What kind of agreement do I need from property owner to get full copyright of photos I will take?:
I would like to take pictures of property interior design for our product catalog. These pictures will be used as background for products.
The catalog will be online and it will be free to see.
How do I protect myself from potential claims of home interior design copyright infringement? Thank you.
Thomas’s answer: To support and add to Daniel's comment, if you are going to take photos of a client's home for your catalog to advertise your services get a comprehensive release, prepared by an attorney. It is not a copyright issue so much as a privacy issue under state law. As mentioned in the other response - architectural design copyright is very specific and limited see Circular 41 - link below.
If an American company is distributing its products through a Reseller that is a foreign company, which choice of law is best?: Which choice of law would be best for the foreign company if the American Company wants its state law to govern and the foreign company wants its own foreign law to govern? New York law?
Thomas’s answer:
There are, as many lawyers in this question have pointed out, a whole of lot of issues to consider. Frankly, as a US company, if you can get the foreign distributor to agree to US law, even if you have a neutral forum for resolution of disputes, you are headed in the right direction. The bigger issue is whether or not you can practically enforce against the foreign company in the event of a breach. I might suggest when you talk to your attorney on this matter, that if the foreign distributor does not have any US assets or presence that you consider requiring an escrow of proceeds from sales, or direct payment to you for all sales or even a letter of credit as a guarantee against inventory you might ship. Of course all of these solutions also have cross-border tax implications and you should also check with the Department of State on export regulations and licensing. See the links below.
Check out UNCITRAL, ICC and NAFTA rules. Your foreign distributor should be familiar with these already as should your US lawyers.
Does http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/ check the whole country for trademarks already registered... i found one but its dead for years: how do i take it over?
Thomas’s answer:
The answers offered are generally all pretty solid advice. One thing I would add to the previous points (or rather perhaps disagree with) is that even if you find someone else using the mark you are seeking to register in commerce it may still be registerable and usable by your in a number of cases:
1. They are offering very different goods or services than those offered by you (maybe they are selling chairs under the mark, and you want to offer IT services). If there is no likelihood of confusion (see In Re Dupont), then you can probably forge ahead.
2. If the goods and services offered without a Federal registration are offered only locally by the competing mark holder. In other words, if a local restaurant in the middle of Texas is using a brand name maybe you can still register and use the name in the rest of the country - but note they might then have concurrent use rights, (the right to use it in their locality that is superior to your right).
Here is some plain business advice - if you are a start up google the heck out of your mark, search the PTO (use wildcard searches and read the very good and very detailed video on how to search a trademark located here http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-pro....
If you are not comfortable with all of this - hire a company to run a search for you and talk to a lawyer about the search results.