It is not legally permissible to have someone recreate an image exactly or copy an image directly to use for your logo. Contact the artist who created the image that you want to use and see if you can purchase the rights to use that image for your logo.

You have likely created a derivative work, a work that is based on one or more previous works. The copyright owner has the exclusive right to prepare derivative works. By doing so, you likely infringe the songwriter's copyright.

If a patent is expired, then whatever is in the patent is generally considered in public domain, meaning, that anyone should be able to use it. There may be some weird exception to this, but that is the whole idea behind patents: the inventor discloses the invention to the society, and return the... View More

I'm only going to address the portion of your question relating to copyright law, that is: can your former employer legally publish your article without crediting you? Yes, almost certainly.

This is known as "work for hire." In the case of a work made for hire, copyright law... View More

First, she would have to have already registered the work. You might ask her for a copy of the registration so you can see how close it is. Likely she has not registered, but if she has, then sit down with a local copyright attorney to examine how close the works are.

Short answer is yes.

In the past, MPAA has gone after people who host torrents because they are easier to find and sue, but there's nothing in the law preventing them from suing the downloaders as well.