Ask a Lawyer - Intellectual Property Law questions answered by leading lawyers |
| How would you defend this scenario? |
| 1. Jimmy is a `huge' fan of Harry Potter. He has all the books and all the movies. He decides to: 1) Give his copy of the first book to his friend Yolanda; 2) To make a copy of the second movie and upload it onto Youtube; 3) Create his own fee-based membership fansite that is a "Harry Potter Primer" telling people all about the franchise; and 4) In art class, Jimmy paints the Harry Potter character in an abstract style [similar to to a Picasso painting], which he posts onto his Facebook page. Jimmy is sued by all those that hold copyrights on Harry Potter. What will happen to Jimmy on the four "uses"? Go through each one of the `uses' and describe the plaintiff's arguments and any possible defense available to Jimmy. |
| I want to create a product and call it Joonies, my question is since there is a movie called Goonies |
| I want to create a product and call it Joonies, my question is since there is a movie called Goonies which is similar, will they have any claim to sue me? So I can use this name? |
| Is it legal to store passwords from other websites with user consent? |
| Hello, I was wondering if it was legal to store the usernames and passwords of other websites (for example facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc) into another database with the users consent. Thank you |
| Design patent pending and infringement |
| I am in textile business. My competitor filed an application for design patent with a textual print. Pictures in application form show text, printed in both sides of fabric in vertical position. My print is text printed on one side of fabric horizontally with a bigger font. My competitor assure me that anything that is "text on fabric" is infringement and details such as a font size, and angle don't matter. My competitor threatens to sue me and demand "cease and decease" all my stock. Is it legal? Isn't my fabric pattern different from his? What are his rights in general and at this point of process (patent pending)? Is he right about owning "any textual design on fabric"? Thank you in advance. |
| Use of image without permission |
| A friend was shocked to see his photo on the cover of a book that is about the authors life experience . He never gave permission for the photo nor its use and original photo has another person behind him that has been cropped out with authors name across my friends legs . I found photo identifying my friend by name on Corbis and it says no model release. What can he do? This is very disturbing to him as he also does not want to be associated with the authors story. |
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