In an interesting Hollywood movie side-drama consistent with Hollywood theatrics, the creators of the upcoming Hangover II movie are finding themselves fighting to defend themselves against a tattoo artist seeking an injunction over the unauthorized use of a tattoo. The tattoo artist, Victor Whitmill, created an original tattoo for boxer Mike Tyson, who appears in both “Hangover” Read more about Copyright Infringement of Tattoos[…]
It was announced that the company suing thousands of BitTorrent movie downloaders under a profit making litigation scheme has dismissed thousands of alleged downloaders from suit, including those who downloaded The Hurt Locker. The makers of The Hurt Locker have now announced a cease-fire in the BitTorrent cases, together with the alleged sharers of Call Read more about Movie file-sharing suit dropped[…]
The White House released a white paper recommending increasing the penalties for intellectual property crimes. The recommendations involve increasing rights and penalties “so as to more effectively address the substantial harm caused by intellectual property crimes.” Recommended changes include: Increase prison term for counterfeit drug distributors; Increase prison terms for theft of trade secrets; Increase Read more about White House Recommends increasing the Criminal Penalties for Intellectual Property[…]
Copyright registration allows for recording of a creative work by depositing the work with the copyright office. By depositing the work, the artist preserves the work for future generations as part of our Public Domain. In exchange for depositing the work, the copyright office issues a registration certificate. Under copyright law, copies or phonorecords deposited Read more about Best Edition and Copyright Law[…]
The Copyright Act defines a “collective work” as an assemblage into a collective whole of a number of individual contributions, each of which constitutes a separate and independent work, and gives as examples periodicals, anthologies, and encyclopedias. A collective work is also referred to as a “compilation.” Under the Copyright Act, copyright in a collective Read more about Copyrighting Collective Works[…]
In “passing off,” a seller associates another party’s mark with a good or service. The law of passing off concerns unfair competition more generally in situations where there does not need to be a registered trademark or any other intellectual property right. Where a second business does something so that the public is misled into Read more about Passing Off under Trademark Law[…]
In the United States, subject to one exception, trademark rights arise from use in commerce, regardless of whether or not the mark is registered. The first user of a mark generally takes priority over all subsequent users with respect to use of the mark in that market. The first user of a mark in commerce, Read more about Trademark Priority[…]
One of the most important aspects of the patent application is the written description requirement. Under the written description requirement, the applicant must provide a clear description of what is being claimed for patent protection. It is what the inventor hopes to receive in exchange for what the disclosure. The written description requirement may be Read more about Patent Applications: Written Description[…]
Under the Patent Act, a patent may be obtained for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.” The requirement that the subject of a patent be new is referred to as the novelty requirement; the requirement that the subject of a patent be useful Read more about Patenting Useful Inventions[…]
According to the Copyright Act, the authors of a joint work jointly own the copyright in the work they create. A joint work is defined in the Copyright Act as “a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.” Read more about Copyright Joint Authorship and Ownership[…]