John E. Whitaker's Answers

I'm confused about patening intellectual property. Is there another way to protect unique code and algorythms?

Copyright law is an up and coming choice for protecting software as software patents become weaker and weaker. Copyright law is very cheap and easy to acquire, but is more narrow than software patents. Copyright law is perfect to protect the code itself. As for patents, these days you would need to tie your algorithm fairly closely to some hardware to avoid what's called the Section 101 problem, which is an increasing problem for software developers. To get the full picture of your...

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How does "public domain" work when different laws apply in different countries?

You're right, we have a global economy now. That said, every country still has a right to its own laws. The good news is there are quite a few treaties in the area of intellectual property law that try to reach commonality on most of the big-picture items. That said, every country has a very slightly different take on what is "public domain" and what is not. For instance, in the U.S. we have First Amendment considerations to deal with that most other countries don't have. So the direct...

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What are the differences in legal protection between a Registered "R" Trademark, and a Trademark "TM"?

A lot of people share your confusion. The (TM) means that the mark is being used as a trademark. You are free to use the TM on anything you want and in any way you want. The (R) means that a trademark is federally registered. You can't use the (R) unless your mark is federally registered. But you don't have to federally register a trademark in order to protect it. Ever. You can use a trademark forever and even sue people for violating it in federal court without ever getting the (R). What...

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

You must file a Federal registration to gain constructive notice throughout the rest of the country. State trademark registrations are only good in that state. You should go file the Federal registration here http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/teas/index.jsp Good luck.

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How can you sell your 'ideas' to corporations,companies,etc?

It is exceedingly rare that a real company, like Microsoft, would pay anything for naked "ideas." Some will pay for concepts that are patented, or at least have patent pending. There are too many issues to answer this question simply. You should sit down with a small business attorney and discuss all the issues.

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Am I violating copyright or trademark laws using a picture of a bridge and building on my book I’m trying to sell to the public?

Mr. Burdick is, of course, right. There is a specific exception to copyright law that authorizes pictures of public buildings or other works of architecture. That said, make sure you hold on to that written permission. If your novel is successful, it's amazing how fuzzy people's memories get. Good luck.

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Can I purchase, own and use for commercial profit the phrase "NBA" as part of a web address?

There is no black-and-white answer to this question. Whether you can use a famous trademark in a domain name depends completely on what you actually do with that domain name. If what you are doing has absolutely nothing to do with the industry in which the famous mark is used, you are *probably* OK. But if what you want to do is add commentary or offer products in the same industry, expect very big problems. We cannot give you any more specific advice than that on your particular facts....

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Copyright question. I have wrote 40 books and I want to put some of these copyrights into a holding company, LLC.

If you own all the holding companies, then those are assets just like the copyrights would be. The holding companies themselves would be attachable just like the copyrights would. No difference. So it really depends on what kind of liability you envision and for what conduct. If you have a company that infringes someone else's copyright, then that company will be liable for copyright infringement and its assets (whatever they are) would be attached. There is no liability for simply owning...

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

The "bundle of rights" are defined by statute. 17 USC s 106 recites the following rights: The owner of copyrighted work has the following exclusive rights: (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) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and...

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Producing a music video for DJ, and am concerned about copyrwright issues with other peoples music.

First, there is no such thing as a "maximum length quota" for copyright infringement. If the DJ samples ANY portion of another song, that constitutes copyright infringement. After that, the question is does the DJ have a defense (like fair use or parody) to avoid liability for that infringement. So the most direct answer to your question is this, if you are making a music video for commercial use, expect trouble if you use ANY portion of someone else's work. The only way to avoid it is to...

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