Fan fiction is material created by fans of a piece of work rather than the owners or creators. Movies, television shows and books all have fans that have spun off their own stories, drawings, movies and more. The fans take characters created by another on new adventures, some within canonical fictional universe, some decidedly not. … Read more
I admit it, one of my favorite things about craft beer is the clever names. There are puns, odd references, and just plain silliness. It just tickles my fancy. But they are also trademarks, and as more beers come on the market, there are more chances for conflict. These disputes have been highlighted by several … Read more
The owner of copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or … Read more
After asking friends, family, and strangers sitting next to you at the bar what they think of it, you have finally decided on a name for your newest product. Now you want to protect it with a federal trademark, but how do you do that? First, I assume that you have already searched the mark … Read more
I have already written about aspects of copyright law, but exactly is copyright protection? Copyright protects original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. One way to think of it is it protects creative works that you can somehow see or hear again and again. Works of authorship include the following categories: … Read more
Often when people are trying to find a trademark for their good or service, they want a mark that hearkens back to whatever it is that they are selling. They want their customer to “know” what it is the customer is buying. But as we have discussed earlier, descriptiveness can be bad. So what is … Read more
Often when looking to register a trademark, we have to discuss registering a word mark versus a logo. Clients often default to registering words in a very specific font. However, that locks the mark into that font. Whereas, if we register it as a word mark, then a change in font doesn’t destroy the registration. … Read more
Ongoing disputes between Fitbit and Jawbone claimsthat Fitbit hired Jawbone employees, who in turn took Jawbone trade secrets and brought them to be used at Fitbit. Last week, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge ruled that Fitbit did not steal any of Jawbone’s trade secrets. Earlier, I wrote about protecting a trade secret, but what … Read more
In copyright law, several entities may own different rights in the same piece of material. One way this might happen is one someone builds upon the work of another and creates a derivative work. The original work’s author may still own the rights to the original work, but the newer author now has rights on … Read more
Most creative works are protected by copyright for a very long time, but not all and not forever. Those works not protected are said to be in the public domain. Once in the public domain, others can use the works without needing to obtain permission from (or pay royalties or license fees to) the owner … Read more