My work not sourced in a magazine

I am a graphic artist that did some gratis work for a bridal planner in California who informed me that the work was for a photo shoot in a major magazine and that my work would be sourced. Anticipating that this would generate some nice publicity I agreed to do the work. The magazine came out, a few photographs of my work appeared in the issue, but I was never sourced. I contacted the bridal planner, and she told me that she gave the info to the magazine. I then contacted the magazine's editor and made her aware of the problem. She asked that I send her some more of my work to see if I could be featured in a future article to compensate. Unfortunately, my mother became gravely ill and I needed to scale back on the business to care for her. Since then (which was in 2004), the magazine had again published the pictures in 2005. Since the editor was now aware of the slight, I assumed my business would be sourced in this issue, but it was not. I was still caring for my mother, so I did not persue the matter. However, now once again in a 2007 issue my work appears again, and again without a source. My mother has recently passed and I am now very anxious to get my business on the fast track. What are my legal rights?

Copyright laws

Let's say I want to provide a test-

preparation course for the LSAT and

charge pre-law students for my

services. If I teach a group of

students techniques that I have

developed, am I allowed to have

students purchase an LSAT practice-

questions workbook from a Barnes &

Nobles/Border's and go over

problems--using my techniques--in

the course from the purchased LSAT

book? Does the copyright--or any

other law--prevent me from doing

this? Please help!

Copyright or Trademark infringement?

My wife knitted an afghan. It portrays a particular university mascot and acronym and is done in the schools colors. Can she sell it without being in conflict with copyright or trademark law?

patent help!!!PLEASE!!!

i am a 21 year old who has come up with a world changing invention that can potentially save thousands of lives and i need to know what i have to do to make sure no one steals my idea. i have never invented anything before so i am in the dark about this entire process. i seriously need help. i want to see MY invention made and distributed....but i dont know the first thing about inventing and protecting my invention.

i hope someone can help by giving me any information at all.

cc'd letter owner

In response to a dispute in a National club, I was cc'd a letter addressed to the person disputing a club action by the parent club organization to which we belong. I am the President of the club. Can a letter cc'd to me as President be published in a club newsletter to inform the membership of the parent organizations stand on the issue disputed by the member?? The letter is addressed to the member, cc'd to the club president. This really applies to a national based club.

Intelllectual property

We have formed a company called Einsteins tutor Inc, an online tutoring company in all subjects. My question is: are we infringing anything by the word ''Einsteins''

copyright laws and DJ mixes

I'm a DJ and I have some music mixes that I'd like to upload into my online domain for others to download for free. Most of the records I'm using have copyright protections and I'm wondering if I have to provide royalties to the artists for using their songs which I've mixed together. Also, would adding the term ''for promotional use only'' allow me to avoid the need to pay royalties if I don't sell the music for a profit? And if I were to charge money for the music that I mix, would I have to pay royalties to all of the artists who contributed their unmixed music for that? Please note that I'm not directly copying the origional artist's music and (selling/giving it away) in it's usual format, but mixing it into a continuous interconnected song that is substantially different than each individual artist's origional creation. Thanks in advance.

-DJ DtD

Civil Copyright Infringement case

We have a civil case for copyright infringement and need some advice.

Trade Secrets

A company that I own part of had an employee who left the company nearly a year ago. When they left they returned company documents back to us. But now has started using company documents that they either kept or made copies of presenting this information with what we consider trade secrets to make a profit for them selfs or gain a foot hold on our specific industry. This information is presentations and legal deals we made and is the foundation of how our company in the future expects to make conduct business and make a profit.

They are currently using these documents which include financial's and other sensitive company information only know to the current owners of our company and individuals who we contracted to help produce these specific materials.

This former employee also used company funds for personal gain in which we overlooked so long as they returned the confidential information could we get them on both the trade secrets and embezzlement or only trade secrets.

What legal recourse do we have in this issue?

Car

I had my car repaired and the same problem occured two weeks later. the mechanic said he'd fix it as long as i had the car towed to him at my expense. can i get my money back

Intellectual Property & Nondisclosure

If a nondisclosure and restricted use agreement was badly written and states that the agreement is made between the company and the company director, instead of the company and myself, but I signed it...is it legal and binding?

Is it the same thing as a contract, and by signing it have I handed over copyright of my work as an independent contractor?

Video Clips and Fair Use

This is a ''Fair Use'' question I guess:

What is the current take on using

other peoples online video in an

online video show that highlights

online video? The show will be a

new/commentary/parody and I've

heard that this can be looked at as

fair use. I will be talking over the

video clips too.

Eg. If I want to produce a web based

show call ''Best Pet Video's'' and I

include other peoples YouTube/

Online videos in the show. Will I

have to have their express

permission if I only show a portion of

the video?

If someone uploaded something from

ABC, probably not legal; a cat playing

a piano, and I featured it on my

show would I be liable by

association? I've seen posting on Fair

Use have read comments on if my

work will take away from the value

of their work, the lenght used and if

I'm using the main part of the work

as apposed to a not so important

part. It seems a somewhat gray area

but your comments please.

Marketing a herbal medication

My partners and I have researched an created a herbal formulation which helps to control both type I and type II diabetes. So far we have not commercialized our medication. We have been giving this medication to family and friends through word of mouth for over 5 + years now and the success rate is 100%. We have a few friends who are in medical profession using this medication successfully. In 4- 6 weeks one can see notice the effects of this medication by getting them off insuline.

One of our family friends has agreed to submit this medication to World Health Organization (WHO) however some have also asked that it can be commercialized.

I don't have any knowledge about starting or operating any kind of business but I am willing to go that route now that we are sure that this medication works. I would like a patent and some kind of marketing for this medication.

As this is a medication do I have to get additional approvals. Also how much cost are we talking about. We as a group don't have enough cash lying around.

Please advise.

Cease and Desist Letter

Is a cease and desist letter necessary before filing a suit for copyright infringement?

Intellectual property - TM

I have a graphic designed logo for my company. On either side of the logo is the first and last name of my company. So the logo appears as ''fate (graphic logo) date''. When filing for a Trademark, should I just file the graphic logo or should I file it as ''fate (graphic logo) date''? If I file it with the name fatedate, does that mean I cannot just have the symbol appear by itself?

copy right law

we purchases some images online for a web design, another co. is claiming the images were theirs, and they claim copyright infringement. the letter sent looked like they noticed the images about 9 months ago and just now sent a letter, im not sure of who this other co. is and the co. we bought the images from was about 2 years ago.

property law

Can I be held legally responsible for the loss of my neighbor`s USDA home loan she is applying for? A scrivener`s error was discovered on the legal description of our shared properties. The legal description looks as though we own a portion of their porperty and the USDA pulled her opportunity to have a home loan because it was not cleared up in a given amount of time. Can I be sued because of this? Would I have any means to defend myself? I am really scared.... I trusted the mortgage company to have professionals working for them, instead my family could be losing everything because of their clerical error. What can we do? Any information that may help us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Sincerely, blb

News Photo Used For Church Website

I am a freelance photojournalist, assigned to photograph a church event held in a public place (city hall). After publication, the church copied the story and photos from the paper's website, using one of my images as part of the church's homepage design. My contract states I retain copyright. I have notified the church, they have not responded. I don't believe fair use applies. Should I file with Copyright Office then bring lawsuit against the church?

Thank you.

gm

Copyright & Naming Rights

I am creating a new clothing line where we would like to use variations and caricatures of team logos in professional and college sports. Also, we would like to use nicknames of professional and college sports athletes. Do we have to pay for the rights to use the teams logos if they are variations. Also, are we allowed to use the nicknames and not real names of professional and college atheltes without paying them. Thank you for your help.

withheld salary payment

i worked for an online essay company in california. a customer claimed an essay i wrote was plagiarized. the company suspended me and now refuse to pay me $1,000.00 for essays written and delivered to their customers two weeks before the incident. how do i collect this debt? my theory is that essays do not qualify as work for hire and the copyright belongs to me. ergo there was no plagiarism involved. either way, there is no dispute over the rest of the essays and they still refuse to pay me.