"Jack Frost" -- by that name -- has been the personification of snow and ice for many hundreds of years. Everyone may lawfully create their own...

Choosing a company name is a very important branding decision that will have significant economic consequences for you in the marketplace. You...

I’m not at all sure that the simple, yellow, face-type emoticons used by Apple [and many others] are copyrightable. The online Copyright Office...

Can you use a different first name when marketing yourself or your business?

I disagree with my colleagues. When someone personally engages in business the person creates, automatically, a "sole proprietorship." If a sole...

Received a letter from Johnson Pham that u.s. Customs and boarder seized a packaged with 33 units of insanity DVD. Why?

In addition to being sued by the rights holder of the alleged counterfeit products you've imported, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will likely...

What are my rights in regards to a educational program I created for a university that they haven't used or paid me for?

The starting point is California law: “Everything which an employee acquires by virtue of his employment … belongs to the employer, whether...

If a commercial game used a song I made, without permission, are they infringing copyright law?

Go straight away to your own intellectual property attorney. That attorney will first have to determine whether your song infringes the copyright...

If color is claimed as a part of a trademark, must all uses of the mark be as such to claim trademark rights?

Q: "If color is claimed as a part of a trademark, must all uses of the mark be as such to claim trademark rights?" R: Yes. Q: "If a color...

I want to keep my local competitors from using certain verbage, so customers don't get confused.

Using a phrase to name a company that's actually doing business AUTOMATICALLY creates rights in that phrase as a "trade name" and, very often, as a...

Does a clothing Service Mark protect my brand name clothing products?

First, marketplace participants, such as you, can ignore the legal difference between a "service mark" and a "trademark." For you, both are...