Tag Archives: West Palm Beach Intellectual Property Lawyer
Supreme Court to Hear Copyright Case
Copyright cases rarely make it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. However, the Palm Beach Post reports that the nation’s highest court has agreed to hear an appeal in the case of Varsity Brands inc vs Star Athletica. The case, which involves a company’s desire to copyright cheerleading uniforms,… Read More »
What Qualifies As A Trade Secret?
Trade secrets can include a wide variety of confidential business information. Ranging from scientific formulas and computer codes to marketing plans and pricing strategies, these truly innovative ideas are often among a company’s most valuable assets. The law allows for these ideas to be protected as trade secrets. It gives businesses a real incentive… Read More »
Fashion Designs: How To Protect Your Intellectual Property
Fashion is a multibillion dollar industry in Florida. By some economic estimates, 10 percent of the industry is made up of knock-off products. Many of these knock off fashion products are illegal. Fashion designers work hard creating unique ideas to bring new looks into the industry. It is only right that people are able… Read More »
Don’t Scuff the Copyright: Federal Court Extends Intellectual Property Protection to Flooring
When trying to come up with things that copyright law protects, most people think about works like art, music, or movies. However, it turns out that copyright law protects much more than that. A recent ruling by the 11th Circuit, the federal appeals court covering Florida, highlights the surprisingly broad reach of copyright law…. Read More »
Contesting an “Incontestable” Mark
One of the benefits of registering a trademark with the federal government is that after a certain period of time a mark becomes “incontestable.” That sounds like a powerful benefit. No one wants to be sued by someone with a mark that the government has labeled as beyond contestation. Yet, the name is actually… Read More »
A Copyright Law Blog Post about How Copyright Law Affects Blog Posts
With the maturation of the internet, more and more people are putting their own copyrighted work out into the world. People write stories, post pictures, and upload videos online, and that can make the legal landscape of online content both varied and complex. Bloggers in particular should be aware of copyright for two reasons…. Read More »
Intellectual Property Protection for Restaurants
Restaurant owners often wonder about whether they can use the intellectual property (IP) system to stop competitors from stealing their recipes. The answer, as with so many things in law, is that it is complicated. American IP is divided into four categories: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. These each protect their own types… Read More »
Functionality: The Line between Patents and Trademarks
Each category of intellectual property deals with a specific type of creation. Copyright protects artistic expression. Patents protect useful inventions and discoveries. Trademarks protect logos and other things that convey the source of commercial goods. The legislature specially tailored each of these classes of intellectual property to suit the type of creation that it… Read More »
What Copyright Protects
Copyrights, patents and trademarks are each valuable parts of an intellectual property portfolio, but people often find it difficult to keep straight which intellectual property is protected by which set of rules. Each branch of intellectual property is designed for a very specific type of protection, and conflating them can often cause problems. Take,… Read More »
Understanding Fair Use in Copyright Law
One of the most commonly discussed pieces of copyright law is the doctrine of fair use. It is also one of the most complex pieces. This doctrine acts as a powerful limitation on the rights of copyright holders because it undercuts their monopoly on their works. Ordinarily, only a person who holds a copyright… Read More »
