The company does not have the right to use your property without your permission. Get your request in writing and then if they don't comply within 10 days go get a lawyer.

Also, if you're a W2 employee and you were told you would receive a pay increase and you didn't file a... View More

Ideally use a personal contact, or find one. If none exist, you will have a hard time getting its attention. However, there is some precedent for Elon Musk taking notice of people who reach out to the company directly via Twitter. If you're lucky you might get someone's attention.... View More

Copyright related to compilations of data is a specific area of copyright law and analysis of the exact list and estimations of the mental effort and transformation to the underlying facts in the list may be part of the analysis. If you are doing research on your own, and want a potential starting... View More

When doing research about trademarks and copyrights look at uspto.gov and copyright.gov.

You can search for trademarks on TESS. Your trademark search should include more than TESS.

Consider hiring an intellectual property attorney to do a full analysis of the facts specific to... View More

You can always be sued.

Most big companies decide not to go after small guys, specially if it is in the fan realm like in Comicon.

You do not have zero risk, you are at the mercy of what the owners want to do.

That can be a tough call, but generally depends on a few things: 1. Whether what you have is protectable by a patent, 2. Whether the information can truly be maintained confidentially.

The first question can be answered by a patent lawyer by performing a patentability assessment. The answer... View More

Yes. Broadly speaking if it's both a creative work (copyright) as well as a source identifier (trademark), then it may be covered by both types of IP. This is sometimes referred to as "industrial art."

It is technically possible, though very difficult. Last I checked (I once had a hat idea that all my friends told me was dumb), the apparel (and hats) categories of licenses were essentially considered "closed" in that the NFL was not interested in talking to new potential licensees.... View More

This is out of my practice area, but I can confirm that there are multiple types of protections: patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and trademarks are the main categories we often think of (with some subcategories I believe).

Each of these can be highly technical, and you will often find... View More

The only way to know is to search. Even if you search you may have some small risk that a patent application is ahead of you in the pipeline but is not visible yet. However, searching is the commercially reasonable way to reduce your risk of running into a problem.

One strategy is to... View More

Under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, as amended, copyright is automatic upon the creation and fixation of an original work of authorship in a tangible medium. Placing copyright notice is not required, but provides some worthwhile benefits. Registration with the U.S. Copyright is not required to... View More

The key here is whether the item in question is tangible or intangible. If it is tangible, like a book, painting, or the table in your example, then they can't restrict your right to that particular tangible item when they sell that item to you. However, if it is intangible like the rights to... View More

An attorney would need to review the song and the story to determine if one infringes the other. If so, you would need a license to create derivative works.

Probably so, but it would be best have an attorney review what you received from the copyright owner's attorney. A dismissal without prejudice means that the suit may be filed again.

Since you have access to LexisNexis, try searching for Colorado property ownership laws concerning minors. Or more specifically "intellectual property" ownership by a minor. You should be looking for a statute relating to minors and property, perhaps language like to “sue or be sued”... View More

An attorney would have to know more about the existing mark, your proposed and historical use, and the registration of the first mark to answer this question. Assuming the marks are for the same goods or services, the first mark is valid, and the other mark was used first, you probably cannot... View More

Most copyright infringement claims are decided buy the specific facts of the case. There is no hard rule for the majority of infringement cases. Direct and literal plagiarism is an undeniable infringement. A similar general plot and setting may be an infringement, but it could also not be... View More

Yes, a license is required if the derivative artwork is used commercially. For private use (without commercial use), the copying should fall under fair use or not be an infringement of a pre-existing copyright.

There are other intellectual property rights involved here. These include trademark, trade name, trade dress, and potentially general unfair competition claims. All of these claims have no expiration date in which they become public domain (a concept that only applies to copyrights and patents).... View More

You will need to have an attorney review the specifics of the intended use. As a general rule, the answer is no because the characters are copyrighted. That said, similar (but not identical) images are possible.