Get free answers to your Intellectual Property legal questions from lawyers in your area.
I'm working on some open-source exercises for Russian language students, and for an alphabet-related exercise it would be very helpful to display pictures of Russian signs with English cognates that beginner students can read easily. However, I'm unsure of the legal implications of using,... View More 
answered on Dec 2, 2020
Here, you are describing the intersection of copyright and trademark law. While it would be trademark infringement to open your own restaurant called Burger King, or to sell a hamburger wrapped up in a wrapper that says Burger King, you certainly can take a picture of a Burger King restaurant and... View More
I offered to sell the patent to Fiskars in early 2009, after a long distance call they went quiet on me.
I just discovered that they went ahead and claimed the patent for themselves. My patent was published in a journal in South Africa shortly after South africa joined the international... View More
answered on Oct 12, 2020
You will need to retain a U.S. patent attorney to sit down with all pertinent documents to fully assess the situation, including but not limited to reviewing the "prosecution history" of the Fiskars patent (does it cite your SA patent?). The claims of the patent are key - if the claims... View More
Are you allowed to re-use a small percentage of a protected work?
answered on Jun 16, 2020
A tough question to answer, even when you know all of the specific details! Copyright protection certainly applies to quotations. It can apply to aspects of the characters, depending on how recognizable they are. As an example, writers of "fan fiction" encounter this dilemma all the... View More
can i send the example of the t shirt for reference? dog theme is purely general, no negative/positive undertones,
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answered on Mar 23, 2020
The issue here may not be one of trademark but rather the right of publicity. Snoop is a celebrity whose name, image and likeness have monetary value. If someone else uses that for monetary gain they could be liable. Feel free to email me at tania.williams@williamsfirmpa.com for a consult so... View More
answered on Jan 23, 2019
Might not be a patent. The Supreme Court has recently made it fairly difficult to patent a method of organizing human activity. See the documents used to train patent examiners -- https://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-and-regulations/examination-policy/subject-matter-eligibility On the other hand,... View More
I use the CD set and transcript as part of my psychological therapy. I would like to purchase additional CD sets for my therapists and also give them a copy of the transcript that I made. Is this legal?
May I purchase CD sets and present them along with a copy of the transcript to... View More
answered on Nov 30, 2018
Preparing the transcript might be considered fair use or a derivative work. So long as you purchase as many copies as you are giving to others and using within your practice, the likelihood of a possible copyright infringement claim falls significantly. But without further information about... View More
Copyright itself doesn't protect only just a name, you can't copyright just a name at all. But, "characters" should be protected under a copyright if they are unique, but isn't a name an intrinsic part of a character and its accompanying story?
answered on Aug 9, 2018
A full answer to your question will require a more fact-intensive analysis. Generally, copyright law will afford protection of the fictional character itself when it has appeared in a copyrightable work and has a life of its own within that work, however, achieving a level of distinctiveness such... View More
answered on Jul 20, 2018
You should speak with a trademark attorney in a confidential conversation. It may be possible. An attorney would need to know more about your business.
Hello I am currently developing a college football website, and I created a logo that I am wondering if it would be OK to use. The logo uses the Big Ten conference font and says "B1G" like the Big Ten logo, but it is stretched out and there is a football filled inside of the letters... View More
answered on May 7, 2018
You probably should discuss this with an experienced intellectual property attorney. The issue may implicate issues of both copyright and trademark law. Your proposed logo may infringe the trademark rights of the Big Ten Conference if your logo creates consumer confusion as to the source of your... View More
Is there a federal maximum number of years which is applicable to all patent applications? How would this length of time be negotiated? Can the length of time be adjusted later on, in a re-application of some sort? Does average length of time tend to vary by state, by industry, number of... View More
answered on Feb 19, 2018
Patent term is more confusing than it should be. The one part that is simple, is that patent term is not a function of the technology. There is not a way for the applicant to apply to extend the patent term (unlike trademarks or copyrights). (but as noted below, there are things that can shorten... View More
Does anyone have information about settlement status with Third World Media LLC plaintiff for copyright violation issues?
answered on Dec 2, 2010
Third World has filed 5 cases. The first two are concluded, and the last three are still pending:
1 Third World Media, LLC (cd) cacdce 2:2009-cv-01603 820 03/06/2009 10/28/2009
2 Third World Media, LLC (pla) cacdce 2:2009-cv-01603 820 03/06/2009 10/28/2009
3 Third World Media,... View More
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