Legal :  Intellectual Property

What Happens If You Spot an Infringement? Since the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) in 1996, more and more companies of all sizes are taking active measures to protect themselves by pursuing and putting a stop to offenders. If you discover something suspect, be sure that you are clear on what constitutes infringement...

Consider this scenario: You’ve decided to add some exciting new products to your online catalog, so you get busy pulling together marketing write-ups, product photos, and pricing information. You copy and paste the photos from the manufacturer’s site, then upload them to your Web page. You stumble onto some great product descriptions that...

Protecting Your Rights If you are the author of any work, and you can prove it, you are automatically protected under copyright laws from the time the work is created. Of course, some people choose to take steps to formally protect their works, by registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office. Regardless of whether you officially register your works...

Be Certain You’re Not Infringing on Others Again, being accused of copyright infringement can prove troublesome for a business. You may receive a cease and desist notice from the lawyer representing the business that is accusing you of infringing, but more typically notices of claims of infringement are received by the Web host provider of a Web...

Even though all starting businesses need one or more business licenses and tax ids before legally starting business operations, another consideration when starting a business is the trademark of the business name, product or service. After reading this article you will know what is a trademark and whether you need to register one. What is a Trademark...

Patent numbers are issued sequentially, beginning with the number one. Patent number one was issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31,1790. It took 75 years for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to issue patent number 1,000,000. Patent number 7,000,000 was issued February 14, 2006. It took only seven years for the USPTO to move from issuance...

1) What is a patent? A patent is a form of "intellectual property" which rewards persons whom invent a new and non-obvious: a) process or method; b) machine; c) article of manufacture; or d) composition of matter. In return for completely disclosing the invention including how to practice the invention, a "legal monopoly" on the...

Trade-secret law has become more important as our modern workforce has become more mobile. The law is necessary to protect the owners of proprietary company information. A trade secret is company information you have that's not readily available to the general public. It's knowledge you've gained about what gives your company a competitive advantage...

Over the course of humanity, every discovery has yielded more questions as we continue to explore new territory. As we continue to explore the frontier known as cyberspace, and discover new ways to use the medium, we are opened up to more ethical dilemmas and questions. Intellectual property has always been a thorny issue. The internet however raises...

If you're wondering how to copyright software, the good news is you've probably already done it. At least you have if you have ever written software. Most people get confused over exactly what having a copyright for their software means. Only those things that can be seen (when it comes to software) can be copyrighted. If you want to protect...