Archive for the ‘Copyright’ Category
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
A service mark is the same as trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a good.
A trademark generally protects brand names and logos employed on goods and services. One may establish right to use a trademark based on use of the mark in commerce. Thus formal registration is not required but is encouraged to protect a trademark.
Registering a trademark on the Principal Register provides several advantages:
(a) Public notice as to claim of ownership;
(b) Legal presumption of ownership;
(c) Ability to bring an action;
(d) Use of the registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign courts;
(e) Ability to record the registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service to prevent importation of infringing goods;
(f) Right to use the federal registration symbol;
(g) Official listing of the mark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s online databases.
A claimant may use a “TM” (trademark) or “SM” *service mark” as an alert to the public as to superiority of use in the mark. The United States Patent and Trademark Office reviews trademark applications and determines whether the applied for mark meets the requirements of registration.
If you are considering trademarking please contact our office for a free consultation.
An important case in online video sharing was decided last week. In Universal Media Group v. Veoh Networks (PDF) the federal judge dismissed the case on the grounds that he believed Veoh Network Inc, a popular video sharing website, fell under safe harbor clauses within the DMCA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is the act that protects copyrights in the online realm. An Electronica Frontier Foundation spokesperson felt that this case would also apply to YouTube in that their terms of services and procedures are similar.
This case allows video sharing sites to fend off liability for copyright infringement from it’s users given they use a rather low standard of procedures in handling reported infringing use. The case seems to acquiesce that works may be ‘performed’ and the sharing sites don’t need to ‘pre-check’ the videos before it displays them. This burden on video sites to remove infringing works strikes a balance between IP rights and video dissemination. While it’s still a considerable financial burden on sharing sites the costs aren’t as bad as facing copyright litigation.
What discussion of online videos and applicable law would be complete without an embedded High-Def video?
The ubiquity of concealable camera phones and the popularity of DSLRs with telephoto lenses often poses the question “What am I allowed to photograph legally?”
The Right to Photograph:
In general you may take a photograph of whatever subject you want when you are in a public place or you have express permission. In general You don’t need consent to photograph somebody unless they have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” examples including dressing rooms, public bathrooms, in their homes, etc. Other limits may include military and nuclear sites. Permissible subjects include: law enforcement officers (but you may not interfere with law enforcement activity, investigations or risk officer safety) children, airports and more.
A lot of great photos are captured when the subjects aren’t aware that a camera is around. It captures people in their natural state.
Nobody can confiscate your film/photographic data without a court order or warrant or a law enforcement officer that has arrested you. If an individual threatens or ‘detains’ you, you may have a case for legal action against them.
A great resource on the subject is “Legal Handbook for Photographers” By Bert P. Krages and his “Pocket Guide” (PDF)
Next time you take a photo and the subject asks to see the photo to check if they blinked, or they “look funny” and demand you delete it, you can assert your rights
Next weeks photography law post will discuss copyrights and sharing licenses.
UPDATE: My photographer friend asked me about commercial uses of photographs. There is a distinction between Publisher and Photographer, but they can often be the same individual. Most often if you publish a photograph with a person (model) and the predominant purpose is for monetary gain,(Ex.advertisements) then you must get a release from the model. News articles and non-monetary uses don’t require a release.
This post is not legal advise and does not establish an attorney/client relationship. For specific fact situations consult with an attorney. please read our Disclaimer.
In a complaint filed in New York the Plaintiff "Free Software Foundation" and the software engineer who coded "BusyBox" alleged that several big name electronics producers infringed upon the GNU General Public License (GPL) of the BusyBox software. The GPL License Version 2 specifically states.
You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 aboveprovided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2
above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give
any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically
performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the
corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange . . . ."
The complaint claims the following products infringed on the Plaintiff's licensing rights:
- BestBuy's Insignia NS-WBRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player
- Samsung's LN52A650 and LA26A450 LCD HDTV's
- Westinghouse's TX-52F480S LCD HDTV; JVC's LT-42P789 LCD HDTV and VN-C20U IP Network Camera;
- Western Digital's WDBABF0000NBK WD TV HD Media Player;
- Bosch's DVR4C Security System DVR;
- Phoebe Micro's Airlink101 AR670W and AR690W wireless routers
- Airlink101 AICAP650W IP Motion Wireless Camera;
- Humax's iCord HD HDTV DVR;
- Comtrend's CT-5621 and NexusLink 5631/ 5631E ADSL2+ bonded modems;
- Dobbs-Stanford's Frame Jazz EyeZone B1080P-2 digital media player;
-
Versa Tech's PS-730 ITS Gateway and VX-BW2250 weatherproof dual
radio outdoor wireless access point; -
ZyXEL's P-663H-51 ADSL 2+ Bonded 4 Port Router;
Astak's CM-818DVR4V security camera system with DVR and CM-04DE and CM-04DEV
security system DVR devices; and, GCI's Cortex HDC-3000 digital music controller.
That's alot of big electronics producers listed! This doesn't necessarilly mean that the products are defective, but that software used within them allegedly breeched the GPL License.
We'll certainly be following this case.
In previous posts we discussed methods to best retain complete rights to your creative works with an emphasis on works for monetary gain. This post I’ll go through a licensing scheme that’s been embraced by many artists. Creative Commons licenses are draft licenses for people who don’t wish to profit from their works and share their works in the manner they prefer. Lets start with what a license is.
A license is transfers rights of copyright to other individuals to use in certain ways. In the same way that an apartment lease or sublease transfers the right for individuals to live in a dwelling a license allows certain uses of a creative work as if they were the owners themselves, limited to how the original licensor bargains for them to use it.
In order for an individual to give a license, she must first have effective ownership of the copyright work. Now we’ll go into the different Creative Commons scheme.
The Creative Commons does a great job of explaining complex licenses in terms that everyone can understand.
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/
You can mix and match any of these four limitations in your license.
Going through the Creative Commons Choose process is the easiest way to get started.
One can display these icons and links near your work and assert them as the license for this work. That’s it!