Creative Industry Law Group LLP, lawyers in San Francisco, CA, California

Trademark Law

Trademark SymbolsMore...

Patent Law

A patent is a property right that the federal government gives to an inventor with respect to an invention. That property right is the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention without the inventor's permission for the limited period specified by the patent statute. A person or other entity that makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports the invention covered by the patent is said to liable for direct infringement of the patent. Patent infringement is classified by the law as a "tort," which is a wrong--other than a breach of contract--for which the law provides a remedy. Therefore, the rules of tort law will govern how a lawsuit alleging patent infringement is to be commenced and prosecuted. More...

Adaptation Rights and Derivative Works

When an artist creates a work of art, the copyright comes into existence automatically. No registration is required, though it may be necessary to protect some remedies if the artist ever plans to sue for infringement. The copyright provides the owner with a number of exclusive rights. One of the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners is the adaptation right, which gives the holder of a copyright the exclusive right to prepare derivative works based on the original work. Under the adaptation right, the copyright owner may prevent any unauthorized translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, etc. A translation of the work into any language without the consent of the copyright owner is an infringement of that copyright. The adaptation right is a means of prohibiting any unauthorized changes in the work More...

Remedies for Patent Infringement

There are no criminal penalties for patent infringement, but civil remedies are available in the United States under federal law. There are several forms of relief available to the patent owner who has successfully proven patent infringement. In such a civil action, the courts may afford either or both of two basic remedies, which are a judgment for money damages and an injunction. An injunction may be either preliminary or permanent. A patent owner may recover damages only if either the infringer was notified of the infringement and continued to infringe or if the patented article bore a patent notice. Remedies are only available for infringements that occur during the life of the patent.More...

Works of Authorship under the Copyright Act

The Copyright Act uses the phrase "works of authorship" to describe the types of works that are protected by copyright law. This phrase is purposefully broad to avoid the need to rewrite the Copyright Act every time a new "medium" was discovered. Congress included a list of eight works of authorship in the Copyright Act as follows: More...