By: Dan Pierron For the inventor who is also a patent novice, there is a pitfall in telling others about your invention. There are an unfortunate many who shoot themselves in the foot by disclosing their invention to others without taking necessary precautions to preserve their patent rights, and that disclosure can have negative […]
In England, there is a law referred to as the “Loser Pays” Rule. The law states that the losing party of a civil litigation case must pay the winning party’s legal fees. The English created this law to deter individuals and corporations from making frivolous claims and wasting the judicial system’s time and also […]
By: Tyler Hampy As mentioned in my last post, this post will continue the discussion on the fair use doctrine. Specifically, this post will discuss whether parodies of copyrighted works can be considered fair use. To recap, the fair use doctrine permits the legal use of copyrighted material without first acquiring permission from the […]
My last post related how Online Service Providers (OSPs) are subject to disqualification for § 512 safe harbor from copyright infringement liability based on actual or red flag knowledge of user-generated content (UGC) containing infringing material. Another disqualifier for safe harbor is the OSP’s control of and benefit from the infringing act. Control and […]
To prove copyright infringement, the plaintiff must show that it owns a valid copyright and must establish that the defendant engaged in the unauthorized copying of the work protected by the copyright. “Copying” refers to the act of infringing any of the exclusive rights that accrue to the owner of a valid copyright under […]
By: Dan Pierron To all those in the Space Coast area, I would like to take some time to plug an event occurring this Wednesday: the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. This is an annual premiere event, featuring many local chefs dishing up their finest wares for attendees to sample. Restaurants that are […]
By: Tyler Hampy To begin, what is unfair competition? Although the courts have had little success in defining unfair competition in the abstract, Black’s Law Dictionary defines unfair competition as dishonest or fraudulent rivalry in trade and commerce, specifically, the practice of endeavoring to pass off one’s own goods or products in […]
You started your company four years ago and everything is going well when all of a sudden you are handed a cease and desist letter. The letter informs you that you are using another company’s trademark – their company name. What are you to do? With the world increasingly getting smaller thanks to the […]
Substantial Completion When an owner decides to build something, he or she usually decides that he or she wants it completely finished, okay the owner always wants it completely finished. But is the owner guaranteed that? Probably not. Now does that mean a contractor can walk away from a job after placing the concrete […]
