Warning to California Artists-Ninth Circuit Decision Limits Some Royalty Rights

by Leave a Comment

Who This Decision Affects Artists expecting a 5% royalty on sales of any “work of fine art” as outlined in a California state law that took effect January 1, 1977. This law was enacted to protect artists by requiring the seller, or seller’s agent, to withhold a 5% royalty and pay that to the artist. …Read more

How to Protect Your Company’s Software Assets Through Contract Protection

by Leave a Comment

If your company drives its revenue with proprietary software assets, you must ensure those assets are not improperly shared or misused by others. One way to protect your company’s software-related intellectual property (IP) rights is through a written contract. How Can Contract Provisions Help Protect Software? Most commercial software products are distributed in compiled object …Read more

Protect Your Company from Copyright Infringement Claims – Register Your DMCA Designated Agent

by Leave a Comment

If your company has a website that allows users to post any kind of content, you may be at risk for copyright infringement under U.S. copyright law if any of the content is not original to the party posting it. With most companies now leveraging multiple social media platforms, in addition to their traditional websites, …Read more

5 Keys to Understanding Copyright Protection

by Leave a Comment

Despite the advent of many new forms of digital technology, artists, authors, actors and architects still look to federal copyright law to protect their creative works. While copyright law is quite broad, you can’t copyright everything. Keep these five points in mind as you consider copyrighting your original works of authorship. 1. You Can’t Copyright …Read more

Defend Trade Secrets in Federal Court – DTSA Anniversary

by Leave a Comment

In May 2016, the United States Congress enacted the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) taking steps to make a “federal case” out of an area of the law that has been the domain of state law since the founding of the Republic. Whether that decision was a good one or not is yet to be …Read more

Downloading Pirated Software Without Installing It is Still Copyright Infringement

by Leave a Comment

If your business creates software or simply uses it to perform work – let’s face it, what business doesn’t use software in one way or another – we encourage you to take note of a recent ruling made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case – Design Data Corp. v. …Read more

How to Block Registration of a Troublesome Trademark with a Letter of Protest

by Leave a Comment

We are often contacted by clients who want to block registration of a competitor’s trademark because it’s too similar to their own. In some cases, the method we use to accomplish the client’s objective is to file a letter of protest with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) on behalf of the client. These …Read more

Biggest Threat to Your Company’s Trade Secrets

by Leave a Comment

For many people, trade secret theft evokes images of an international technological superspy using complex cyber-tools to engage in corporate or national espionage in cyberspace to steal the crown jewels of company or country. In reality, the more common, less dramatic and yet more dangerous threat to a company’s proprietary information comes from within. Current …Read more

Protecting Your Trade Secrets Where State Law and Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act Meet

by Leave a Comment

When it comes to protecting your company’s trade secrets, one of the most important remedies you can secure is a court order preventing a former employee from making use of the trade secret for the benefit of a competitor. From your perspective, it’s impossible for an employee who received your company’s crucial business information to …Read more

When Should I Use Patent Protection, Trade Secret, or Both?

by Leave a Comment

Intellectual property owners can protect certain information either by obtaining a patent or by maintaining its secrecy. A patent provides strong, exclusive rights for a fixed period of time, generally twenty years. A trade secret may last indefinitely, but protection can be lost through independent development, reverse engineering, or failure to maintain secrecy. There are …Read more