Intellectual Property Infringement

I and a friend are independent contractors (software development) where we have worked on various IT projects for a large/national company (Company A). We have had a relationship with this company for over 5 years and are now very knowledgeable about their industry.

We are thinking of building an application to service this industry to promote/sell (this would include to Company A's competitors). This application would be generic enough to service this industry vertical without giving away any of Company A's trade secrets.

However, we are still concerned that Company A may consider this an infringement on their intellectual property. So, what exactly would be the definition of intellectual property?

Non disclosure agreement

I have two companies agreeing to enter into a Non-disclosure agreement. One is a European company, one is an American company. Both are balking at the part saying the agreement will be governed under the laws of the other country. Is there a standard for agreements between international companies?

Internet Music Downloads

A website offers a search engine that scours open directories on the internet for music files, similar to the way Google would search for information. It provides a list of music files matching your search, with the option to download the song from its respective location, with disclaimers explaining the search engine has no way of determining the copyright of the files made available. Is it legal to charge a monthly fee for this search service?

reproducing or coping a product

My customer wants a tote bag that is

made by another company. It is a

pink and brown tote bag with Bride

embroidered on it.

The company has there name

trademarked on a tag inside of it.

Can I copy this item without getting

in any trouble?

Trade Name infringement

Hi. In Arizona, I retained rights to Computer Help tradename. Another person had the rights to M.V. Computer Help, however, is advertising under Computer Help and confusing my customers. How do I make him stop advertising with my company name?

watching court cases

I live in Sunnyvale, California and

am very interested in becoming an

Investment and/or an IP lawyer. A

friend told me that it is possible to

go to the court house and just sit in

on the court cases. I do realize that

the court cases are only a very

small part of a lawyer's world but I

think I would still love to just go sit

in and learn. Is that legal in

California to go just sit in? If it

frowned upon? Will the judge

and/or the lawyers give me a hard

time? Also, how would I find out

about what cases are being held in

which courtroom so that I can go to

the cases that interest me? Am I a

wierdo in doing this or do lawyers

in training actually do this? Different

answers would be much

appreciated :)

Trademark alternative?

I am constantly experimenting with new ideas/businesses. Since most of my ideas/businesses don't actually materialize, when I had spoken to my IP Lawyer a few months ago and she had said that when I don't trademark all my new business logos/names I should at least consider doing something else to it. I *think* she said I should add the letters RM instead of TM. She suggested it provided some level of protection if I documented first use, although it was nowhere near as good as a trademark but atleast it was something. Since I can't find what I had written down when she told me the letters, can someone tell me what are the letters she suggested I put (is it RM? or something else)?

Photographs

A friend had a photo taken by his girlfriend, while traveling on the road. She put it online for him on his computer, in his profile. They have since broken up and now she wants him to remove the picture from his profile and the computer entirely. She claims she owns the picture, even though she gave it to him as a gift. He didn't sign anything, and didn't hire her to take pictures of him. It was just a snapshot taken when they were together, like normal couples do. Can she leagally make him remove this picture, or is it okay to leave it onliine? He lives in Florida, and she now lives back in NY.

Domain Name Dispute

I've owned and operated a Domain

name of an artist for 4 years. The

artist has now forbidden me from

selling his art with this domain name

and demands that I turn it back over

to him for his own use to sell the art.

I have spent $100,000 promoting

the website. He states that I am

cyber squatting.

a product idea of mine was used for the profit of the company I work for

I created a drink that has sold 2500 units at my job, the home office noticed the sales spike and has since started selling it on a national level and also has printed a cook book with this recipe in it without any acknowledgement to me

Domain name violating our trademark?

Hello,

My company owns the trademark to our business name. Someone else owns the domain name and has owned it BEFORE we filed our trademark. I don't believe the owner purchased the domain

in bad faith. I do not believe they are intentionally trying to

harm us in any way, however, they are now trying to extort large sums of money from us in exchange for the domain. I would like to know if there is anything we can do to get the domain without being extorted.

Starting a business while employed

I am currently employed as an electrical engineer by a company that builds custom equipment used in electronics manufacturing. There are no other full time employees, just the owner and me. If I start a business that designs medical devices would my current employer have any rights to IP generated in the new business while I was still employed there?

Music sharing

I'm gettin ready to launch my social network here in a few days. I've read up on copyright laws and what I need to do to protect myself. However, it's still unclear whether or not I can share music files online. I was wondering if there was a way that my members could legally share music from other artists without violating copyright laws? Thank you for your time.

Patent cost / lawyer fees?

I have a small business and I have filed a provisional patent application very recently. I am now thinking about now applying for a real utility patent. I already have professional drawings and the good explanation completed as recommended by ''Patent it yourself'' book as I had needed to turn something in for the provisional patent application. Given a lot of the work has been completed excluding prior art research, how much should I expect to pay 1) Patent office 2) Patent Agent/Attorney to finish my real utility patent? My idea is not very complicated (nothing more than a unique label for my manufactured product) that has certain new uses.

Copyright Infringement Case

Once you file a copyright infringment case in Federal Court and it was dismissed, can you re-try the same case in a different state with additional or different defendants?

Copyright Law

The rental management company had me sign a photocopied lease of a Blumberg law in violation of the copyright law. I did not know that at the time. Is my lease valid? I am worried. Thank you

write advice column/copywrite

I want to start an information/advice column. I would like to syndicate also. How do I keep my idea safe? How do I copywrite every article I submit while getting started?

copyright infringement

We are considering buying a large number of two-way radios from China. The radios that we are interested in are a copy (electronically) as a radio sold by Kenwood. You can use Kenwoods software for that radio even though the company supplies you with there own software. All accessories that work with Kenwood work with the radio in question. Natually their answer to me was it does not have the Kenwood label and physically they are different. So the question is: can we resell them here in the states? I believe that the radio that has been copied is over 5 years old or more so does that make a difference? Will we need a letter of compliance to provide to the retailer that we hope to secure?

Is my invention patentable

i have a design that i would like patented for a protective body suit. is this patentable? i only ask because i have family members who attempted to obtain a patent years ago only to find out that it was in the public domain and thus not patentable, and i have done searches using google patents and have found no designs that seem to conflict.

Mash Bash

Can we use the name M*A*S*H Bash for a not-for-profit fundraiser party?