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 […]
What is a company trademark? “A trademark is any name, symbol, figure, letter, word, or mark adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant in order to designate his or her goods and to distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others.” – defined by dictionary.com. There are many different types of distinctive […]
By: J. Mason Williams IV Most law students and attorneys seem to either have little or no problem with evidence or they absolutely hate it, most probably fall in the latter group. If I have a document that I want to use as evidence, why can’t I? Evidence rules often seem tedious and unnecessary, but […]
Traditionally, trade dress was limited to the overall appearance of labels, wrappers, and containers used in packaging a product. However, over a period of years, the traditional definition expanded beyond packages and containers to include the total look of a product. Today, the total look includes the packaging, as well as the design, shape, […]
