Intellectual Property Legal Questions

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

As a basic premise, a person who takes photographs becomes the owner (absent a written agreement to the contrary) of the legal copyright interests in and to the photographs taken and thus, as the owner, has certain legal rights to use of the photographs.  However, there are various legal principals that may limit or restrict the basic premise set forth above.  Based on the facts that you have presented, I would have a number of additional questions in order to be able to try to answer your questions.  For instance, I understand you were an independent contractor working as project manager on a jobsite.  The company that employed you may very well have an agreement with the owner/developer of the property with regard to photographs of the property, development of the property etc, such that your employer had no right to have you or anyone else take photographs (even if the employer did not know you were doing it).  Similarly, many construction/development contracts contain specific provisions pertaining to intellectual property rights including architectural designs, construction plans and drawings, etc.  Many owners/developers of properties specifically restrict and control who has the legal right to take photographs of a project under development and where and how those photographs can be used.  If your photographs contain an image of a company name, logo, trademark, you could have another issue concerning misuse or infringement of another's trademark or other IP assets.  In short, the specific answer to your question is likely to depend on the specific facts and circumstances of your situation, and not entirely on what you did or did not sign with your immediate employer.  I would need to have more information to best respond to your inquiry.... Read More

It is a risky proposition to use company names, brands, and/or logos on your website or in another marketing materials without permission from the company/brand owner to do so.  From your post, it is little unclear to me exactly what your business is and how you are using third party company logos.  I would need to learn more from you about the specifics of your situation in order to provide more specific feedback.  However, as a general principal, use of a third party's name, brand, and/or logos in a commercial manner, without their permission, particularly if your use suggests a relationship, affiliation, sponsorship or some type of connection between the third party and your business is potentially actionable and could expose you to legal liability, injunctive relief (such as a temporary restraining order), and/or monetary damages.... 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

If they can show that the two names are confusingly similar, and they can show that you have no legitimate interest in the domain and have adopted and are using the domain in bad faith, they can have the domain transferred to them. That is a separate issue from whether or not trademark infringement exists. You have not provided enough information about your business and theirs and what the two names are, so that no specific evaluation can be made; however, what you are asking goes beyond what can be handled via this site so I suggest that you contact a trademark attorney who also handles domain name disputes.... 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

Copyright requires more than just similarity, it requires actual copying. The burden is on the copyright own to prove that your designer has aware of the accusor's design. You first question is to ask your designer whether or not he know of the accusor's design. If he did not and the accusor's design is not so well known that the designer would have to have known of it, the accusor has no legitimate case and you should have your designer tell him so. Without seeing the two designs, it would be impossible for me to know whether or not one looks like a copy of the other.  If your designer was aware of the accusor's design, you should ask him to re-design your logo without the similar parts and cover your expense in repackaging your product.... Read More

Unless the confict involves a federal law, the California lawyer would have to obtain a Colorado lawyer to handle the matter. In the case of "intellectual property", if the matter involves a patent or copyright that is being violated, yes, that would be a federal issue that the California lawyer could handle (but to go to court in CO, he would need to have a local CO attorney involved). On the other hand, if the issues are contractual, even if "intellectual property", that would be a state issue that he could not handle since both parties are in Colorado (assuming there isn't language in the agreement requiring the agreement to be governed by CA law. You should consult with a local attorney who can assess the matter more fully than can be done via a site like this.... Read More

You do not say what your doubt is regarding patents so i cannot answer. Also, there is no such thing as an international patent. It is an international patent application that is a gateway to obtaining a patent in any of over 100 countries. You obtain a search and an informational assessment of patentability which you can then use for deciding whether or not you wish to proceed with a patent application in any of the member countries based on the content of the international patent application.... Read More

You have not provided enough information to properly answer your question. However, from a general standpoint, if the band has registered its name as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office and they have been using that name longer than you, then there is a good likelihood that they could force you to change your name. If not, then whether or not they could do so would depend not only on the other band having been using their name longer than you, but they would have had to be doing so sufficiently close to where your band plays that people seeing your band's name would have been aware of the other band and have confused your band for theirs. Of course, the above is a simplification of the situation and you should provide sufficient details to a trademark attorney who could then advise you based on the specific circumstances.  However, a preliminary step would be to use the trademark search system of the USPTO to see if the other band has a registered trademark. The search system can be accessed at: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4801:xwajtv.1.1... 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 state that you are the owner of a trademark, but have you federal registered the trademark? If not, your rights might be limited to the areas in which you are doing business. If you have not federal registered the trademark, have you conducted a search to see if any of the other companies have done so? Have you done any investigation to establish that the other companies have not been using the trademark for a longer time than you have or at least for several years? You need to consult with a trademark attorney, not only to have the attorney evaluate whether or not the marks as used might be confusingly similar (the standard for infringment), but to determine the answers to the questions that i have posed.  What you need done is way beyond the scope of the free assistance that can be provided via this site.... Read More

The short answer is maybe or maybe not, depending on the scope of the claims in your earlier patent. If thos claims cover the later version, it will protect it, but if the do not, it will not. The comments in an obviousness rejection relative to the later version have no effect on whether or not your prior patent covers the later version.... 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