CARTOON CHARACTERS Cartoon characters are everywhere these days. In movies, video games, television, software, toys, blankets, food, beverages and clothing just to mention a few. Many of these are based on a fictional character which was originally created as part of a graphic work like a comic book. From a value perspective, these characters are Read more about Copyright Cartoon Images[…]
In 2018, the eSports market was valued at nearly 865 million dollars and some experts expect its value to exceed 1.79 billion dollars by 2022. The majority of this revenue is expected to come in the form of sponsorship and advertising dollars. Some will come in the form of betting, prize money, merchandise, and ticket Read more about Protecting eSports Copyright and Trademark[…]
Fortnite Sued for Dance Moves Recently, online video game makers have been selling avitar custom modifications including various tools or weapons, skins, clothing and emotes such as a dances or player movements. Many players use these emotes as a way to celebrae or to simply have fun while playing the game. However, some of these Read more about Fortnight Sued for Dance Moves – Lessons Learned[…]
Copyrights and Work for Hire Doctrine Stan Lee, the co-creator and ambassador of the Marvel Universe, died this week. From a copyright perspective, Lee’s legacy is a complicated mess. Marvel, one of the original comic book publishers introduced over 8,000 characters including those created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and Steve Ditko. This Read more about Stan Lee’s Copyrights and Work for Hire[…]
Copyright in Buildings Generally, copyright protects all works of art including those which are related to a building design and to artwork fixed to buildings. However, because copyrights do not extend to functional works, buildings were not always considered Copyrightable. Currently, the law protects artwork for and on buildings under both traditional copyright law and Read more about Copyright in Buildings for Architects and Artists[…]
A common question we get from new businesses is how to copyright a website. The U.S. Copyright Office does not expressly recognize websites as being copyrightable. However, you can register the text, images, sounds, movies, computer code or even databases associated with a website or web page. A website is generally considered to be an Read more about 101 Series – How to Copyright a Website[…]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will take on the issue of whether a copyright registration or a copyright application is required before bringing a copyright infringement suit. Currently, depending on the location of your copyright lawsuit, some courts require a copyright registration. Other Courts simply require that you have filed a copyright application Read more about Copyright Application vs. Copyright Registration[…]
Capturing just the right photograph, often is the result of countless hours of time, effort, attention, planning and preparation. While capturing the photograph can represent countless hours, stealing the photograph off the internet takes only seconds. In today’s digital world, many photographers try to promote their best work on the internet where they can showcase Read more about Stolen Photos Costs Company[…]
The Metropolitan Museum announced access to nearly 400,000 images – for free. The Museum provides these images under an Open Access license for all public-domain works in the Met collection. The Creative Commons Zero (“CC0”) license allows use of the images without restriction. Entrepreneurs, artists, and business owners can now use and share these images Read more about The MET Announces Access to Free Images[…]
We meet with many artists who ask how to copyright music. To many people, music can mean many things. Music may refer to the lyrics, music videos, the music recorded by a sound recording, the musical composition and arrangement, or it may mean the live performance of the music. The first step in copyrighting music is Read more about How to Copyright Music[…]