I want to play music at my business or government office lobby; how do I get a license?

If you own an establishment and you want to play music, what you need are public performance rights– the right to play music that the general public will hear. Obviously, a business owner would go crazy if he or she had to obtain public performance writes from every artist or label.

More on page 181

A lot of companies require employees and contractors to sign work-made-for-hire agreements. What is work-made-for-hire?

Although the general rule is that the person who creates a work is the author of that work, there is an exception to that principle: the copyright law defines a category of works called “works made for hire.” If a work is “made for hire,” the employer, and not the employee, is considered the author. [...]

More on page 179

What are the benefits to registering a copyright?

Copyright registration serves a number of public purposes. For example, it creates a public record of claims of copyright, documents information regarding a copyrighted work and brings in deposits that the Library of Congress may wish to acquire. There are a number of benefits for registering claims to copyrights in works:

More on page 174

What is a copyright and how does it differ from say patents or trademarks?

A simple way to remember the three is as follows: patent law protects inventions; trademark law protects source identifiers such as logos and slogans; and copyright law protects original works of authorship, such as books, music, movies etc.

More on page 172

Are there any steps that a company or municipality can take with respect to its internal use of technology, i.e. its employee’s use of blogs, social networking sites, internet use, email etc?

There is no law that requires an employer to create, maintain or provide employees with policies pertaining to the use of technology facilities. This requires a delicate balance between the need for employee privacy and employer’s business needs. Every employer must proactively manage employee email, internet use and blogs while at the same time not [...]

More on page 168

Can I use photographs taken in a public place in a free newsletter without written permission of the subject person or owner of the subject property?

Featured, Intellectual Property Comments (0)

Dr. Rayan F. Coutinho is an Intellectual Property and Technology Law attorney at the law firm of Wood & Lamping LLP and can be reached at 513-852-6030 or by email at rfcoutinho@woodlamping.com.

Discussion

This analysis is a very fact specific inquiry. Use of a photograph without permission of the subject person or the owner of the subject property, depending upon the specific facts, could result in the following claims (among others) against the person who takes the photograph as well as the person who uses the photograph: (1) violation of the right of publicity; (2) violation of the right of privacy; (3) defamation; and (4) copyright infringement.
More on page 215

admin @ October 6, 2009

Understanding the “Corporate Opportunity” Doctrine

Business & Corporate Comments (0)

The Corporate Opportunity Doctrine has generally been described as a corollary of the undivided loyalty rule which prevents a director from appropriating an opportunity from the corporation.   Ohio uses the “line of business” test to identify corporate opportunities which directors or officers may not appropriate themselves.

The elements of a cause of action under the corporate opportunities doctrine are: (1) Defendants were officers and/or directors of the corporation; (2) In such capacity, defendant acquired knowledge of an investment or business opportunity; (3) The opportunity was in the line of the corporation’s business; and (4) The opportunity would be advantageous to the corporation and the corporation is able to accept the opportunity.
More on page 213

admin @ August 28, 2009

We frequently hear about the “fair use” defense when someone is accused of infringement. What is “fair use?”

Intellectual Property Comments (0)

Simply put, the doctrine of “fair use” exempts certain unauthorized uses of copyrighted material from infringement liability. It must be noted that this is a very subjective and fact-specific determination.  The fair use defense involves a balancing of the interests of authors and inventors on one hand and society’s competing interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce on the other hand.

More on page 176

admin @ August 28, 2009

Should our city, township or village obtain a .gov domain name?

Intellectual Property, Technology Law Comments (0)

The General Services Administration (GSA) is a federal agency responsible for oversight of the dot-gov internet domain name. To preserve the integrity of .gov name space, .gov domain names are limited to the United States government organizations at the federal, state and local level.

No private entity can register a .gov domain name. The domain name the community selects  must include the community name and a clear reference to the state in which the communityis located.

More on page 188

admin @ August 21, 2009

Can public train schedules be protected by copyright laws?

Intellectual Property Comments (0)

Can public train schedules be protected by copyright laws? The New York Transportation Authority seems to think so. Here’s a recent article by Dana Oshiro on this issue. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sent a take down notice to Greenwich man Chris Schoenfeld for using Metropolitan Transportation Authority schedules to power his StationStops iPhone application.  For the complete article, please click here.

admin @ August 20, 2009