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[…]
IBM Patents add almost 1.2B to IBM’s revenue. That’s 1.19 billion dollars to IBM’s revenue as a result of its intellectual property licensing. This also includes 82.5 million which a jury recently awarded to IBM in a patent infringement suit against Groupon for infringing four of IBM’s e-commerce patents which were awarded back in the Read more about IBM patents add 1.2B to revenue[…]
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[…]
What is a Patent? Patents are basically ownership of a tool, product, or process and once ownership of a patent is obtained, anyone hoping to use the patent must pay the owner money which is typically provided under license. This payment is sometimes referred to as a royalty. Ownership of a patent is like owning property and Read more about What is a Patent?[…]
Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a patent related dispute related to whether a drug company should be allowed to pay its competitors under a patent license agreement which is designed to prevent generic drugs from getting on the market. Some refer to these arrangements as a “pay to delay” payment, and Read more about Patent License Agreements – Pay for Delay[…]
Beginning in 2013, musicians and others who create sound recordings (or their heirs in the event of their death) may terminate previously assigned copyrights. Customarily, many recording artists assign or otherwise transfer their rights for their music under one-sided agreements with record companies for a fraction of the commercial value of the music in exchange Read more about Copyright Termination of Musical Works[…]