Tips for Business Owners: What to Do After Discovering Infringement of Your IP – Part 1: Evaluation
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Nov 15, 2018 in Intellectual Property
Your business’s intellectual property is a valuable asset that is vital to protect. This means actively monitoring for its unauthorized use. If you discover possible infringement, you may wonder what you should do next. Although exact plans of action will vary slightly based on the particular circumstances, there are three consistent steps to the process: evaluation, consultation and, finally, taking legal action. Evaluation To determine if infringement occurred, you must first determine if your material […]
Continue ReadingTips for Business Owners: The Fewer Resources You Have, The More You Need to Plan
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Nov 8, 2018 in Business' Intellectual Property
For many start-ups and existing small businesses, funding and resources are tight, so they necessarily take great care when deciding where to invest their money. However, one place that many businesses unfortunately overlook is planning for and protecting their intellectual property (IP). The value of IP in the US has been estimated as being around $10-$15 trillion. And when assessing the value of IP for your company, it may mean the difference between big-time success […]
Continue ReadingCompanies Should Take Note of This Street Artist Win
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Nov 1, 2018 in Copyrights
A Los Angeles federal judge recently rejected General Motors’ attempt to dismiss a lawsuit by a street artist whose parking garage mural was used in a 2016 Cadillac ad campaign without permission. That may seem like no big deal – after all, it’s not like the artist has won the case yet. However, it could open the floodgates for other street artists to sue for damages when their work is depicted without their permission. The […]
Continue ReadingCopyrighting a Skyline: Two Sample Cases
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Oct 25, 2018 in Copyrights
You may not be surprised to learn that you cannot copyright a skyline. However, you can certainly copyright photographs that are taken of that skyline. If someone takes your image without your permission and uses it, you may have grounds for a copyright infringement lawsuit. But copyright law is complex, so how you approach your lawsuit can make a huge difference. Here are two real cases involving skyline photographs – with opposite outcomes. Case One: […]
Continue ReadingScandalous Trademarks: The Government Strikes Back
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Oct 18, 2018 in Intellectual Property
Back in March of this year, I wrote about Erik Brunetti successfully arguing to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that he should be approved to register the mark “Fuct” for clothing items, in part because the provision under the Lanham Act preventing him from doing so was unconstitutional. In the Federal Circuit court’s written opinion, they agreed that the provision on immoral and scandalous marks did, in fact, violate free speech […]
Continue ReadingTips for Business Owners: Document the Transfer, Assignment, or License of Your Copyrights
Crystal Broughan, Intellectual Property Attorney Oct 11, 2018 in Copyrights
The second you create an original work, you own the copyright for that work. It does not need to be registered for you to have ownership. It is your intellectual property. But what if you want someone else to have control over the copyright? Or maybe you want to license some of the rights so someone else can use the asset? How does that work? Does the U.S. Copyright Office have some kind of special […]
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