Copyright Licensing Form - Different Types of Licenses

With a copyright licensing agreement, you retain control over your intellectual property -- your name remains the copyright holder. You're simply licensing the use of the material to someone else, for whatever length of time and with whatever restrictions and requirements that you decide on. Here, we look at different ways licenses can work to protect you and your intellectual property.

There are some situations where licensing is commonly used. If you're a songwriter, for example, you could license your song to a specific artist in exchange for, say, a flat fee plus a percentage of the artist's royalties for that song. You remain in control -- the artist does not have the rights to allow another artist to perform that song.

An example of a restricted license would be licensing a song to a movie company with the stipulation that they use the song only during the movie, and not in any promo material or movie trailer. You have the right to specify exactly how your song is to be used -- or not used.

Not all licenses involve the transfer of money. For example, a software developer might make his or her software available with a free license, but he or she may specify how the software is to be used. These licenses with requirements that are not financial in nature are just as legally binding as those that require money; there have been many successful lawsuits brought by software developers who have provided their software for free with certain stipulations, such as the requirement to attribute the software to the creator or the requirement that the code is used in full, against users who have ignored those requirements.

Perhaps one of the most forgiving types of licenses is the Creative Commons license and its many varieties; with a Creative Commons license, you do not have to grant individual licenses to your users. A Creative Commons license allows anyone to use your work, provided they attribute the work to you or your organization in the manner that you specify. There are other aspects of use that you can also control -- allowing or disallowing your song or image to be transformed, for example.

The main thing to keep in mind is that a Creative Commons license is permanent. Even if you withdraw the license later, anyone who has obtained your work under the Creative Commons license may continue to use it according to the terms of the license for perpetuity.

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Patents and Patent Trolling

Patents and intellectual properties are legally binding documents that verify ownership by a party over an item that they either indicate plans to create or have created, though they each refer to different kinds of things. Where a patent can cover something that is more technologically focused - such as a special kind of motor or rumble technology found in video game controllers - an intellectual property usually refers to an idea such as a series of films - ie, Die Hard, Star Wars, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.

Patents are not only frequently used, but used for good purpose - without them, a person or company could release a product, and anyone could use the same technology, or at least a very similar technology, and not have to credit the creators or, if they used it maliciously, not pay them royalties on the product.

In the United States, an unfortunate loophole in patent law allows people to make a vague patent that is intended to be something that another company would likely make; after which point, the patent filer would file suit against the company that made the product, arguing that the company stole their idea. This is referred to as "patent trolling". It is especially common in Texas, and in the medium of video games, particularly due to how technologically-based it is and how it generally employs people of a younger age group.

With the current laws, people in the United States may patent an item and not worry about it expiring, allowing them to not worry about actually producing the item that they claim to own the patent on. One of the more famous examples of patent trolling was with Sony and Microsoft being sued over the method of rumble used in their controllers; while Microsoft settled out of court, Sony fought back, though ultimately losing. It is believed that rumble will slowly fade out of use, though Sony's original argument for its exclusion was being outdated, and Microsoft arguing for its exclusion from use with the Kinect being the same thing.

Nintendo was hit with a suit itself for the design of the Nintendo GameCube controller. While it won in the lower court, an appeal to the higher court reversed the decision, allowing the sale of the controllers. This is generally exclusive to the United States, as patent laws outside of it are quite different. There have been calls to revise the laws, with people arguing that it prevents change due to fear that a new device will come under fire from a patent troll who is seeking to take some of the profit made off of it.

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What to Do With Art That Is Material to the Patentability of Your Pending US Patent Application

Under U.S. Patent law, inventors and other individuals substantively involved with the preparation and/or prosecution of the application, such as assignees and patent attorneys, have a duty to disclose to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), information which is material to patentability of the claimed invention. Failure to disclose known material references may result in the invalidity of the granted patent. The duty of disclosure can be fulfilled by preparing and submitting an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) to the USPTO.

An IDS can be submitted to the USPTO at any time during the prosecution of the application. However, if an IDS is submitted after receipt of the first office action, a fee will be assessed. Additionally, if an IDS needs to be submitted after a Notice of Allowance is received, the applicant will need to withdraw the application from allowance to have the IDS and cited references considered by the USPTO. This can be done by filing a Request for Continued Examination (RCE).

Upon filing the application, if an applicant is aware of any prior art, he is well advised to notify his attorney (if applicable) of the prior art so an IDS can be included with the initial filing of the application. If an applicant or assignee is unsure of whether a reference should be cited in an IDS, a patent attorney should be consulted to determine the appropriate course of action.

Submission of an IDS upon filing an application may allow the applicant to avoid fees for late submission of an IDS, and also allows the USPTO to conduct an examination of the application in view of the already known prior art. Timely disclosure of prior art via submission of an IDS may also avoid the withdrawal of the application from allowance.

Additional IDS submissions may be necessary during the prosecution of the application to make the USPTO aware of prior art that is cited in corresponding foreign applications.

Copies of U.S. Patents and U.S. Published Patent Applications do not need to be supplied to the USPTO. However, copies of non-patent documents and foreign references must be submitted. Translations of foreign language references should also be obtained and submitted to the USPTO, but note that a full translation of the reference is not required to fulfill the disclosure obligations.

Fulfilling the duty of disclosure to the USPTO can be a straightforward process if open lines of communication between assignee, inventors, and their patent attorneys are maintained. Communication of known art to the patent attorney allows the attorney to draft a stronger patent and also allows the timely disclosure of the known prior art to the USPTO. As noted above, timely disclosure may avoid fees and, most importantly, the withdrawal of the application from allowance. If you have any questions concerning this U.S. Patent Law requirement, please contact any of the patent attorneys at the Michaud-Kinney Group.

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Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks: Intellectual Property Protection

The three different types of intellectual property -- copyrights, patents, and trademarks -- are similar in some ways, in that they protect an artist or creator's rights to his or her creation, but the scope of that protection varies considerably.

Let's take an overview look at each type of intellectual property protection.

Copyrights

Copyrights protect original works of authorship -- the usual examples you might think of, such as books, movies, and photographs, along with some odder examples like architectural works or vessel hull designs.

You should know: A copyright doesn't protect an idea, whether it's your idea for a book, a business, or a song. It just protects the expression of that idea -- the thing itself.

Where it's filed: The US Copyright Office handles official registrations. (However, note that this type of IP protection is provided by federal law even without an official registration.)

Patents

Patents protect processes, inventions, and certain types of scientific discoveries. This is commonly (and correctly) known as the "inventor's intellectual property."

You should know: There are three different types of patents: Design, Utility, and Plant. Your legal protection depends on you completing the correct application for your registration.

Where it's filed: Patents are filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office located in Alexandria, Virginia.

Trademarks

You should know: Two common ways to designate a trademark are the (R) and the TM signs -- but be careful which you use! (R) is only to be used for registered trademarks, while TM indicates your intellectual property if you are not registered or if your application is pending.

Where it's filed: Trademarks are also filed with the USPTO.

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Web Marketing Strategies - 7 Mistakes IP Lawyers Must Avoid Making To Attract More Clients

If you are an IP legal services professionals who wonders why all the web marketing efforts you have made did not get you the clients you wanted, I want you to think back and reflect on the mistakes you may have made and what you can do to rectify them.

Many IP lawyers are extremely enthusiastic and passionate about delivering great legal services, but marketing is something else as they do not know how to do it effectively. Part of this problem comes from viewing marketing, and web marketing in particular, as a specific activity that has to be added on to the core IP legal services work, or squeezed in when time allows. This is far away from the ideal scenario in which IP lawyers would view themselves as marketers of legal services first, and then as legal specialists who deal with specific issues for clients.

Given this, there are 7 key mistakes many IP legal services professionals make that seriously undermine any web marketing campaigns undertaken. How many of these have you made?

No marketing metrics set in place BEFORE doing any marketing campaigns. You can not measure the effectiveness of any marketing you do it you don't have any marketing key performance indicators or benchmarks in place to start off with. How else can you measure success? Inadequate customer and competitor research Making assumptions about the value you provide customers is a key mistake many IP lawyers make. You need a proper feedback system in place to continually improve your services and address any niggling issues that may arise. Competitor research is just as important, and not simply to copy what everybody else is doing. Remember, the IP lawyer that communicates the most value relevant to a target market will attract more prospects. You need a system and templates in place to compare leaders in the field with what you do, and make sure you then deploy marketing assets (please see 6 below) that get your prospects' attention despite your competition. There are various online tools and strategies available to find out the major search terms IP legal services prospects and clients are using to get information. Make sure you learn these as there is nothing worse than trying to create a message on a topic that nobody is interested in. Target market or niche not properly defined You need to be realistic about how far your marketing spend will reach. Identify your target market or niche. Make sure it is one that has lots of potential clients that not only have the money to pay for your IP legal services, but also has people that are actively looking for information and resources to help them solve problems. IP legal services not packaged properly Unlike products that people can touch and feel, IP legal services are intangible. This make them harder to value and means IP lawyers have to convince prospects about the value they actually provide. Simply saying you provide IP legal services and naming a price does not work. I suggest packaging your IP legal services so that clients are clear about what they will get in specific terms, what it will cost, and the benefits they realise. You should think about how you explain the uniqueness of the service you provide (see UPB in 6 below), build your service around the UPB and present that as a step-by-step roadmap that clients can then take with them. Lack of awareness regarding customer lifecycles and how this affects purchasing patterns Customer lifecycle refers to the experience prospects have with you from the time they first found out about you to the purchase of your high-priced legal services over many years. Within that, there are many steps that customers may take. You need to map these out so that you can proactively manage each step and know how far down the line prospects are in the life cycle. A very basic map for prospects would be to create a blog to generate interest, have free reports that are valuable which people will want to download, organise a seminar which prospects will pay to attend, and finally provide upsell opportunities to a range of IP legal services or information products (e.g. reports, books, webinars) which can be purchased repeatedly. It is all about building stronger relationships with prospects before they buy from you. No or poor deployment of marketing assets in media pieces, sales letters, etc. Marketing assets are the various elements that make up the message you send out in all your collateral and advertising. These can only be developed effectively if steps 2 and 3 have been done well. Marketing assets include: Unique Perceived Benefit - this is a statement that differentiates your IP legal services practice from your competition, and will make a huge difference to your success. Benefits - nobody ever purchased your IP legal service for what it does, but because of the benefits that result from the service on offer. Irresistible offers - what will prospects get if they respond to your media piece, and what do they have to do to get it. Your prospects and clients are VERY busy, and the irresistible offers you provide should differentiate your media pieces from your competitors, and stop the readers in their tracks so that they can learn more about what you have offered. Headlines - These are vital if you want to separate your adverts and sales collateral from most of your competitors. Simply listing your (firm) name at the top is not enough - you have to give readers a compelling reason to read what you have sent them, and the headline is key for success. Guarantees/Risk reversal - This lowers the risk that would-be customers have if they buy your services. If you are really good at what you do, you should provide a guarantee for the service on offer and state the penalty YOU are willing to pay if your services do not match up to expectations. If you have educated your clients on the various steps you will take and what their obligations are right at the start, then you will have less to worry about in terms of unnecessary client complaints. You will actually attract more clients because your prospects will value your business a lot more, especially as there are very few IP legal lawyers out there willing to provide service guarantees. Testimonials and case studies - you need these to make it easier for prospects to buy your services, and these will make them feel more comfortable about your ability to solve their IP legal services problems. Call to action - you want every media piece you send out to have an immediate, hopefully positive, response. Limiting the time readers have to respond to take advantage of certain offers stops procrastination and compels the reader to respond quicker to your media pieces. Poor selection of the media to use to reach out to your target market. You need to make sure you select the media your prospects and clients use to get information and make decisions, and the channels via which they get the information. While the Internet is increasingly becoming key for this, don't forget offline channels ones such as direct mail which are very effective.

While the list above may seem quite daunting for some IP legal services professionals, it certainly is not unreasonable and should act as a basic preparation template BEFORE any web marketing is planned. Given the fiercely competitive landscape many of you are in, you owe it to yourselves to prepare yourself adequately and then position yourself as the IP legal services professional of choice within your target niche.

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Types and Consequences of Copyright Infringement

By simply reproducing or syndicating the creations of a copyright owner without the permission to do so, you'll probably be ignoring his or her legal rights as stated in the Copyright Act. To enable a copyright to be enforced, it must be registered with the United States Copyright Office, plus a complaint explaining the encroachment has to be lodged by the federal court.

A judge can issue an injunction to permanently cease any sort of efforts it views as infringement. This will prevent the offending person or entity from sustained use of or money from acts of copyright infringement. A court can also issue a temporary injunction to counteract some other act of infringement while the court makes the final ruling on whether encroachment has happened.

At any moment over a copyright infringement case, the judge can request the impounding of content that could be perceived as encroaching on a copyright. Law enforcement agents will the be able to seize all of the copies of the offending products in addition to the initial designs from which more copies can easily be produced. With a finding of infringement, a court can demand that the seized items get removed or eliminated.

If the copyright holder has recorded the effort through the United States Copyright Office ahead of the infringement, the copyright holder may sue for reimbursement. This might include damages that include lost sales and profits due to the infringement or legal fines between $250 to $150,000 for each and every copy. Even bigger payments may be awarded based upon the circumstances of your case, and the public popularity of the copyrighted content.

You can also be considered criminally responsible if you purposely reproduce copyrighted content for profit, or if the replicated original carries a worth of greater than one-thousand dollars. In these cases, implications range from a one-year jail term plus fines. If the worth is greater than $2,500, you're likely to be obligated to fulfill 5 years in prison plus fines. Jail fees and penalties mostly apply to far-reaching instances of video or music piracy, but any instance of copyright violation should be given serious attention, for the reason that final results are often serious. Consult a knowledgeable copyright law firm for answers to your queries or for representation.

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