3 month window, you can still sue, but you can only collect for actual damages (their profits, your lost profits, etc.). The second prospective action is misappropriation. Misappropriation is a state tort, but wikipedia gives a fair explanation of it. If you successfully brought an action, you could sue for your lost profits or their profits (not sure either would make an action worthwhile). And here is where we differentiate actionable and action-worthy. If you need to spend $50,000 to collect $1,000 (completely hypothetical numbers), while ruffling feathers in an industry where you are still trying to break in, this alleged misappropriation may be actionable without being action-worthy. Last, keep in mind that a determination of copyright infringement or misappropriation would require a review of more facts than you were able to fit into the question. The above is not analysis of your situation, but simply an idea of where I would start the analysis.... Read More

Copyrights belong to the author of the work. In film and photography, the author of the work is the photographer or director, if there is a person controlling both the photographer/cameraman and the subjects of the work. Copyright can only be assigned by written assignment. If you are the author of some of these works, allowing your ex to have possession is not the same has giving her copyrights in the works. You could still have an action if she copies the works without your express written consent. Taking an action simply to do harm to another person (physical/emotional/reputation/etc) is actionable under tort law. Tort laws vary from state to state, but if she takes action for the clear purpose of causing you injury, you probably have a tort action against her. Similarly, if she has threatened to post/publish them, you could get an injunction to keep her from publishing them and/or to have them destroyed. I have no idea how the state bar would handle the matter if you brought it to their attention.  ... Read More

Trademark law allows companies that sell in unrelated markets to use the same trademarks. As an example, Delta Faucets are sold by a company unrelated to Delta Airlines. They both own the DELTA trademark for their markets and they do not infringe each other.  The Trademark Office will consider the relationship of the markets.  If a company tried to register an athletic apparel trademark and the Trademark Office saw that the trademark was registered for sporting goods, but not apparel, by another company, the athletic apparel mark would likely be rejected. Trademarks in sporting goods and athletic apparel tend to flow into each other's markets. I am not aware of a relationship between the pet supply market and rust prevention market. A relationship could be inferred if you marketed the product specifically for pet cages, for instance.... Read More