Gordon Philip Firemark’s Answers

My esteemed colleagues here are right, but they've overlooked the possibility that the business name in question might not even be protectible under trademark law. It could be too generic, or descriptive to merit protection, in which case you COULD use it...though I fail to see why you'd want to. Better to just find a new, DISTINCTIVE brand for your products or services.

Somewhere under $100,000,000

You don't say what role you play. Just that you "Did" a song with the group. If you were a co-writer, you may be entitled to royalties for the records and performances. If you were a session performer, and were paid for your work, That's probably all you're entitled to... Unless, of course, you've got a written agreement specifying otherwise.

It's certainly possible for an attorney to represent a client from another country. Over the years in my practice, I've represented a number of clients from the UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Japan, Vietnam, Lithuania, etc. I frequently work on flat-fee or so-called "value based" billing structures. After all, clients are not concerned with how many hours I spend on their matter, but rather with how much it COSTS to accomplish the task at hand. As my esteemed colleagues have already...

Generally, work you create for school projects, etc., belongs to the School, not to the student or the professor. (see Condell v. New School for Social Research, 48 NYS 2d 733 (1944). That said, the professor generally can keep your work indefinitely, UNLESS he or the school has an established policy that states otherwise. Check the syllabus and the school's student regulations, etc.

All of what Mr. Ballard says is true, except the operative date for expiration of the copyright is 2059, not 2159. she died in 1989+70 years = 2059. The copyright law itself also has some provisions about which heirs inherit the copyright, so some state laws may conflict. So, you really need to consult an attorney familiar with these issues, and who can research the question and advise you accordingly. You'll definitely need some contracts between you and the heirs, but publishing...

Welcome to the music business. This scenario is VERY common. You will need to hire a lawyer to review the contracts and advise you. You may have some right to audit, or to sue, but the financial realities may make that impractical. Still, an hour with a lawyer would be a good investment.

You can do both with a single company, but the help of an attorney will make things easier. Set up one company (the record label) and a DBA for the publisher name. Register the publisher name with your performing rights society, and you're good to go... But, be sure to consider whether an LLC is really the right way to go. Tax consequences of being an LLC are different from corporations, and need to be carefully evaluated.

Unless you've got a large war-chest for litigation, you're most likely going to wind up changing your domain name, and discontinuing use of the star's name as the title/name of the site (Unless your site is a so-called "sucks" site, like "starnamesucks" or some similar variation) (some these kinds of sites have been held to be protected under the first amendment). Your site IS commercial, since you had ad-sense ads on it. The law doesn't prevent you talking about this star, just...

If you want to use popular music in your film, you should expect to pay for the privilege. A 'syncrhonization license' is ONE of the two licenses you may need for each song in your film. The synch license covers the 'musical composition' (i.e., the work of the songwriter), and is administered by the music publisher. If you're using a mainstream recording of the song by a known band (as opposed to re-recording it yourself, or whatever), you'll also need a "Master Use" license from the...