As people who work at a tech company are well aware, the tech industry typically exists outside of the regular 9-5. When new ideas require developing or when a product is set to launch, employees can find themselves working at all hours of the day. They can also find themselves working away from the office,
Some tech companies have not been shy about using legal tools to protect their intellectual property rights. Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Research in Motion are several of the biggest tech companies that have been known to take competitors and alleged infringers to court over intellectual property. In contrast, fewer video game companies have exhibited this same
Meta tagging presents an interesting case for intellectual property law. Meta tagging refers to tags, or words, that web site designers place into the source of a web page. If you right click on a website and select view source, you can see these tags. They are a way of describing what the web site
The Teachings of Don Juan is a 1968 anthropology book by Carlos Castaneda that continues to inspire many followers. Castaneda said that the book documents his time between 1960 and 1965 with a Yaqui sorcerer (the Yaqui are a Native American tribe from northern Mexico). Castaneda used a term “tensegrity” to refer to several meditative stretches
Copyright law usually excludes basic items like clothes, silverware or furniture from copyright protection because they are strictly utilitarian items. If the law protected these types of things, the fear is that it would limit people’s options to obtain basic items since there would be numerous copyrights covering forks and spoons, for example. The law refers
As we have discussed, parodies are often safe from trademark infringement claims. The dangers of a person confusing an actual product with a parody are a lot less than someone selling imitations that closely resemble the actual product. Two internet sites – the parody site Lamebook.com and the ubiquitous Facebook.com – recently squared off over
Earlier in 2011, a federal judge in the state of Washington declared the state’s publicity rights law in violation of the federal constitution. The case originated from merchandise pertaining to 60s rock icon Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix’s estate sued a retailer that sold t-shirts, posters and other merchandise relating to Hendrix. His estate sued on trademark infringement grounds,
Cybersquatting is a new type of trademark infringement that came about with the rise of internet technologies in the past two decades. Whereas as squatting typically refers to someone living in a building that he or she does not own, cybersquatting refers to people or businesses that register an internet domain name and then offer to sell
Representing celebrity clients, I sued an individual and his corporation for using my clients’ name and likeness in a commercial activity without their consent. The individual defendant hired a very bad lawyer who concealed from me during discovery that his client had sold the company before I named him as a defendant. Had I known
California has a law that protects a celebrity’s right to control their publicity. If someone uses another persons name, image, or likeness without their consent, the wrongdoer is liable for actual damages. This usually happens when someone wants to exploit a celebrity’s status to promote their own economic objectives. Under Civil Code §3344 any person who uses another persons
