property damage under $250

I got in an argument w/my niece,and i had our personal property stored at her house,and she ended up throwing it outside in the morning after it rain.When i seen this i was mad and rip out some flowers out of a pot that i bought don't own the house,she rents and it's her complaint not the landlord's she also damage my husband property at least $550but there is other stuff that we can't determine the price because there antiques.what should i do?

copying a house design

Is it okay to copy the design and floorplan of a house built in 1927? The architect is unknown, I believe.

Trademark Application

Some friends and I are producing music videos under a moniker. We do not have a production company but would like to trademark our moniker. In the application process, what is the significance of including all members of our group as the trademark applicants as opposed to using one of our members as the sole applicant. Does being the applicant give you IP property rights that other members don't have? I'm specifically interested in the case that we want to start a production company under that moniker but want to part ways with one of our members. Would he be entitled to some of this future company's profits if his name was on the trademark applicaiton?

Work For Hire

I'm an artist painting ''Night Sky Murals '' on ceilings for residential and commercial customers. Your ''Work For Hire'' Seems to cover my needs except I wish to keep the copyright. Is it possible, and if so, How?

Copyrights

I am starting a website that will contain summarizations of news stories so that people can see what is happening in the news. Am I allowed to do this or will I be infringing on copyrights of these news stories?

Legitimate Legal Notification

Is contacting and threatening someone through e-mail considered legal? They state they are an attorney but no letterhead and only e-mail contact so far.

Image Search and Copyright

Why is it that image search engines,

like Google Image Search are not in

violation of copyright laws, even when

they modify the the image by shrinking

it, ect, so that it is no longer a simple

image link?

Licensing agreement

We're looking for any car company, Phone company, GPS company or Home/business company that may be interested in taking on our IP. Our Patent number is 7,319,378

Anti-theft system for a vehicle, etc

Do you know of any company, (Car Company, Phone Company, GPS company, Home/Business Alarm company,) that would like to take on our IP as an licensing agreement. (Patent # 7,319,378)

Royalty percentage

When signing a licensing agreement and you received royalties, do you receive a percentage of the product being sold from the wholesale price or retail price.

Copyright Related

Greetings,

I know of a particular group that has been subbing a Japanese cartoon series called Naruto that comes from Japan. They've been doing completely for free, no donations, no ads, completely out of their own pocket. They've recently had to stop subbing this particular series because certain people have been uploading it to sites such as youtube. They've stopped simply because they fear legal action may be taken against them at one point if they continue since its copyrighted material they are subbing. Is there any way for them to continue subbing the series without fear of legal action?

Quote on T-shirt

Is it legal to use a quote on a t-shirt

if you are giving credit to the source. Do you need to a some kind of license?

I am a T-shirt designer, and have several T-shirt designs with quotes on them with the name

of the author. Is it legal to sell them on a large scale.

Thanks

Anneline

Copyright claim for use of an image of the U.S. Flag

I recently received a letter from a company named Getty Images demanding $1,000 for using an image on my web site that apparently belongs to them or a photographer they represent. If I recall correctly, I obtained this image from a 'free'' clip art web site. Obviously I should not have trusted that site, and I no longer have a record of what site that was. I have removed the image from my site.

Ordinarily I would start seeing if I could settle up with them. However, the image in question is a photograph of the U.S. Flag. There is no object in the photo except the flag. I have done some research of my own. I can't find a case that says that an image which contains no other objects in it other than the U.S. Flag is copyrightable.

I have found cases that say that one can copyright an image which includes the flag along with other elements, such as an Eagle or a mountain. But no court I can find has said there's a way to manipulate, crop, backlight, blur or otherwise modify an image of the flag so it is original enough to copyright. I have already written to them denying liability and stating that I don't believe the image in question is copyrightable. Any other suggestions as to what I should be doing?

Who can file a workman's lien?

How can an outside salesperson assure that commissions and/or expenses are paid after resignation or termination? Can the salesperson file a lien against the office equipment and intellectual property that is in his home office? Are there any other solutions? The corporate office is in New Jersey (Essex County) and I am in Illinois (Lake COunty)

recording cds

May I record books onto a cd and then sell them?

Melody/Harmony Fair-Use as Art Product?

hi, i am a sound artist commissioned by a local art center to create a sound composition for an outside space. i would like to record a barbershop quartet singing a 10-second bit of copyrighted melody/harmony with my original lyrics. i will then manipulate this source recording so the source is barely audible. the final product will consist mostly of the highly abstracted manipulation, but will also contain snippets of the source vocal recording. are there any copyright issues at stake here so that i may assure my quartet?

Recreate Software

While working for a former employer that provides professional services, I rewrote a piece of software that they sell to existing clients as an add-on service. Recently I decided to leave the employer and start my own technology consulting company. I want to create a software product that provides similar functionality but in a different way with features that do not exist in my former employers product and will be created using different technologies and programming languages.

Am I breaking any laws by doing this?

Machine Design - IP Issues?

I want to produce a clone of an existing machine/device. The producers of the machine have no patents on its design and in any case, the design has been unchanged for more than 20 years.

Can I duplicate the machine part-for-part and sell exact clones?

Intellectual Property

I have several ideas for T-shirts and games. I will need to consult others to design the products. How do I go about protecting my ideas from being stolen in the process of developing them? I have tried to contact local lawyers, but I do not get a response. Thanks for any assistance.

Use of Photos on the Internet for Blogs

I'm building a blog and I'm wondering about using photos from other websites like espn, and other news outlets. Is this legal or is there something that I need to do in order to post those photos.