Daniel Du-Ning Woo's Answers

Clothing design

I'll add some comments to Mr. Walters' answer. Your question doesn't say where you are located. If for example, you are in one of the former British commonwealth countries, you may be able to get a design copyright, which is not available in the United States. Most clothing companies and designer protect their products with additional intellectual property rights, primarily under the trade mark laws and sometimes with well-known designers under personality or publicity rights.

5 people marked this answer as helpful

Online copyright laws

This question needs much more detail because it's unclear what will be included in the document. For example, if the document contains images, then the licensing or owership rights regarding the images have to be evaluated. For another example, if the document involves software coding, again the rights will depend on who owns the copyrights, what rights were licensed or granted, and other such questions. If a party uses a document without permission that is subject to copyrights of others,...

2 people marked this answer as helpful

Photos of stangers

As with the other two responses that I read before composing this, I agree that the legal risks have increased. Personality and publicity rights accrue to people who are not famous. Some states have personality rights statutes that have specific terms regarding uses of pictures of other people, regardless of their fame and regardless of whether the use is for commercial or non-commercial use. You might want to check with some of the professional photographers trade associations on their take....

Invention at work

I don't know where you work. Some states, such as California and Washington, have Invention Act statutes that require the employer to fulfill the specific requirements of such act in order for their to be an assignment to the employer. The assignment agreements provide for a wider area of assignments than the example that you give. In other words, if you signed such an agreement, for example, in Washington, the agreement has to be reviewed, factual due diligence questions must be asked, and...

How does TM help me

I recommend that you get advice about trade names and trade marks. Usually it is not a good idea to have the company name also be a trade mark or service mark, whether or not it is registered. Companies have lost trademark rights by common usage of the company names with product names. Having a state registered trade name provides improved enforcement rights and remedies, including the possibility of recovery of attorney fees and costs. Having a state registered trademark also provides...

Finding Trademarks

This is not simple. Unregistered trade marks or service rights may have priority rights from uses alone. A company can start discarding potential marks by using free Web search engines, the Website for USPTO, and other online resources. My experience in the past few decades is that it is best to use a full comprehensive search service for a report that can then be reviewed by some competent and experienced practitioner. The purpose of thorough searches is not only to evaluate the...

2 people marked this answer as helpful

Re-producing old advertisements that are trademarked.

The photographs may not be in the public domain even though the pictures were taken so long ago. You should consult with an intellectual property attorney. You may need to undertake investigation, including for example, investigation into copyrights that may belong to the photographers', authors', or the companies' successors, assigns or estates. You should also get advice as to the investigation that will need to be taken about potential copyrights to the catalog pages themselves, including...