Clifford D. Hyra's Answers

What "bundle" of rights are included in a US copyright of a literary work?

Copyrights are statutory rights, and the relevant statute (17 U.S.C. 106) reads as follows: "the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; (4)...

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How do I proceed with this trademark?

Note that the Trademark Office does not consider marks that are in use but not registered or applied for. So if the only conflicting marks are unregistered and not applied for, your application would not be refused by the USPTO (at least on that basis). However, the prior user would be entitled to oppose or cancel your registration for five years (with some exceptions depending on the circumstances) and you would never be able to stop that company from using the mark. Depending on the...

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Is it legal to re-sell new with tags authentic clothing like A&F , Hollister, GUESS etc on eBay?

It is legal to resell clothing, regardless of what brand it is. You do not sign an agreement with A&F when you buy an article of clothing at their store, so I do not see how you could be bound by any terms of sale. I think a requirement like that might be an unlawful restraint on alienation anyway. If you were an employee, they probably would make you agree to a term like this, however as a practical matter I imagine it is rarely enforced. Even if you did agree to such a term, A&F could only...

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Patent Law and disclosing my idea to a patent attorney

As mentioned previously, it is unlikely a patent attorney would represent you on a contingency basis although you can ask. All attorneys are bound by a duty of confidentiality to prospective clients, which includes the duty not to disclose their confidentiality to others or to use their confidential information for the lawyer's own benefit. A violation of that duty would be very serious. No reputable lawyer is in the business of stealing his or her clients' ideas. Payment arrangements are...

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Is it legal to write a book containing found love letters from 1944 written by people now deceased who are not in my family?

Letters written in 1944 are still under Copyright, as copyright protection lasts for the life of the author, plus 70 years. So the earliest they could be out of copyright is 2014 (if an author died that year, 1944). No disclaimer or registration is necessary for the works to be protected- the protection is automatic. It would be copyright infringement to publish letters written in 1944 by another, unless you have a license from the copyright holder (author's heirs or designees, if both are...

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Trade Mark question. If my LLC owns a trade mark name is it protect all over?

Not if you only did a Louisiana state trademark registration. State trademark registration grant rights only within the borders of that state. To extend your claim to all 50 states, you need to file an application for federal trademark registration with the USPTO (see USPTO.gov). State trademark registrations nowadays are typically used only by small local businesses that cannot and will not be able to prove interstate use of the trademark (e.g. sales/shipments across state lines or a...

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Who owns a trademark if they were approved on the same day?

It does not matter what date they were approved. For an opposition proceeding, what controls is the date of filing in the case of intent-to-use applications, or the date of first use in the case of applications based on use in commerce. In other words, the date of importance for any given application is the earlier of its filing date and its first use date. For the Examining Attorney at the USPTO, the only date they care about is the filing date, because first use dates are "at least as...

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Are my business partners allowed to take my recipes and use them in their own restaurants without my consent?

You need an IP (intellectual property) attorney to go over all the facts with you and draft an appropriate agreement. Primarily, trademark and trade secret law are implicated by your question, although business/corporate law is also at issue (the relationship between yourself and your business partners). Unfair competition law could also be involved. It certainly is possible to address these issues in a contract. In the absence of any agreement or other steps you take, anyone would be free...

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Am I in danger of being sured for copyright infringment?

Yes, that would violate the copyrights in the videos they want you to composite. You could (and should always) have them agree to indemnify you, but that is not sufficient to protect you. It will not stop you from getting sued, it would just allow you to sue your client to get the money to pay the judgment and/or defend yourself. Obviously that can go wrong in all sorts of ways, including your client going bankrupt or disappearing. You should have a standard contract with your clients that...

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Is it legal to redesign clothes then resell?

If you are getting rid of all the original trademarks, there should be no issue with trademark infringement. Clothing is not generally entitled to any copyright protection, so you are on solid ground there, as well. In any case, the first sale doctrine generally allows you to resell and otherwise use copyrighted items you purchased however you please, as long as you do not make copies. The only qualification I would make is that a design on a shirt (or other article of clothing) could be...

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