Ideas for a television series or a movie are rather difficult to protect under conventional trade secret law. The law does not allow someone to own an...
New Law for Fashion Designers?
Sometimes IP law is imperfect for protecting fashion design. The law is dynamic and needs to change as society changes. A pinch and a tuck is exactly ...
Buy All of It, Up Front
Just because you hire and pay someone to write something for you (promotional and marketing materials, a software code or newsletter and blog content)...
Opting for legally licensed recorded music in your establishment
ASCAP and BMI employ investigators to roam the country identifying new restaurants, bars, clubs or other establishments where music is used but the es...
What a Craft Brewery Needs to Know about Sponsoring Photo and Video Contests
Photo and video contests usually center on consumers using the sponsor’s product or service. The use of smart phone cameras has fueled the popularit...
Trade Dress Series, Part 1: Product Designs – Choosing trade dress, copyright, or design patent protection
Trendsetting product designs are often the crown jewel of a company. Capturing the public’s attention – and pocketbooks – is an asset worth prot...
Negotiating an IP License to avoid future disputes
When negotiating a license agreement, it is important to specify the rights being acquired. This portion of the contract is called the grant clause, a...
Copyright or Copyleft?
What is a copyright? The copyright symbol, or copyright sign, designated by © (a circled capital letter “C”), is the symbol used in copy...
Reclaiming your copyright rights
There is a lot of talk about copyright termination rights of late, as the earliest opportunity for post-1978 copyright grants is coming up in 2013. Br...
Leaving your IP legacy: to whom will you pass down your intellectual property?
An often forgotten issue during estate planning is that copyrights (as well as patents and trademarks) are personal property. As such, they get passed...