Intellectual Property

A producing partner stole idea, wants to produce without me.

serosa11 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:15:07 GMT

DO I HAVE A CASE?

I met a producer who asked me what projects I was working on. I told him I want to make five short plays into five short films. I showed him the scripts. He liked the ideas and the scripts and we started to create a partnership together. We were negotiating terms to our partnership agreement for many months. He proceeded to stop our negotiations. He contacted an author of a one of the plays I introduced to him, and he wants to option it without me. I did have an email with this author stating "I do hereby give SR and any other parties whom he agrees to, exclusive permission to option my play Heads Up for the purpose of making a film. This is considered a good faith agreement and before the film begins production a more specific agreement will be put in place."
The producer will not return my phone calls. I have many many emails with producer pertaining to our conversations and negotiations.

Damages and pay rate

Artist55 — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:08:30 GMT

I did digital work on images. It was very detailed work over a time span of 4 years.

It was my own creative effort in order to reprint them on items for sale for income.

Average work time on images 10 hrs. 80 print ready images total.

My reprints were then misappropriated and marketed for sale without my authority to do so by my former marketing people after they told me my work would not sell. They scanned copies of my images to market.

I was seeking damages based upon my hour rate re images in question.

The fact finder in this matter does not want to award me damages based upon my hr rate since the defendants did not “hire” me to do the digital work on the images that they misappropriated from me.

Can anyone make the case that my hour rate should be in play re damages?

Thanks

Copyright, Work-Made-For-Hire and LLC Members

JasonDG14 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:05:54 GMT

In consideration of the work-made-for-hire provisions of USC 17, regarding copyright, it's generally been framed as employee v. independent contractor. In an LLC, there's another option - a member.

A member of an LLC is much like an owner in a sole proprietorship. Tax-wise, they're treated the same, unless they make themselves an employee. In the case where the member is neither an employee or an independent contractor, how does that fit with the work-made-for-hire parts of the code? A non-employee, non-independent contractor is not paid for the work directly, only in capital draws as a part of revenue taking. Does that impact work-made-for-hire?

Has this been decided? Does anyone know of any applicable case law?

Book question

Belburn — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:14:41 GMT

For a book that I am writing, may I include a handwritten correspondence from someone to me without asking their permission to publish?

intelectual property

belt — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:09:04 GMT

i recieved a letter of infringment for an item that has a visual arts copyright for jewelry, yet i made it as

a belt much longer than when it was copyrighted by the other company.

Patent Ownership question

yellowhammer12 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:38:52 GMT

Quick background:

I was employed as a scientist at Acme and signed an agreement that everything I created (including my first born child) belonged to the company. I invented something that is now issued in "U.S. Patent 11", issued to Acme.

Soon after the filing of the application for which "11" claims priority, Acme redomiciled and changed their corporate status (if this is relevent). Soon after this redomicilation, Acme subsequently licensed the subject material in "11" to Bo Pharma.

I left Acme's employ and Bo Pharma filed a seperate application covering overlapping subject material to the "11" application ("12"). "12" claims no priority to the "11" application. Bo Pharma listed me as an inventor on this "12" application (which is now an issued patent to Bo Pharma). Bo Pharma has asked me to assign the 12 patent to them and I have refused.

I contend that I am the owner of certain claims in this "12" patent.

Question:

What legal course of action would I need to take if I wanted to assert a claim of ownership over the recently issued "12" patent (or certain claims). I don't want any SOL or laches to become an issue. I presume this would be a state court issue???? I am wanting some broad thoughts so that I can start looking for specific cases.

I guess a big quesion would be whether the assignment in the employment agreement prohibit me from having standing to an ownership claim against Bo Pharma????

Never Completely Paid for Original Music Composition

Mike_33 — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:23:28 GMT

Hi,

Back in 2005, I was commisioned to compose a song for a high school marching band. It was originally supposed to be 2 songs. They paid half the amount owed up front as a retainer. After writing half of the other song, they said not to write that because they have somone else writing that song. So they only used the one song. They still however agreed to pay the entire amount, as it was not based on how many songs.

After I submitted the song to the school, the representative for the school said that he's waiting for the school to cut the other check. He said many many times that it was coming. After a while, and me bugging him, he said if he doesn't hear from them soon, that he'd make a personal check from him out to me. That never happened. After more months of bugging, he said the check was in the mail. Never got it.

After being ignored for a while longer, he got back to me and said that it never was in the mail, that I'm just a first time composer and next time I should concider a written contract. "Good Luck"

Well I have EVERY email transcript from this.. including one where he says "How much is still owed, $----? (do not want to include dollar amount publicly)" "The check is in the mail" "I'll cut you one myself if I don't hear from them"

I'm not looking for that small amount of money anymore.. Now I wasnt to sue for copyright infringement. My song was played before thousands of people many times.

What can I do?

Thanks

Using my code without payment. No Contract. Please help!

misterdeveloper — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:22:32 GMT

Hello,

Like most others who come here, I am seeking help. I searched the site and could not find an issue quite like mine. I need to know if I even have any options with my current situation or not.

I know we aren't supposed to have long posts so I'm asking a few brief questions first. Those who want to read the details can do so.

I have a LONG "summary" of issues here, but one of the main questions is:

Can I send a startup company a cease and desist order in regards to using my code (intellectual property) for lack of payment given that they never signed an agreement or completed a transaction with me?

Before you respond, I'd ask that you read the summary because there may be other factors to think about that aren't presented in my previous sentence.

I'd also like to know what my options are as far as equipment they gave me that I thought was mine, but now they're asking me to return. Again, no signed document and no terms provided. They just gave it to me.

Thank you so much for taking a look at this and for any help offered!

______________________________________________________

Summary of issues:

I am a web programmer doing all of my side work with a startup company. Have been doing so for well over a year. Signed an NDA with them, but no contracts as they claim that my day job could possibly lay claim to their product in the future. Originally part of a team of my colleagues. We were originally paid for work developed.

After two different paid development phases (month or two each) we completely redesign the site and start working for "equity" but not how much - but again they refused to put anything in writing due to this conflict of interest. Fast forward four months and they bought and gave us laptops. Again, no paperwork or terms with laptops, they just gave them to us. One month later we have equity discussions - the equity they plan to pay is well below the teams original discussions with the startup. (Again nothing was in writing b/c they refused due to conflicts of interest.) Despite objections, the team comes to a consensus on equity and the next step is terms. They refuse to put the equity in writing until we're all out of our existing company.

We all finally get out of our company into a non-competing new company. They do actually send us paperwork for the equity, but it is not what we all agreed upon in the months prior. They agree to modify the equity terms with their lawyers to try and make it work. In the mean time the startup really needed more work from us in order to meet investment deadlines. This cycle repeats throughout the relationship. The team works extremely hard and meets the investor deadlines and the startup receives hundreds of thousands in angel investment. The team does not see one dime, but equity discussions "continue". The cycle repeats again. Every time they send new paperwork, it never has ALL of the changes we agreed to or it has a perversion of the changes we all agreed to. They keep repeating this cycle over and over and thereby suck more and more work. It's very subtle and an easy trap to fall into, obviously, but nothing has ever been signed as they refuse to fully meet what they agreed to multiple times over.

Our team starts dragging their feet. The startup pulls in foreign contractors against our objections.

I, having enough, call them out one day and refuse to do any additional work. (They can't get my expertise from their contractors so they need me still.) The startup finally tells me to work with the team, find out everything they want as far as terms and then agrees to have a face-to-face sit down with the team to discuss those terms. I state that I will do this as soon as I can, but any future work will be billed to them at an hourly rate and invoiced to them monthly or whenever work finally completes.

Fast forward about one month, I've done much work at my hourly rate, kept track of my hours, and have prepared an invoice. However, before sending the invoice I receive an email requesting that the team return the laptops that they gave us because they're suddenly needed for a "business trip" with investors. No additional details of when we'd get them back or what exactly they'd be used for, etc... were provided. The time frame provided for getting the laptops to them was less than one week.

I was unable to respond to their request due to the fact that I was unavailable for the first three days after they sent their request. Upon returning to work, I sent them an email summarizing how much they owed me for this month's labor, plus an invoice, plus a request for a face-to-face meeting to finalize terms, and a reminder at how much debt they owed us. All politely done, of course.

Their only response to the email was a demand for my current address so they could come take the laptop. They've chosen to call me countless times, but I refuse to answer partly because I am extremely busy now and partly because I want everything in writing moving forward, or at least in email. I refuse to acknowledge their requests for the laptop, as it was my understanding that the laptops were given to us as a gesture of good faith that they would make their equity payment to us and there were never any terms or signed contracts for the equipment.

Now I am sitting here trying to decide what to do next, if I even have any options. I realize since nothing is in writing, that I most likely cannot get any money out of them. The only things in writing that I do have is their multiple drafts of equity agreements that may show "intent" to pay us for our work and their requests for development to be done, deadlines to be met, the completion of the deadlines and them thanking us profusely after winning the angel money.

Given that they've not paid us for 9+ months on any of the work we've done, what can we do? I realize I might not get paid anything because nothing was in writing, but they've been using our intellectual property that we built. We never signed over anything to them as there was never any transaction. Our relationship was filled with constant discussions and drafts of equity agreements and that's it.

__________________________________________________________

Is it possible to send them a cease and desist order preventing them from using any of the code that we developed?

Does anyone see any other options or have any other ideas?

What should we do? Thoughts?

Thank you so much for taking a look at this long thread and for your help!

Question re trademark issue between a brand and a real name

travischan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:39:57 GMT

Say my real name is James Nichol. My profession is that I make customize bird cages for a living and have been doing it for a number of years. My profession by trade is a carpenter and a welder.

I recently decided to start my own business specializing in customized cages and housing for people that want something unique for their pets. Because of my last name, i went ahead and decided to name my company and store "Nichol's Cage".

If i clearly state that my company name was created by putting two seperate things together (ie. my last name and the product I'm selling), would my company name be liable for trademark issues with its similarity to the famous actor Nicholas Cage?

I would post my info all over the internet, my website address would be www.nicholscage.com, etc etc... and i would like to advertise it like a brand. What potential isuess would i be looking at?

Any help our assistance would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you!

Need help responding to an Office Action

annas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:18:12 GMT

I am trying to trademark a name that involves an education center, children and animals. I have filed and received an "Office Action" from US Trademark Action that needs a "proper response" for them to be able to proceed. I've already paid the $300 to file to begin with an am a woman with few means right now. I need help in responding to this so I can see this through. Please, any advice would be very helpful. Thank you! I'm in New Mexico if that helps!

Are Hymns considered "Cover Songs"?

Vandivier — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:59:05 GMT

I am a Christian musician and I play all kinds of songs. I'm about to publish my own independantly developed CD. I know that if I record and publish "Cover Songs" I need to pay royalties and the like, but I don't know if classical hymns are considered "Covers". I'm also considering publishing other artists, so I want to have the facts so I don't misinform them. Thanks!

IP Created While Working for a Public Employer

LegalSecy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:56:39 GMT

Howdy,

First, despite my screen name on this site (created years ago when I worked in an earlier career / job) I'm currently a contract specialist with a large public (State) agency.

Over the last several years I created some software that I use to help me do certain specific tasks, which are a Royal Pain for anyone who ever has to do them.

These tasks include tracking certain data and producing both reports and public presentations from the data being tracked. I have been using this software myself and sharing it with colleagues who happen to know about it, if they ask.

About a month ago I was using it in a day long meeting with a group of execs who deal with Intellectual Property issues far more often than I do. Several of them had been through (fairly tortured) meetings of this sort in the past where people with jobs similar to mine had struggled to present data sets, accept and compile new results and project new computations (or the results of proposed "hypothetical scenarios") up on a screen in Real Time as the meeting participants discuss and propose different scenarios (it is a Royal Pain to try to do this in Real Time, Trust Me, which is why I wrote some software to help me do it!)

Not to be immodest, but they were extremely impressed with the ease with which the software I'd written facilitated the meeting. They asked what I was using and I said it was something I'd written myself (with a little help from my spouse, who is a professional software consultant).

This was followed by an immediate chorus of everybody in the room urging me to copyright it and market it.

I was kind of embarrassed, and kind of blew it off at the time, but have been thinking about that more since then.

Since I developed this (mostly) in the course of my employment as a State Employee (with a little help from hubby, who is not a State Employee), I didn't think that I could copyright it and/or sell it. Or rather, I suppose I could, but I think that any Intellectual Property I create in the course of my employment belongs to my Employer, which in this case is the State.

So -- would there be any reason why I might want to file a copyright claim for this software? Frankly, I don't think I could benefit from asserting [my State's] I.P. interest in it, and I guess I figure that if my Employer wants to copyright it, that is their business and I'd just as soon let them do that rather than me spending my own time and money to do it.

Otherwise, I'm just as happy to just keep using it to assist me in doing my own job, and share it with co-workers if they happen to ask for it.

Am I missing something here? What am I missing (if anything)?

Film titles: Copyright or Trademark

StevenScott — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:34:05 GMT

I'm an American living in Berlin. I've got a film in production, and there is another film in production using the same exact title. I have a registered certification with WGA from 2004, and a website with the film title that's been registered since 2007. What do I need to do next? They appear to be student filmmakers, so my first thought was to send a simple cease & desist letter to scare them off, but I thought I'd check here first. Any ideas?

Copyright certificate

KK007 — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 22:21:13 GMT

I'm working on a few designs for some t-shirts and other merchandise. I do plan on filing for copyright of my design. Per the U.S. Copyright Office it can take up to nine months before one receives a certificicate. This in regards to filing the copyright claim electronically.

Do I have to wait until I receive the certificate before my work would be legally protected?

When can a Trade Name Infringe on a Trademark?

JurisDocNYU — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:06:15 GMT

After two days of immersion in trademark law, I am more confused than when I began and could really use some help.

By way of example, suppose a company going by the trade name "News Guys" has registered the service mark "XYZ-TV" (XYZ being their initials) for a small web-based broadcast dealing exclusively with the automotive industry. Now, my company wants to use the phrase "XYZ-TV" as our trade name but NOT our service mark. XYZ also represents the initials of my company's registered name and we broadcast via satellite an international news program in a foreign language (so very unrelated services).

The existing "XYZ-TV" service mark is not what I would call a famous mark and we are operating in different jurisdictions, though the distribution is necessarily nationwide. I just need some insight into what it would take for the holder of the service mark to pursue an action against our use of a trade name substantially identical to their service mark even though our own service mark will be distinct.

Thanks so much!!

Question about source code ownership.

Geo55 — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:56:50 GMT

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

I'm in Illinois, my name is Geo.

I was hired as an independent contractor to develop a flash program (.exe) for a kiosk as a building directory. Upon completion the contractee also wants source code for the given program. Source code was not discussed at the beginning only creating the program. I was led to believe I was creating this software for one building, with the source code the contractee could easily either resell this program or use it for an unlimited amount of buildings.

There was only a verbal agreement. Is the contractee entitled to the source code? or just the program?

Note (if this has any relevance):

This was a rather short project (1 week). Although the project is almost complete, the contractee has failed to make any payments 1/3 down, 1/3 mid, 1/3 completion as initially agreed upon.

Divisional Patent - Co-Dependency

your_steward — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:54:43 GMT

Have a patent that is being approved, yet not issued. There is a potential divisional patent as a result of a restriction. I'd like to file the divisional this week.

The restriction letter from the USPTO read something like: Restriction required due to two inventions: Invention Alpha is for claims 1 through 20 and invention Omega is for claims 10 (not a typo) through 30. Claim 1 was an independent claim, claim 10 was a dependent claim of claim 1.

Approved patent is for claims 1 through 20. USPTO required some tweaking of the claim language before approving.

Questions: Possible to file the divisional simply by resubmitting the claims that were rejected? If so, do simply reuse the same specification and associated information that was originally filed? May wish to reword the claims slightly in anticipation of patent office issues, yet not sure if better just to resend the claims the USPTO indicated are for a separate invention? Thoughts.

Also, would it be possible to file Omega invention under international patent requirements after submitting to USPTO?

Thank you in advance.

Converting VHS to DVD

icefall5 — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:41:27 GMT

I have many VHS tapes that I want to convert to DVD. I will do this by connecting the VCR to my computer and recording them via software on the computer. These tapes are being used for educational purposes in the school at which I work. Most of them are documentary-style tapes, but several are Hollywood movies, and to the best of my knowledge none of them have Macrovision. Is it legal for me to convert the VHS tapes to DVD as long as I keep the original tapes and I use the DVDs for the same purpose that I would use the tapes for?

Who is the inventor?

KennB — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:19:02 GMT

Is the person who comes up with an abstract idea would be considered as an inventor? Or the person who develops&nbsp... idea and actually reduce that to practice? For example; Person A) there is a need for an apparatus X Person B) design the apparatus X from the ground zero into a system and method of operation of such system or apparatus.

Researching a Patent/Trademark

madbean — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:35:03 GMT

Hi! Having a hard time trying to find a patent (and trade mark) that a prospective competitor claims to have. They simply claim that their product (motorcycle lever) is patented but they do not provide a number or specify what it is about the lever that is patented.

I've tried finding the patent or patent application by just about every term for the product, company name, what I believe to be the owner's name, etc. Really frustrated and unable to find anything on their patent. Also tried to find their trademarks without any luck. This is via USPTO and Google's patent search.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful.

Writing non-fiction personal narrative (book)

Easthousing — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:34:59 GMT

I am writing a non-fiction personal narrative which is a book about my 16 year experience at a "commune" in the state where I live. I am using real names in the book, as I understand that the law defines these individuals as "public figures." (presenting their ideas, beliefs and lifestyle in a public manner) I am couching all observatiions and opinions as my own opinion, not fact. What should I be aware of?

Copywrite royalty agreement vs fudiciary responsibilities

Jack Fitchett — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:06:04 GMT

in 1995 I signed a document giving a newly forming company the right to sell a software application I had developed in return for 125/copy royalty and employement enhancing said product for a period of 20 years. I and two others then started the C corp, they got major stock, i got little do to this agreement. It was agreed verbally I would not insist ion payment till they were profitable and then perhaps negotiate for stock. I have been an officer of the company since then simply becuase they needed three officers. The company was nearly destroyed on 2004 and resulted in new ownership and hiring of a CEO. I was just let go.

Preliminary questions into if I am owed roaylties per the contract say yes, it is still binding, almost slam dunk. But there are some blogs about if you are an officer of the company your fudiciary responsibilities require you turn over all rights.

Opinions?

commercial use of trademark/art

jon503 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:10:05 GMT

I have a question, several actually, concerning the depiction of a trademark in a work of art.

I have used the trademark of a rather famous company in a work of art I created, and although this was not my intent, I have been told it could cast the company in a bad light and they would object to it (it is set within the context of an overal critical portrayal of society). I understand that I am free to create such a work in private as long as it does not amount to defamation of trademark.

My question is what would happen if I were to display it in a gallery (where it would not be up for sale). The gallery has certain events for which they charge entrance fees, though I would not receive any of them. Is such a public display commercial use? Could I face problems for tarnishing the trademark?

Avatar

adjuster jack — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:57:23 GMT

I've been using an avatar here for a long time.

I want to sue for my share of the profits from the movie.

I'm looking for a lawyer to work on contingency.