Get free answers to your Intellectual Property legal questions from lawyers in your area.
answered on Dec 18, 2024
That's a great question. I highly recommend that you hire a competent trademark attorney to run a clearance search before you launch the brand. That search should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on how many results need to be reviewed. If you get the green light, you should also... View More 
answered on May 26, 2024
Hypothetically, under U.S. trademark law, if the trademark "secret sauce" has received the status "602 - Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response," it might be available for another party to secure.
Here's how one might proceed:
1. Check the Trademark... View More
answered on May 15, 2024
The short answer is "most likely, yes."
The M*A*S*H trademark is limited to "a comedy television series."
The writers of that TV series will have a copyright for those TV scripts. So, you may not make a derivative story about any of the characters from that TV... View More
is it only through the USPTO TESS and copyright.gov web sites? specifically the costs involved what are they and what would be the timeline of start to completed if everything is successful
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answered on May 8, 2024
Attorneys will be reluctant to quote our fees in a public forum like this. Different attorneys may think that filing and prosecuting a trademark application is easy and should be cheap, or difficult and should be expensive. The USPTO will charge either $250 or $350 per "class" of goods or... View More
If the products looks similar but both were designed based on prior art teachings. While the accused product is not using any logos/name/images of the first. And the accused product has feature(s) to specifically tell the ordinary observer (both visually and in description) that there is this... View More
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answered on Feb 25, 2024
Yes, it is possible to sue for design infringement even without having a design patent. Design infringement claims can be based on various legal grounds, including trade dress, copyright, and unfair competition laws. However, the success of such a lawsuit would depend on the specific circumstances... View More
Do I need to get a trademark or register it?
answered on Dec 4, 2023
When writing a Children's Book the best protection is the copyright protection for the book. Be sure to once the final version of the book is complete to register the work with the Library of Congress. A copyright is not protected in court without being official registered work. The... View More
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answered on Oct 2, 2023
This is not a copyright question, but really belongs in the realm of trademark law. Whether you can use any particular name for a product or business cannot be answered unless and until you do a thorough name clearance search. Yes, they do cost money, but the money spent upfront can be considered... View More
There are many online content creators in the finance and investing space. With so much information and so little time, I want to summarize videos and publish them, along with metadata and trend/sentiment analysis, to a website that may be monetized through ads and/or subscription for custom feeds.... View More
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answered on Aug 29, 2023
Summarizing other people's content and monetizing it could potentially expose you to copyright infringement claims under federal law, especially if the summaries capture the essence or key elements of the original work. The Fair Use doctrine allows for limited use of copyrighted material... View More
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answered on Mar 3, 2023
Trademark signifies a source of goods or services. Unless your artwork serves as a logo (which can be trademarked), you would have to demonstrate to the USPTO that the elements of your artwork are distinctive and unique enough (secondary meaning) to qualify as a source of goods. This can be... View More
answered on Jul 8, 2020
Well, assuming the grace period has already expired and there's no common law use or federal registration(s)/pending application(s) for anything identical or similar in the relevant categories, then you could attempt to register the mark. I'd recommend hiring a trademark attorney to... View More
I have a store on eBay and noticed that other sellers are using them without my permission and now I found a company using my photos .. its frustrating because I took the time, patience, and dedication to take each photo and for someone to just use them is not fair, I've tried contacting the... View More
answered on May 26, 2020
Without doing anything special, you already own the copyright in your photos. That being the case, you could proceed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to notify the internet service provider where the photos are being displayed. Check the Terms of Use of the ISPs to follow the... View More
They have whole different lyrics just the same beat and they copyrighted my song causing me to unwillingly forfeit all future revenue I may make and I was wondering what I can do about it legally
answered on Feb 8, 2020
Unsure, as your information does not exactly make sense. The person who wrote the beat owns the copyright to that part, you would own the copyright to your lyrics. The other person would own the rights to their lyrics.
This patent is worth $100sM and I did everything and got $1. Dennis Fenton threatened his way onto the patent. He threaten me even recently and is worth over $600M
answered on Jul 27, 2018
I sent a message to your LinkedIn account. If you want to talk, please give me a call.
I want to make sure they don't just steal it without paying me, what kind of agreement form do I need?
answered on May 14, 2018
It depends on what the idea is. If it falls under patent, trademark, or copyright law, you should take the respective action to secure it (prosecute a patent or trademark application or register your copyright). If it does not fall under one of those categories, it may be a trade secret, in which... View More
Can other people use it? Or is it property of Paramount/CBS like I expect?
answered on Apr 19, 2018
Without searching, I would say that is almost guaranteed that it is. As to use, there are some uses that would be allowed under fair use.
A group of independent consultants works collaboratively on some projects - primarily joint marketing, and also producing and delivering online training. The group created an LLC to own a bank account and linked online payment accounts, to take in, hold, & pay out pooled funds for collaborative... View More
answered on Feb 6, 2018
An attorney would need to review all the facts to answer this question, most importantly, the LLC operating agreement. It is possible there could be joint ownership of the property by the members, if not through the LLC, then through a general partnership created by law as a result of the... View More
I was forced to perform work for a former classmate during university. The latter did this by means of death threats and other blackmail acts. I complied and authored the said person's final year project for her. The person has since passed this work off as hers and has used it for commercial... View More
answered on Aug 5, 2017
Potentially, but the statute of limitations is 3 years on copyright infringement. So, you may need to act quickly.
not only did my grandmas sister switch her name and take it off the property and add her daughter in place of her, without my grandma present and her notarized signature, changing ownership of half the property without the other halfs approval is illegal mal practice right?
and the first... View More
answered on Jul 27, 2017
If a lender is foolish enough to make a loan to only one of two owners of the property, it is ok. Your great aunt committed forgery and fraud if she signed your grandmother's name to a deed without your grandmother's consent or knowledge. If there is a lien against only one party's... View More
I am trying to start a travel company and would like to trademark my title and symbol.
answered on Mar 10, 2016
First, you need to make sure no one else is already using the same mark. You could do your own search using the Trademark Office's database (http://www.uspto.gov/trademark) but those only include the marks registered. A better option is to consult with a trademark attorney who can go over... View More
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