Intellectual property law protects the creative works of authors, composers, designers, and inventors from being pirated. There are four basic categories of intellectual property: copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Generally, each category is used with different types of material and affords different protections. Copyrights protect original works of authorship from the moment they are created and fixed in a tangible form. Patents protect new and useful machines, articles, substances, or processes through exclusive rights granted by the federal government to their inventors. Trademarks protect identifying marks that distinguish goods or services, such as names, logos, designs, emblems, and distinctive sounds and smells. Trade secrets protect confidential business information or "proprietary information," such as business plans, chemical formulas, and customer lists.

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Copyrights Intellectual Property Licensing Patents Trademarks

Do-it-Yourself Legal Forms

-   Copyright Registration -   Trademark Cease and Desist

-   Provisional Patent Application -   Trademark Registration

-   Release and Authorization to Use Voice and/or Likeness

Ask a Lawyer - Intellectual Property Law questions answered by leading lawyers Do I need a License to sell name brand Apparel on my site? I want to sell name brand stuff on my site. The supplier will send the product directly to the ordering customer thorough my site. I will not hold or wearhouse anything. My site is just a link between the supplier and the consumer. Do I need a license? I signed a contract with a publisher and paid them $6250. As the author I will do 100% of the mark Under Art. 6, section 6.5 Either author or Publisher (under VA laws there) may terminate this agreement upon mutual agreement of the parties by 30 days'' advance notice in writing. The book designer has not entered the final manuscript edits (I''m invoiced another $1495) or corrected the front and back cover more $$ yet. No product has been produced, and I will not provide more information or authorize completing the project. I can market/sell only 400 copies to recoup my initial investment and retain control over translated copies, etc. I do the marketing work and give them 80% of the profits from my intellectual property. I own a small publishing company "S" corp., and an account with a major print-on-demand company owned by a major book distributor to do business with directly. Can I sever the contract and publish this title (or modify it a little) on my own and protect my intellectual property from them or their means to publish and profit? They can keep my $6250. I currently have some of my stuff stored in a friends storage shed that has been seized or taken con he is got several burglary charges pending i beleive and this is the reason for the seizure how do I get my stuff back and will I need an attourney? Can I sell items that may or may not contain copyrighted material? I asked this question before but I said that I use photo editing software to make photo collages that may or may not contain lyrics usually for my mother for her birthday or mother''s day. However we were thinking about starting a business doing this, but could I get sued for making collages for customers that may contain copyrighted lyrics or poems etc? Certainly I couldn''t predict what a customer would want. So would I have to get permission for each song lyric, or poem etc. used for every customer before I could create and sell their item to them. I am charging for service, not for product, so what legal precautions do i need to take? I haven''t started it yet, it''s just an idea but I was thinking for example tattoo artist may tattoo a person with a song lyric or trademark for Nike. Do the tattoo artist have to get permission to do that? The customers can choose to buy a product from my store to put the collage on like a t-shirt and I would print it on their but like I said I just charge for service. Can I sell items that may or may not contain copyrighted material? I use photo editing software to create photo collages and some may or may not contain lyrics to copyrighted songs. I do this for personal use usually to give to my mother for her birthday and mother''s day. We were thinking of starting a business doing this: creating photo collages for people and they may contain song lyrics, sayings, poems whatever that person wants as long as it is not derogatory or anything like that. I couldn''t possibly predict what the customer might potentially want besides their photos on the photo collage, so if I created the item and sold it to them, could I get sued for doing this? I know I potentially can, but would I actually legally have to get permission for every copyrighted saying, song lyric, or poem that a customer would want before I could legally create and sell it to them? I could do it without the lyrics and stuff, but it just makes it more meaningful to me. view more...